Cut So Deep (A Dark Billionaire Romance)

Love So Dark, Book 1

By: Stasia Black

Narrated by: Lacy Laurel, Scott Rider

Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

“Are you his willingly?” Jackson demands, his blue eyes as dark as the clouds above our heads. “Tell me. Are you?”

Jackson Vale. My boss’s rival and the man I’ve thought far too much about since we were introduced last week.

Of all the - “I’m not his,” I sputter indignantly. “I’m just his employee. He doesn’t own me.”

And for some reason this sets off a flare of intensity and...satisfaction? in Jackson’s expression. That’s it, I officially give up trying to understand any of this.

But then Jackson leans over and speaks so softly in my ear I can barely hear it above the falling rain.

“If you belonged to me, Miss Cruise, you wouldn’t look so disgusted. True ownership goes both ways. I would own you, but you’d own me, too. A concept I’m sorry to say Bryce Gentry’s never understood.”

My breath hitches and I pull back from the intimacy of his voice on my ear, only to get lost in the dark blue of his eyes.

“Let me go,” I whisper.

He does, but before he turns to go, those brooding eyes pierce me one last time. “I’ll be seeing you again soon.”

And then he turns and is gone into the rain-soaked street, leaving me behind, breathless and confused.

Warning: Contains triggers and dark themes which may be distressing to some listeners.

This book is a dark romance with no cheating. It is the first book in the Cut So Seep duet.

©2018 Stasia Black (P)2019 Stasia Black

Good book

Another amazingly dark read by Stasia. Intrigue, dark, intense and hot. Lacy & Scott did an awesome narrating.

#AudiobookObsessionsReviewer

Dark story with very broken characters

This book was dark! You know how sometimes dark doesn’t always mean daaaark but this book was. Callie is a single mother fighting for custody of her son. She doesn’t have the money to get a good lawyer, so she takes a job where she knows she’s going to have to do some things she doesn’t want to. It all kind of tailspin’s from there. She realizes she is in way over her head with her crazy boss.

There are triggers in here. Quite a few actually so take that warning seriously.

#audiobookobsessionreviewer

Not Dual narration.

I am so tired of dual narration turning out to be single. I'm sick of wasting credits. I prefer dual narration. The story had holes, it was extremely hard to finish.

Triggers

I can’t really tell you what I think of this book. I am moving in to the second book of the story.
I can’t tell you why. A lot is bothering me but I want to se this as hole go down. If he doesn’t pay for his actions my review will be edited.

The book has triggers. Rape and emotional abuse. Make your decision to listen with this in mind

erotic, dark, intense

Callies been used all her life! She's blonde, naive, with a body that men crave. How far will Callie go to fight for her son? She needed a job. Becoming PA to the ruthless, Bryce Gentry was challenging with his head games, and exposing her. When she met Jackson Vale, she had a different vibe from him, he actually cared. Not just about the sex, he realized how smart she was, he wanted her to work at his company. What does she have to do to get away from the hold of Bryce? Bryce manipulated Callie, trying to break her emotionally and physically . Stasia Black wrote this story so deep, very dark, sexy, erotic, and steamy. It's not a fairytale love story.
Lacy Laurel tells the story with emotion. She shows the despair, anguish that Callie is going throughout the story. Scott Rider has the deep, sexy voice as Jackson Vale, but He's not introduced until the last chapter. 🎧audiobookobsessionreviewer🎧

talk about cut so deep!! sheesh..

the author has cut me into little pieces.. next book in the series HAS to put me back together.. it just has to

Callie Gets Swept Into A Deviously Dark Game!

A Former Beauty Queen Hopes To Put Her Crown Behind And Be Appreciated For Her Brain, But Instead Finds Herself A Pawn In A Deviously Dark Game Without Rules! Callie’s Story Will Have You On The Edge Of Your Seat As She Gets Caught Up Between Two Old Rivals And Doesn’t Know Who She Can Trust.


Trigger warning: includes sensitive issues such as non-consent.

Calliope Cruise, twenty-two, once had big dreams. She is the rather unhappy victim of her good looks, however, along with some youthful mistakes. Her beauty and figure have the unfortunate consequence of men ogling her. Men and women alike either presume the worst in her or accuse her of trading on her looks. Her own parents don’t even give her the benefit of the doubt. She had done the beauty pageant circuit when she was younger, which only resulted in alienating her thirty-one year old sister. For years Shannon has judged her, but Callie can say little in her own defense. She hails from a small town and began pursing her dream of a career in robotics at her local community college. Catching a lucky break, she was accepted as a transfer student at Stanford, where she now has just a semester left to finish her robotics degree. But she gave up that dream when Charlie came along. Her two and a half year old boy is the joy of her life, but his arrival was unplanned, putting all her dreams on indefinite hold.

David Kinnock, forty-two, has suddenly decided he wants custody of Charlie despite never wanting to be his father. His wife Regina, in her late thirties, happens to have a nice trust fund and seems to have taken an interest in Charlie. If Callie cannot afford a good attorney, she might lose custody of Charlie altogether. As devoted as she is to her son, lawyers are quite talented at taking out of context, exaggerating, misrepresenting, misconstruing, and outright lying. And a good lawyer could tear Callie apart in court. A custody hearing is approaching. If she wants to win she needs to hire a good attorney, but that might just be wishful thinking.

Today Callie just hopes to make the rent. She lives with her sister Shannon, on whom she depends to help care for little Charlie, in the Bay Area just south of San Jose. With her legal bills stacking, rent, and student loan repayments, she needs to put her waitressing behind and earn a decent income. Some creative resume writing skills land her an interview for the personal assistant position of Gentry Technologies’ CEO – Bryce Gentry himself. Gentry Tech is a Fortune 500 company. They work primarily with government contracts – military applications of drones and robotics. The idea of working for the man who, along with Jackson Vale, is famed for developing a real-time reaction simulation algorithm while studying at MIT has her thrilled. Roughly thirty-one and a bachelor, Bryce’s incredible good looks are breath-taking and his gaze is magnetic, but her initial good impression doesn’t last long. Bryce Gentry is just like all the other men that have seen her as an object. And maybe worse. But with the custody hearing approaching, Callie has no choice but to accept the job no matter the unorthodox job requirements.

Jackson Vale, thirty-two, is the CEO of CubeThink. He is disciplined and controlled, and better with code than with people. They are a big player in commercial drones and have become a household name. He is most well-known for his accomplishment with ridiculousrobots.com – when he was only seventeen. Raised in the foster system, he had a hard time until he was taken in by his foster dad at age eleven. Mr. Kent had given him direction to channel his trouble-making tendencies, introducing him to robotics. But when his dad died during Jackson’s sophomore year in college, he fell into bad habits and spiraled out of control.

Bryce and Jackson have a history together. They met at MIT when Bryce was a freshman and Jackson a sophomore, and they did more than just create algorithms. They seemed to get into a bit of trouble together. They had a falling out, though, each going their separate way. Even in business, they manage to avoid one another for the most part, with Bryce focused on military applications and Jackson on the commercial side. It is known that Bryce’s ex-fiancée had been seen on Jackson’s arm, so one might easily deduce some tension lingers between the two. When Bryce arranges a very private lunch meeting with Jackson and orders Callie to attend without underwear, all sorts of questions logically arise.

Callie’s story is a deep, dark dive into a twisted game without rules. She has to battle her past and make peace with her sister while trying to make a good enough living to be able to afford to fight for custody of Charlie in court. The deck is stacked against her and she has nobody on which to rely. She soon finds herself torn between two men, neither of whom she can trust. This story starts out rather shocking, but be forewarned: it gets worse. Pushed in all directions, Callie is tested. She has a choice to make, and consequences she must learn to live with either way. Although the story concludes in book two, Break So Soft, it ends in a good place as the story transitions.

There is plenty of angst throughout the story. There are steamy moments as well as terrifying ones. Great chemistry develops between Callie and one of the men; their connection is palpable. It is easy to root for the couple, but somehow the plot seems to overpower the relationship and it doesn’t feel quite as personal as one might hope.

A few issues merit mention. First, Callie’s age doesn’t seem to match up with how far she is in school. At twenty-two now, she would have been pregnant at nineteen, sometime during her second semester at Stanford. So she would have transferred when she was about eighteen, and presumably started full time at her community college at sixteen. It is possible but a very tight timeline and unusual, and there is no reference to that here. Next, Bryce Gentry’s company name is inconsistent. Bryce Information Technologies is referenced twice earlier in the book, but two latter references to the company name it Gentry Technologies. The abbreviated name used throughout the book, however, is Gentry Tech.

The former beauty queen hopes to put her crown behind and be appreciated for her brain, but instead finds herself a pawn in a deviously dark game without rules. Callie’s story will have you on the edge of your seat as she gets caught up between two old rivals and doesn’t know who she can trust. This story is well-written and plot-driven. It is complex, layered with mystery. Thoughtful and intelligent details give an authentically tech vibe. The characters are carefully crafted and unique. The story is written in first person in Callie’s POV, with the exception of Epilogue II. I rate this book four stars.

As for the Audio: it is well-performed and consistent with the book.

I received an advance copy of this book and audiobook am voluntarily leaving a review.

Extremely Dark

There was too much technical dialogue. The female character was as dumb as a sack of nails for a supposedly brilliant student. The female narrator was just so so. The male narrator, who was superb, did not come on the scene until the last chapter. I have purchased both audible books. I hope the second one is not quite as dark as this one is.

Terrific Story & Narration🎧 Dark & Intense!

Wow, this book blew my mind, it is well written and well told. Stasia Black takes you out of your comfort zone with this intense and dark story. This not a feel good type of story, it is the opposite of that, yet I could not put it down, I had to know what was going to happen next. The characters are complex and well developed, I had a love/hate relationship with the lead female Calliope “Callie” Cruise, she had a lot of great attributes, she was smart, strong, but she also had her weaknesses, mainly her insecurities which caused her to make poor decisions at times. She has had terrible experiences with men and history has a way of repeating itself. She pushes away the best thing to walk in to her life away, Jackson Vale, my favorite character in the book. I am looking forward to learn more about him in the next book, I am hoping he gets what he wants. Then there is Callie’s boss Bryce Gentry, a twisted man who is manipulative and evil. He is a man of power, does and gets what he wants. Stasia Black, thank you for this terrific story, I am looking forward to what happens next, I am rooting for Callie and Jackson.

I listened to the Audible edition, Lacy Laurel and Scott Rider are fantastic narrators and voice artists. The characters are brought to life, each given their own voice and personality. Lacy’s portrayal of Callie was spot on, she captured all her emotions and projected them into her performance, great job covering the rest of he characters as well. Scott portrayal of Jackson was spot on, you could hear how much heart he put into it. Each are entertaining storytellers and a pleasure to listen to. Thank you for this terrific listen🎧

Thank you @AudiobookObsession 🎧AudiobookObsessionReviewer

DARK!!! Goes to points of no return... Be warned!

This story is very dark. Will leave you disgusted. Not sure how the next book will take this feeling go away.
She's too much of a victim. One thing after another. Keeps going.

She's not too smart and is naive so her decisions are quite questionable. Story starts with her signing a contract without reading after her boss asked her to strip at her interview. Duh! This sums up her intelligence. It's hard to root for her because of this.

Most of the book is inner monologues ... so much detail... bla bla bla... more than necessary at times. This slows down the progression of the story. At times its frustrating.
The story is dark ... goes to points of no return. Be prepareider to have more air time. Mostly its Lacy Laurel. All the emotions are captured so well.
Had I known it was this dark, I wouldn't have chose this book. Now that I have come this far... I'm going to Book 2 because I need this disgusted feeling to go away.
I don't recommend this book unless you like DARK books.