Shattered Innocence by Sara Cate is another book in the Black Rose Auction series, a collection of books by different authors that all feature the same elite, high stakes auction where anything is for sale — for the right price.
Sara Cate marketed this book as her spiciest yet. Based on her past works this was an intriguing prospect. Shattered Innocence is a polyamorous, bisexual, Cinderella retelling and that was a combination far too marvelous to resist.
Birdie’s hand in marriage is going up for sale at the Black Rose Auction, and there is nothing she can do about it. Her evil stepmother is forcing her to go along with the sale, or else she will have to spend years under her stepmother’s thumb working off her imagined debt. But luckily for Birdie, her stepsister and girlfriend Violet has a plan. She’s enlisted an old flame to help them. Violet wants Alaric Stone to win Birdie at the auction, thereby granting both of them the freedom to be together.
Shattered Innocence is essentially a speed read. The plot is fast-moving, and it is only 170 pages long. It’s incredibly difficult to develop three main characters with depth in such a short book, and while Birdie and Alaric are pretty well-formed, we don’t get to know Violet all that well outside of her devotion to Birdie.
Throughout the book, Birdie is on a journey of self-discovery after years of abuse. Alaric and Violet want nothing more than to support that journey. Alaric is a classic romance hero, wealthy, broody, and deliciously protective.
All three of these characters fall fast and hard, in there own different ways. Violet and Alaric are competing for Birdie’s affections, but there is also an undeniable chemistry between the two of them. There are secrets between these three and the draw they have is intense.
Shattered Innocence does not shy away from the taboo. Alaric and the girls have quite the age gap, and Birdie and Violet are stepsisters. Not to mention the whole auctioning off a human being’s virginity and hand-in-marriage thing. The dynamics in this book are like absolute fireworks and the spice reflects it at every turn.
There is a scene at the auction, a primal hunt moment, that is the same as the one in Wicked Pursuit, just written from a different perspective. It is so very cool that multiple authors were able to pull this off so seamlessly.
My only complaint about this book is that I want so, so much more of these three. But as Jane Austen said, a good book is always too short. I would have read 500 more pages of these characters and their story.
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