Chels's Reviews > The Silver Devil

I can safely say I've never read anything like this. Nothing remotely close.

In the fictional city of Fidena, Italy, Felicia is living a life of drudgery and abuse. She's a bastard, and when her mother dies she is left without protection, at the mercy of her callous stepbrother and his wife. They frequently punish Felicia for what she doesn't do, which will be a recurring theme in her life. Young and beautiful, (but thankfully, not in the normal bodice ripper way where it's expounded upon ad nauseum) she's told she can only hope for a life of sex work outside her family's tavern, a topic her family uses to instill fear and distrust of outsiders.

Felicia, already afraid of men, unfortunately meets the worst man, and what little control she had over the course of her life evaporates.

Domenico, the future Duke of Cabria, spots Felicia from her window and makes quick work of kidnapping her. The night he takes her coincides with the night his father dies. Domenico is now the most powerful person in the Cabria, and Felicia is his newest plaything.

It's a jarring experience for a woman who rarely left her brother's tavern. Domenico's initial brutalization is just the tip of the iceberg: she's now at court, a place of secrets and lies, and she has a type of power that she doesn't understand how to wield. As the days pass, she's told that she's a wonder: she's lasted so much longer than Domenico's other mistresses.

"He is a sort of child in that- he wants nothing so much as the thing that is withheld. And once he has it-" he stepped away from me and shrugged elaborately- "he breaks it, like as not, or tosses it undervalued."

"He is a monster," I whispered.

"A royal one."

But her fate when he loses interest will be catastrophic: he could banish her or punt her aside to another man. The well-being of a woman outside of Domenico's protection is short-lived, and Felicia has a Scheherazade-type task of keeping him interested. She doesn't think she can do it, and she braces herself for the day she loses.

Meanwhile, Domenico is growing obsessive over Felicia. Some of the most horrifying things he does in this book, which I will not elaborate on because it's best experienced without warning, are to punish Felicia for her interactions with other men. Domenico draws a direct line of cause and effect for Felicia: you are responsible for other peoples suffering. Behave yourself, and nobody gets hurt.

If this sounds like a nightmare, it absolutely is, but Felicia is drawn into it, regardless. Even seeing Domenico clearly for what he is: a monster, a child, a self-absorbed mess, she doesn't want to leave him.

I love this book wholeheartedly.