Whoa, talk about spice! If you are a fan of the New Camelot series and some darker energy, this book is for you. I loved reading about this trio, and I could not put the book down! The only problem is that this is book 2 in a trilogy, and waiting for the next is torture!

A forbidden romance that enjoys making all three main characters suffer.

This was a tough read. I read it in three days and had nightmares about my family leaving me every single night. Sierra is amazing at creating and bringing deeply rich, interesting and complex characters to life. I believe these people really exist, although the circumstances of the story are far fetched (secret society, assassin, ex-CIA turned sex club Dom god).

That said, the cheating and lying in this book between all three MMCs is really tough for me. This is the second in a trilogy, and I've read the prequel, we know there's an HEA in here somewhere, but honestly I'm not sure if I can get there with these characters.

If you liked American Queen, then I think you'll find a lot of love in this book. It has very similar vibes and characters.

Tropes
🍯 Sex club
🍯 FMC secret assassin
🍯 Golden retriever bodyguard
🍯 BDSM
🍯 Degradation/praise
🍯 Cheating/lying

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom Books for the ARC.

This book is best read in church, before confessing your many sins but knowing you won't get forgiveness.

This was a mixed bag for me. I remember finishing the first book and thinking, "I need more Isolde!" Well, I got my wish...

Her chapters were so repetitive, bogged down with religious overtones and her constant harping on her "duty to God." It just didn't click with me, and I found myself not caring much about the characters or their fates.

That said, the book was an easy and engaging read, which is why I’ll probably pick up the third installment.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom Books for the arc!!

wow, this trilogy might kill me! honey cut picks up where salt kiss left off. mark and isolde are soon to be wed and tristan and isolde are sneaking moments where they can until that point .. the point where both mark and isolde will be faithful to each other. but lets just say .. that doesn't quite happen.

the scenes at lyonnesse .. particularly their wedding night scene .. holy smokes. im sure there was steam coming out of my ears.

sierra simone is so skilfully weaving an epic tale and i cannot wait for the next book!

I loved this book so much! I was invested into the story from the first page and it just kept getting better. This book was HOT and so spicy I was bushing throughout the whole thing! I am glad it was not purely spice but there was a great storyline to follow with as well.

The way I haven’t stopped thinking about this book—

Sierra Simone really said “oh you thought Salt Kiss was hot? Here, have some more.” and I ate this UP and it was DELICIOUS. Honey Cut is so messy (in an amazing way) when it came to the lies and cheating and forbidden tension between Tristan and Isolde and I’m truly lost for words. And Mark is there being hot and broody and calling all the shots. I had my legs crossed multiple times iykyk.

I’m so excited to see what happens next and hopefully get to read from Mark’s POV cause I know there’s so much going on in his head with how the book ended. This is a book where I ask myself, did I finish the book or did the book finish me? The answer is simply, yes…multiple times.

Literally on my knees for all three of them 🧎🏻‍♀️ in Sierra Simone we trust!! Thank you Bloom Books and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

I LOVE this trilogy! The spice, the plot, delicious. The cliffhanger is the worst. How are you gonna do that to me?! I NEED the next book asap. Sierra knows how to write a book that’s for sure. I always had an inkling about Mark and his deep rooted secrets, but there’s always more to the story. The HEA better the cherry on top to this series! I cannot wait!

Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me to review this book in advance.

A great and fulfilling sequel that dives into the minds of our main characters. They are more morally dubious in my opinion but their motivations are clear. I could not put it down as I read it all in one sitting! I am excited for the third book!

I'm not sure how you can love a book but despise all the main characters. Each one of them is honestly awful, but I just can't seem to get enough of it or the warped way they all love each other.

There is no happiness here. There's truly only pain and hurt. It seems all they do is take turns hurting one another. Mark, as much as I really want him to be, is not the sole villain. He's cruel and a liar, but he never claimed to be anything other than what he is.

Isolde and Tristan, however, are not as good as they portray themselves to be. Isolde has had a secret identity, essentially, that she's kept hidden this entire time. Tristan wants two people who are not his, and even though he feels guilty, he still acts upon it.

This entire story is just pain. The pain they all have caused through their deceit and inability to trust because of it. Pain from the heartbreaks that just keep coming one after the other. And pain from wishing they could have the impossible.

Sierra Simone knocks it out of the park again!

Every time I pick up a book by Simone I feel like I'm dying, but in the best way possible! The most devastating way Simone's writing impacts her readers, is in her capacity to make her us feel. I went through every emotion during this book and I loved it all the while. The ending of this book left me in shambles and I am counting on Bitter Burn to give Mark, Isolde, and Tristian their happily ever after.

One of my favorite aspects of Honey Cut was getting to know more about Mark Trevena. While Mark still holds his cards close to his chest, it's a mixture of the known and unknown that keeps me up at night. I know his story will break me, but I wholeheartedly trust Simone to shatter my heart and slowly patch it back together. Until then, I'll be daydreaming about the storm that is about to be unleashed in 2025!

Thank you to Sourcebooks Bloom and NetGalley for providing me with an arc.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @45%

I just don't like any character other than Tristan and he is basically being emotionally abused the entire book. I'm supposed to believe that both he and Isolde have all this love for Mark when he has not shown a single ounce of personality or reason why both of them would want him so much so I just end up rolling my eyes at any intimacy.

It was also hard to get past the premise when it's 100% of Isolde's internal dialog. You're telling me that someone who wanted to be a nun had to be sold to the owner of a kink club... for Jesus? It's just such a stretch and I'd probably be able to get past it had it not been brought up every 2 seconds.

Isolde's only personality traits were how pious she was and how much she was obsessed with serving the church. Also she's super murdery but also very fragile. I just could not accept her as a realistic character or one that I liked so much that I could suspend my disbelief.

While the spice is spicy, I hated every character so much that I couldn't even enjoy that part.

As usual, Simone's writing is technically adequate, I just could not get past feeling like I was being beaten with a bible while readying about a throuple and a kink club.

I loved this book! There were so many subtle hints about plot points sprinkled throughout the first two books that slowly unravel and reveal themselves. I could not put down this book! I loved the push and pull between the characters, the analysis of morals, and the introspection on what loyalty means. This book takes place years after the first, but the plot flows smoothly and the character arcs are believable.
I am not typically someone who reads a lot of series, but I can always count on Sierra Simone to keep me engaged. I cannot wait for the third book of this series.

A very explicit but tantalizing erotic read. Highly recommend reading Salt in the Wound (prequel) and Salt Kiss (first book in the trilogy) before this sensual follow up. A beautifully written and raw retelling of Tristan and Isolde for current times (with more than a bit of kink). Just a quick warning-- this is a second book without a middle book syndrome but you will still have to wait for the third final installment with the rest of us!

Oh Mark Trevena. This book just hit me right in the feels and I am just a ball of emotion.

This is the second book in the Lyonesse trilogy and don’t try to read this as a standalone. I would also wholeheartedly recommend you read the prequel novella Salt in the Wound for some extra insight regarding the end of Honey Cut.

I am really trying not to give any spoilers about it, but it’s very hard not to. This book picks up right where Salt Kiss ended and that results in instant anxiety. Does Mark know what happened at the yacht? It’s wreaking havoc on both Tristan and Isolde. You can feel their constant anxiety and it gave me heart palpitations multiple times. When things finally come to a head, I wanted to throw the furniture through the room and scream and tear my hair out. And because you NEVER know how Mark Trevena will react, you will be blown away. Trust me. He grabbed my heart and squeezed it multiple times and thrust it back into my chest.

I also cannot not mention the table here. THE TABLE.
That’s all I’m gonna say. I can’t say anything more without spoilers.

The way this book just keeps you on edge constantly is incredible. I can’t praise the writing enough and the beautiful prose (I learned some new English words while reading!).
This is truly the middle of a trilogy, everything is a mess and there are no winners here. I trust the HEA is coming, but in the meantime I will be here waiting, a mess of emotions.

Thank you so so much for the chance to read this as an ARC to Sourcebooks Bloom and Netgalley.

No one, and I mean NO ONE writes a better MMF book than Sierra Simone. I was not into menage storylines until I read her New Camelot series (Review coming soon!) and now I'm not sure I ever want to go back.

I love the combo of myth and modern in this re-telling of Tristan and Isolde and Mark. It's wonderfully researched and so seemlessly written I can almost believe she created the myth herself in another life. Sierra's writing has such a lyrical quality, especially the spicy scenes. There is no wham and bam here. Each movement is carefully thought out in word and phrase, making a voyeur out of the reader as they experience the scene playing out on the page.

If you're looking for angst, romance, secrets, and lies with some humour and, of course, sex, this book is for you. I highly suggest reading Salt Kiss first to get the full story and spectrum of feelings. Now, I have to suffer until I get to read book three. I'll probably fill my time reading Sierra's back titles. Oh the humanity, right?

Review to be posted on www.bookdrunkard.ca on publication day.

When I first read Salt Kiss, I was aware of the basic story of Tristan and Isolde (I really like the Wagner opera), but not the details. I haven’t read more into the original story because I knew that I wanted to read this series and didn’t want to know the full scope of the original before finishing this trilogy.

I was fortunate enough to read an advance copy of Honey Cut and please, believe me when I say that I was pulled right back into this world. I didn’t want to stop reading, even though I had to more than a few times over the course of my reading.

It’s no secret that I generally don’t like BDSM books at all but Sierra Simone has accomplished the seemingly impossible (for me as a reader) - a BDSM story with a plot that seriously works, every cog here is polished and used - and OMFG - this book - the angst, the hidden agendas, the power plays, the emotions, and the spice!!!!! I am wrecked from this one and I await the third title with bated breath.



Thank you to Bloom Books and NetGalley for the DRC

Whew! Book 2 in the Lyonesse trilogy certainly did not disappoint. This one picks up right where book 1 leaves off with Mark, Tristan and Isolde in DC together and preparing for the wedding between Mark and Isolde. We get lots of intrigue, mystery, and of course heat, from these three in this book which I could not put down. There are lots of loose ends but that’s to be expected in the middle of the trilogy and I trust Sierra Simone to deliver with the final installment. I really liked that this book mixes points of view between Isolde and Tristan and hope we eventually get Mark’s POV.

Content flags: violence both sexual and physical; heavy religious imagery

I voluntarily read an early copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Honey Cut is the second full length book in Sierra Simone’s Lyonesse series, a contemporary retelling of Tristan and Isolde. In Simone’s version the star-crossed/forbidden love between the two lovers becomes a messy polyamorous relationship/triangle. There is Mark Trevena, former CIA operator and current owner of exclusive kink club that traffics in secrets; his much younger and reluctant fiancée, Isolde Laurence, a banking heiress who is excellent with a knife and has a mysterious job working on behalf of her uncle, a Catholic cardinal; and Mark’s bodyguard (and nephew by marriage), former soldier Tristan Thomas. While Book 1 (Salt Kiss) is told solely from Tristian’s POV as he meets and falls for Mark and then meets and falls for Isolde, Honey Cut adds in Isolde’s POV as she/Mark get married and she tries to avoid the temptation of sweet sad Tristian (spoiler—she fails). There is also a nefarious cabal that Mark is trying to destroy and secrets both he and Isolde are keeping in terms of why they agreed to this arranged marriage to begin with. It comes to a head as all those secrets start to unravel and our three main characters must face betrayals, lies, and hurt.

I could not put Honey Cut down! I kept waiting for the secrets to come out and when they did—it did not disappoint! I was not expecting things to play out the way they did. This is definitely an unusual romance series (there is cheating both emotional and physical, for one) and the HEA is hard to imagine at times. But I really like that it is keeping me on my toes as a reader and keeps me guessing. While most of the Sierra Simone books I’ve read are heavy on kink and dom/sub relationships—this one really leans into punishment and humiliation (and Mark is pretty cruel, especially in Honey Cut). I am really looking forward to Mark’s POV in Bitter Burn, though, as I am sure there is much more going on beneath the surface than we’ve seen to date.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bloom Books for the complimentary ARC; all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have been LONG anticipating this sequel and it did not disappoint. While I’ll be thinking about the ending until next year when the next one comes, I am so happy with where the story is going. Sierra, you can do no wrong in my eyes. I love these characters more than anything. 5/5 ⭐️

Honey Cut by Sierra Simone
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 stars)

HOLY MOLY! This book slapped! I was a little hesitant going into it because the first book was so focused on MM, but this book turned everything around. I could not get enough of Tristan, Isolde, and Mark.

I loved seeing more of Isolde’s story as well—because in the first book she was really just the bride-to-be—but in Honey Cut she blossoms, and we learn so much more about her. Isolde's character development is fantastic, and she really comes into her own in this installment.

Don’t even get me started on the spicy scenes, because they had me sweating. We even got some MMF moments, which I was living for. The chemistry between the characters is off the charts, and the steamy scenes are top-notch.

I love this storyline so far, especially with it being a Tristan and Isolde retelling. The plot twists and character dynamics keep you hooked from start to finish. I can’t wait to see what’s to come when we finally close out this trilogy! This one gets a solid 4/5 stars from me.