Persephone Black Audiobooks

Her Cruel Empire: queer romance with a hard edge, from The Devil's Plaything

1 audiobook reviewed

★ 4.6/5 average

432 listener ratings

Who is Persephone Black?

Titles like Her Cruel Empire announce their intentions before a single line is heard, and the sequence they belong to, The Devil’s Plaything, does nothing at all to soften the warning. Persephone Black writes in the LGBTQ+ corner of romance where power, possession and consent are the material rather than the backdrop, and where the sharp edges are precisely why people come.

The response has been considerable. Several hundred listeners have rated this one and the score has stayed high, which in such a crowded corner of the genre is the clearest signal there is that the writing delivers what the packaging promises. Anyone who wants their romance gentle may look elsewhere with a clear conscience; this is written for the other camp.

Persephone Black in audiobooks

Just under eight hours, narrated by Allie Shae, whose performance carries the tonal swings the story leans on: menace and tenderness handled by the same voice without either being sacrificed to the other.

Begin with Her Cruel Empire, which opens the sequence on our shelves and assumes no prior reading. Give it an uninterrupted evening rather than scattered fragments; the tension is cumulative, and it does not survive being put down for a week. The listing is below.