Promises and Pomegranates

Promises and Pomegranates (2021) is the first novel in Sav R. Miller’s Monsters and Muses series. Miller is a USA Today best-selling author of adult romance, and each novel in the series is inspired by an ancient Greek myth. Promises and Pomegranate’s plot and main characters, Kallum “Kal” Anderson and Elena Ricci, draw on the story of the god of the Underworld, Hades, and his wife, the goddess of springtime, Persephone. The novel is a dark romance, featuring intense and controversial themes, morally ambiguous characters and contexts, discussions of the distinction between obsession and love, and the possibilities of reclaiming one’s agency in a nonconsensual marriage.

This guide refers to the 2024 Sourcebooks paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of sexual content, graphic violence, cursing, death, child sexual abuse, physical abuse, sexual violence, rape, and emotional abuse.

Plot Summary

After his mother’s death when he was 13, Kallum “Kal” Anderson embraced violence, accepting a job from Rafael “Rafe” Ricci, a Boston Mafia don. Later, he developed an obsession with Rafe’s oldest daughter, Elena, imagining himself as Hades and her as Persephone. When Elena asked him to take her virginity, he did. Months later, Kal shows Rafael a video of this sexual encounter. Someone sent a flash drive with the video to blackmail Kal, and Rafe asks Kal to protect Elena, wondering what to do about her fiancé, Mateo. On Elena’s wedding day, her mother, Carmen, reassures Elena that she will make her peace with being Mateo’s wife. A server rushes in, saying Mateo is ill. When Elena goes to his room and sees Kal, she realizes this was a planned attack.

Mateo dies, and Elena is horrified when her father and a priest enter, and Kal forces her to marry him. When she refuses to say the vows, Kal threatens to kill her family. Elena feels betrayed, but she craves Kal’s kiss. Rafael tells her that they’re being blackmailed because of the sexual encounter. Kal’s associate, Jonas Wolfe, calls, and Kal tells him the marriage is the easiest way to get him the money, power, and family he wants. Carmen cautions Kal against using Elena to exact revenge on Carmen, as she and Kal were once lovers when Kal was a teenager. Kal gives Elena an injection, and she passes out.

Elena wakes up in a bed, naked, on a plane. She recalls when Kal carved a “K” into her thigh, the feel of his tongue, and the pain and pleasure of the experience. He enters the room and touches her pomegranate tattoo, which she got because she wants to be “his Persephone.” He sexually stimulates her with his hands. Kal feels guilty about the marriage but helpless when he’s near her. He tells her they’re both trapped, for better or for worse. They land on Aplana Island, Kal’s home. Kal claims to be protecting her but calls her his “pawn.” They arrive at the Asphodel, Kal’s home, and Elena is disgusted by her attraction to him. Kal shows Elena their bedroom, and they argue. He wraps his hand around her neck, and she is overwhelmed by desire.

Kal used to visit Aplana once a year with his mother. Years later, he met Jonas and bought a bar, the Flaming Chariot. Jonas says a security firm is tracing the flash drive and reports that Kal’s sister, Violet, again rejected his money. Kal hopes meeting Elena will change Violet’s mind about him. Jonas tells Kal that the Riccis accused him of kidnapping. Elena explores the grounds, occasionally speaking by telephone to her sister, Ariana. One day, she follows Kal—who is covered in blood—to his den, and he tells her to leave, but she kisses him. They are interrupted by a knock, and Kal finds an envelope with another flash drive at the door. It contains footage of him and Elena from just minutes ago. Kal thinks Rafael is watching them.

Kal wants to join Elena in bed, but he fears her response to his scarred body. At the bar, Kal learns that Violet called in sick. He tells Vinny, an employee, to keep an eye on Elena. After Kal leaves, Elena tries to flee, and Vinny produces a syringe. Elena kicks him in the groin, but he jabs her in the calf, and she flees out the back. Kal wants to pay off his half-sister, Violet’s, debt, and he says if she doesn’t want the bartending job, she should leave the island. Elena runs to an abandoned bus station, where the drugs from the syringe kick in. She wonders if Hades was lonely and that’s why he took Persephone. She hears voices and passes out.

Kal finds Elena on a bench, unconscious. Her attackers left Ricci’s card behind. When Elena wakes up, she can’t remember what happened. Later, she watches Kal kill Vinny, the gore sparking her arousal. Kal helps her into the shower, and she kisses him. Kal can tell how badly Elena wants him, and he makes her beg for sexual intercourse. She likes the pleasure and fear from his hand around her throat during sexual intercourse. Later, Kal mentions birth control, and she asks if she gets a choice; he says she does. She is shocked when he gets into bed with her.

Years ago, Kal signed a contract with his grandfather, giving him access to a trust once he is 25 and married. Kal plans to use Elena’s birth control prescription to prove the marriage’s legitimacy. He looks at a picture of himself at 16, sandwiched between Carmen and Rafael, who was oblivious to their affair. Later, he finds Elena outside, starting a garden. When he goes inside, Elena follows and seduces him.

A month goes by, and Elena’s garden won’t grow, but she hopes her emotional intimacy with Kal is growing. Later, she goes to the Flaming Chariot and talks to Violet. Violet says she knows Kal, which makes Elena jealous. After this meeting, Elena bursts into Kal’s office, demanding to know if he’s sleeping with Violet. Kal motions for her to sit on his lap and asks why she’s upset. She feels she doesn’t know him, and her jealousy pleases him. Kal pleasures her, and she asks how she makes him feel; he says he feels alive with her.

Kal met Rafael and Carmen while he was at the hospital with his mother. When she died, he sought Rafael out. Now, he tortures Tony, one of the men who assaulted Elena; Tony says Rafael needs money. Kal finds Elena outside, upset about her garden. She wants a space at the Asphodel that feels like hers. Kal shows her a secluded spot full of roses, right on the ocean, and she strips off her clothes to get into the water. No one has ever seen Kal naked, even during sex, and he fears she’ll be repulsed. She worries that the sight of his body will humanize him, and she’ll grow to love him. He is covered in scars, having cheated death more than 100 times.

Another day, Jonas tells her that Kal could’ve married anyone, but he chose Elena. She insists that he was blackmailed, and Jonas counters that Kal is not easily manipulated. A third flash drive appears, with footage of Kal and Elena at the beach. Elena comes in, and he shows her a picture of his mother; he says Violet is his sister. Later, Elena acknowledges her “Stockholm syndrome” but says she misses her home. Kal offers to take her to Boston, and by the time they board his plane, Elena knows she’s in love with him. They go right to her parents’ house, and Kal is worried about Elena finding out about his affair with Carmen, though it was long ago. He suspects that he loves Elena but doesn’t want to admit it. Carmen is shocked to learn that Rafael signed Elena’s marriage certificate. When Elena leaves, Kal admits to Carmen that he hasn’t told Elena about their affair. At dinner the next night, Carmen announces that Rafael married Elena to Kal to keep him away from Carmen. Elena is heartbroken. She and her sister, Ariana, leave to go to Ariana’s recital at a nearby theater.

Kal didn’t think his life was missing anything, but Elena makes him feel whole. He finds Elena in their box seats at the theater. They hear her parents arrive in the next box, and Elena pushes him away. He gets up to go, but then he sees her rage and lust. Elena wants to have sex with him, and she wants her mother to hear. Afterward, she goes to the bathroom but doesn’t return. Elena stays in her grandmother’s apartment for two weeks, but Kal never comes. When she goes back to her parents’ house, she confronts Carmen, who admits that she took advantage of Kal when he was young and always felt jealous of Elena. Elena slaps Carmen, then punches her in the face and sends an incriminating email about Ricci Inc. to the media.

When Kal goes home, he tells Jonas that he bought himself out of Ricci Inc. He thinks about dragging Elena back to the island, but he doesn’t want to take away her agency. Elena arrives, furious that Kal filed for an annulment. He says he wanted to give her freedom to choose, but this makes her angrier. Kal says he’s in love with her, and they have sex. He tells her his history, and he promises that Carmen never knew him like this. Kal gives Elena his knife and she marks his chest with an “E.”

Kal goes to a meeting with Boyd Kelly, the man in charge of investigating the flash drives. He is shocked to see Boyd’s sister, Riley, instead, and she confesses to the blackmail. She needs Kal’s help to disappear.

One year later, Kal holds his and Elena’s baby daughter, Quincy, and he watches her sleep every night. Riley calls to check in, and when they hang up, Elena tempts him back to bed. They profess their love and decide to have more children.