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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
This series was okay but a bit uninspiring. I will say that the first book was very interesting and I wanted to see where it would go but it just got a bit tiring near the end of the second book.
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
WOW. That was a helluva book! Not sure what I think about it... I gave it 3 stars, if for no other reason than it did a total number on me! I will most likely read the second one (this was a serial cliffhanger), IF I get the nerve up to do so!
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
I honestly don't have the words to express all the different emotions that this book stirred in me. Wow...just wow.
Not a romance
If you are looking for a romance, this isn't it. I listened to three hours of this and decided to not waste any more of my time on this story.
I read a lot of the reviews before starting this story and I read more after finishing it. Many people seem to have enjoyed this story, while many also hated it. Then there are those who don't know what to think because of the content. It is that kind of book.
From the description, I was expecting a romance and not expecting the hero to abuse the heroine because, typically, if the hero kidnaps the heroine in a romance, the hero never actually physically hurts the heroine during the course of the story. It may get dark, but actual abuse doesn't occur. That's what I was expecting. Once the hero abused the heroine and I realized this wasn't a romance, I kept listening, deciding to give this dark story a chance anyway.
I shouldn't have. Sex slavery is a reality for far too many people in this world and I couldn't get into this story for that very reason. I felt sorry for the hero and wanted him to get help, but I couldn't root for him to find love with the heroine after he abused her. Once he abused her, she became someone who needed to heal from what he did to her and not a love interest.
If you are looking for a romance, this isn't it. I listened to three hours of this and decided to not waste any more of my time on this story.
I read a lot of the reviews before starting this story and I read more after finishing it. Many people seem to have enjoyed this story, while many also hated it. Then there are those who don't know what to think because of the content. It is that kind of book.
From the description, I was expecting a romance and not expecting the hero to abuse the heroine because, typically, if the hero kidnaps the heroine in a romance, the hero never actually physically hurts the heroine during the course of the story. It may get dark, but actual abuse doesn't occur. That's what I was expecting. Once the hero abused the heroine and I realized this wasn't a romance, I kept listening, deciding to give this dark story a chance anyway.
I shouldn't have. Sex slavery is a reality for far too many people in this world and I couldn't get into this story for that very reason. I felt sorry for the hero and wanted him to get help, but I couldn't root for him to find love with the heroine after he abused her. Once he abused her, she became someone who needed to heal from what he did to her and not a love interest.
30% into it and I am bored speechless. I don't know what bothers me more: the TSTL heroine, the grammar mistakes or the sheer unbelievability of all that inner monologue.
I honestly can´t rate this book. It never happened to me before. How to rate a book that appalled and intrigued me in the same time? I read some reviews before starting it so I knew it is going to be dark. But I wasn´t prepared for this. This is not 50 shades of fucked up. This is an entirely different universe.
Can I give 5* to a book that made me sick the entire time or should I give it 1*? There is no middle way with this book.
Everything about this story is WRONG. It is a whole new level of dark and disturbed. It made me sick to my stomach. Seriously. But I couldn´t stop reading.
Caleb was kidnapped as a child and abused in every way possible. Now he is a slave master in Pakistan. He kidnaps young girls/women and trains them to obey so they can be sold on a sex slave market. And now he is aiming for his ultimate revenge against the man who ruined his life. His weapon - 18-year old poor girl he kidnaps from the US that nobody will miss. And here our story begins.
He kidnaps 18-year old Livvie and does ANYTHING to train her for an obedient sex slave. He keeps her chained/collared in the dark for weeks, starves her, beats her, abuses her and inbetween all this also shows her pleasure because that just makes it right. HELL NO, it f*cking does NOT!!! Don´t get me wrong, I love the bad boys and I read about some pretty scary ones but THIS? This was a whole new level of WRONG, SICK and DISTURBED. This is where I say STOP, enough. There is no way you can justify this! And yet I kept reading. Then I threw the book away only to pick it up again.
Livvie is a star example of Stockholm syndrome. Looking for kindness and shelter with a man who keeps hurting her, physically and emotionally. She is beaten/scared into physical submission but her mind stays strong, at least for most of the book.
The book has an open ending because the story moves to the next level in the second book. In the end, everything that was Livvie is gone and an entirely new woman appears. A woman that will do anything to survive what´s to come. Did Caleb start to have feelings for Livvie? Yes. Did it change a thing? No.
Am I going to read the second book? Maybe.
Would I recommend reading this book? I guess, just be prepared. There is no happy ending here, no atonement and no redemption.
Can I give 5* to a book that made me sick the entire time or should I give it 1*? There is no middle way with this book.
Everything about this story is WRONG. It is a whole new level of dark and disturbed. It made me sick to my stomach. Seriously. But I couldn´t stop reading.
Caleb was kidnapped as a child and abused in every way possible. Now he is a slave master in Pakistan. He kidnaps young girls/women and trains them to obey so they can be sold on a sex slave market. And now he is aiming for his ultimate revenge against the man who ruined his life. His weapon - 18-year old poor girl he kidnaps from the US that nobody will miss. And here our story begins.
He kidnaps 18-year old Livvie and does ANYTHING to train her for an obedient sex slave. He keeps her chained/collared in the dark for weeks, starves her, beats her, abuses her and inbetween all this also shows her pleasure because that just makes it right. HELL NO, it f*cking does NOT!!! Don´t get me wrong, I love the bad boys and I read about some pretty scary ones but THIS? This was a whole new level of WRONG, SICK and DISTURBED. This is where I say STOP, enough. There is no way you can justify this! And yet I kept reading. Then I threw the book away only to pick it up again.
Livvie is a star example of Stockholm syndrome. Looking for kindness and shelter with a man who keeps hurting her, physically and emotionally. She is beaten/scared into physical submission but her mind stays strong, at least for most of the book.
"He grabbed me roughly and turned my face into his chest. Before I had any thought about it, I wrapped my arms around him and held on to him as hard as I could. He was my tormentor and my solace; the creator of the dark and the light within. I didn't care that he would undoubtedly hurt me at any moment, right now; I just needed somebody to hold me, somebody to be kind to me, somebody to tell me exactly those words. It's going to be okay. It wasn't of course, I knew that. But I didn't care. I needed the lie."
The book has an open ending because the story moves to the next level in the second book. In the end, everything that was Livvie is gone and an entirely new woman appears. A woman that will do anything to survive what´s to come. Did Caleb start to have feelings for Livvie? Yes. Did it change a thing? No.
Am I going to read the second book? Maybe.
Would I recommend reading this book? I guess, just be prepared. There is no happy ending here, no atonement and no redemption.