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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
This book was an extremely hard read for me. It was dark and just disturbing for me. I don't want to give anything away in this review but I am just not sure how to feel about it. I loved Livvie but everything she went through was heartbreaking. As for Caleb sometimes I loved him and then others I just wanted to punch him in the face.
One of my GR friends aptly sums up what I was getting into when I picked up this book, "Get ready for a huge mind fuck!" Of course I didn't read that post until I was about 20 to 30 pages in, but once I read those words I knew they were right. This book is one big mind fuck.
Livvie is pulled from her life and wakes up in a new world where she is blind folded and truly a captive of darkness. She's stripped bare of not only her clothes, but of her self. Left defenseless and trying to cling on to her sanity. Caleb is a master at brain washing her. Soon she can't tell when she needs to fight, or when to please the master. It's heart wrenching watching Caleb basically tear her apart and destroy her.
The story is told from both the perspective of the captive (Livvie) and the captor(Caleb). That's where the true mind games start. Readers can't truly hate Caleb as he is a victim from much the same background as the future he's forcing Livvie to live. A Pleasure Slave. He was used and ruined at a younger age, no longer can understand or relate to humanity. (Or at least humanity as we see it.) He's bent on revenge and he needs Livvie to get it. Obviously this book is not black in white. It deals in all the shades of grays. Many times I wanted Livvie to keep fighting, but then the hopelessness of her position bogs me down. One thing I need to make clear is that this is not a Romance. Maybe some readers will interpret it as such.
This book is meant to be dark and scary. It shows that no matter how much we choose to see things as good and evil, that their will always be hidden shades of gray. How do we then choose to condemn someone, justify actions, or even function in an unclear world. Captive in the Dark skillfully shows how someone is broken. How a strong person is torn apart psychology and physically. It's vivid in it's clarity. Many times I kept thinking that CitD gave great insight into how anyone could suddenly find themselves in an abuse relationship.
In the end, I don't think there is anything that can truly express this book. It hurts, scares, and leaves it's reader in a turmoil of thoughts. It's a provoker. It kept me running hot in anger, fear, shame, turned on (yeah, that's where some of the shame came from), and a multitude of emotions I'll probably never be able to figure out. Upon the last page I not only had a overwhelming desire to never leave my home again, but to keep everyone I know locked up in safe little bubbles. For days if not weeks this book echoed in my mind. Haunting my every thought. For me this was not a romance. I fear that Livvie will become trapped by Cable and remain is slave. Hope that Livvie can become Caleb's salvation. That Livvie will escape. That Caleb winds up dead, maybe even by Livvie's hand. Or that Caleb finds his way out. In the end it's not a romance. It's mind fuckery. With beautiful writing. (Though the jump from 1st to 3rd person is slightly disruptive.)
Sexual Content: Dark and graphic sex. Plenty of foul talk. Basically rated X my friends.
4/5- Great! Really enjoyed it.
Originally posted on Book Whispers.
Livvie is pulled from her life and wakes up in a new world where she is blind folded and truly a captive of darkness. She's stripped bare of not only her clothes, but of her self. Left defenseless and trying to cling on to her sanity. Caleb is a master at brain washing her. Soon she can't tell when she needs to fight, or when to please the master. It's heart wrenching watching Caleb basically tear her apart and destroy her.
The story is told from both the perspective of the captive (Livvie) and the captor(Caleb). That's where the true mind games start. Readers can't truly hate Caleb as he is a victim from much the same background as the future he's forcing Livvie to live. A Pleasure Slave. He was used and ruined at a younger age, no longer can understand or relate to humanity. (Or at least humanity as we see it.) He's bent on revenge and he needs Livvie to get it. Obviously this book is not black in white. It deals in all the shades of grays. Many times I wanted Livvie to keep fighting, but then the hopelessness of her position bogs me down. One thing I need to make clear is that this is not a Romance. Maybe some readers will interpret it as such.
This book is meant to be dark and scary. It shows that no matter how much we choose to see things as good and evil, that their will always be hidden shades of gray. How do we then choose to condemn someone, justify actions, or even function in an unclear world. Captive in the Dark skillfully shows how someone is broken. How a strong person is torn apart psychology and physically. It's vivid in it's clarity. Many times I kept thinking that CitD gave great insight into how anyone could suddenly find themselves in an abuse relationship.
In the end, I don't think there is anything that can truly express this book. It hurts, scares, and leaves it's reader in a turmoil of thoughts. It's a provoker. It kept me running hot in anger, fear, shame, turned on (yeah, that's where some of the shame came from), and a multitude of emotions I'll probably never be able to figure out. Upon the last page I not only had a overwhelming desire to never leave my home again, but to keep everyone I know locked up in safe little bubbles. For days if not weeks this book echoed in my mind. Haunting my every thought. For me this was not a romance. I fear that Livvie will become trapped by Cable and remain is slave. Hope that Livvie can become Caleb's salvation. That Livvie will escape. That Caleb winds up dead, maybe even by Livvie's hand. Or that Caleb finds his way out. In the end it's not a romance. It's mind fuckery. With beautiful writing. (Though the jump from 1st to 3rd person is slightly disruptive.)
Sexual Content: Dark and graphic sex. Plenty of foul talk. Basically rated X my friends.
4/5- Great! Really enjoyed it.
Originally posted on Book Whispers.
A "dark erotica" book that was neither dark* nor erotic. Author uses her "About me" section to link to a petition to try to get HBO to make her books into a TV series...
[* Okay, if Fifty Shades of Grey was the most dark thing you've ever read, then yeah, this book might seem shockingly dark. However, if you've even dabbled in reading fanfic, you've likely read stories that were a hell of a lot darker, more realistic, and much better written.]
Plot wise, some Bad Guy (Caleb) wanted revenge on a guy who is even worse of a bad guy than he is, so he gets into the slave training business. (Book was set in the real, current world.) He kidnaps and trains so many women that he loses count of how many it's been, all to get the notice of the bigger bad guy. Finally Caleb is ready to make his move, he needs the perfect girl for Other Bad Guy to buy, so he'll have inside access to the guy.
The book follows him kidnapping and (supposedly) breaking an 18 year old woman. By the 56% point (where I stopped reading) the two were a good way into falling in love with each other...
I love love love books and stories about one person breaking another, which made this story even more annoying to me. Neither character was believable, and it's more like the story said "okay, she's broken and remade now" than that it happened in a believable way.
On top of that, the writing was laughably bad in some places. Caleb meeting the girl he was going to kidnap. She's crying:
He liked looking at [tears], tasting them. Truth be told, they made him hard.
Woman crying? POP! ERECTION! Imagine Caleb seeing a woman, her car broken down on the side of the rode. She's crying because she's late for work. ERECTION! Imagine him in a hospital, woman crying because of some bad news, ERECTION! 9/11, all the people crying on the street? He must have had a nonstop erection.
Then, after he kidnaps her, has her naked and tied up. She's trying to get away, fighting him:
Her knee collided with his groin, hard. What was it with women and kicking men in the nuts?
Seriously. HOW VERY UNREASONABLE, WOMEN. KICKING MEN IN THE NUTS WHEN THEY'RE ONLY KIDNAPPING AND RAPING YOU.
Then there was just general bad writing. Like "He opened the fridge door; the cool, swampy air felt good." Doesn't "swampy" imply warm as well as humid? And "He never tired of [women's] salty taste, and sweet smelling sweat. Only a woman could boast such a thing." Protip from the slaver, folks: Women don't ever smell bad. They never have BO. Woo!
I really should have given up on this book sooner, but I kept hoping it would get better.
[* Okay, if Fifty Shades of Grey was the most dark thing you've ever read, then yeah, this book might seem shockingly dark. However, if you've even dabbled in reading fanfic, you've likely read stories that were a hell of a lot darker, more realistic, and much better written.]
Plot wise, some Bad Guy (Caleb) wanted revenge on a guy who is even worse of a bad guy than he is, so he gets into the slave training business. (Book was set in the real, current world.) He kidnaps and trains so many women that he loses count of how many it's been, all to get the notice of the bigger bad guy. Finally Caleb is ready to make his move, he needs the perfect girl for Other Bad Guy to buy, so he'll have inside access to the guy.
The book follows him kidnapping and (supposedly) breaking an 18 year old woman. By the 56% point (where I stopped reading) the two were a good way into falling in love with each other...
I love love love books and stories about one person breaking another, which made this story even more annoying to me. Neither character was believable, and it's more like the story said "okay, she's broken and remade now" than that it happened in a believable way.
On top of that, the writing was laughably bad in some places. Caleb meeting the girl he was going to kidnap. She's crying:
He liked looking at [tears], tasting them. Truth be told, they made him hard.
Woman crying? POP! ERECTION! Imagine Caleb seeing a woman, her car broken down on the side of the rode. She's crying because she's late for work. ERECTION! Imagine him in a hospital, woman crying because of some bad news, ERECTION! 9/11, all the people crying on the street? He must have had a nonstop erection.
Then, after he kidnaps her, has her naked and tied up. She's trying to get away, fighting him:
Her knee collided with his groin, hard. What was it with women and kicking men in the nuts?
Seriously. HOW VERY UNREASONABLE, WOMEN. KICKING MEN IN THE NUTS WHEN THEY'RE ONLY KIDNAPPING AND RAPING YOU.
Then there was just general bad writing. Like "He opened the fridge door; the cool, swampy air felt good." Doesn't "swampy" imply warm as well as humid? And "He never tired of [women's] salty taste, and sweet smelling sweat. Only a woman could boast such a thing." Protip from the slaver, folks: Women don't ever smell bad. They never have BO. Woo!
I really should have given up on this book sooner, but I kept hoping it would get better.
4.5 stars
This book has been sat unread on my kindle for far too long. I read it in half a day, not wanting to put it down. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where Caleb and Olivia's story takes them next.
This book has been sat unread on my kindle for far too long. I read it in half a day, not wanting to put it down. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where Caleb and Olivia's story takes them next.
This is a true kidnapping/captive story. There's not a lot of "I saw her and had to have her" vibes or really any romance at all for that matter. Caleb, our MMC, didn't kidnap Olivia because he wanted her for himself. He kidnapped her because he needed someone that appeared to be submissive that he could train to be a sex slave. He's out for revenge and she's how he's going to accomplish it.
There were some aspects about this story that I liked and some that I didn't. The story itself is actually pretty good, as it delves in to breaking a person down to gain the behavior that one is looking for. I haven't read enough BDSM books to know if this is a commonality amongst Doms/Subs? I think it's an interesting concept if you're working towards a relationship together, but that's not really the case here. Here, he is the Master and you are his Pet. I didn't really enjoy reading about someone calling another Master. I don't think that's a kink of mine.
This story was definitely leading down a road where these two are having a hard time fighting an attraction toward one another and there is probably more romance in Book 2, but there just wasn't enough of an emotional connection to the characters for me to keep reading. Plus, I wasn't really interested in the direction the story was taking. Overall though, I did enjoy reading it for the most part.
Nicknames: Pet, Kitten, Livvie
“I am your master.” A cold hand pressed against my sweat-slick forehead. Again, a nagging sense of familiarity. But it was stupid. I didn’t know anyone with an accent. “You are where I want you to be.”
“Address me as Master. Every time you forget, I will be forced to remind you. So you can choose to obey or choose punishment. It’s entirely up to you.”
His touch was simple, but specific, meant to show me he could be like a lover, gentle, intimate, but also he was a man unaccustomed to hearing the word no.
The condensation on the bottle instantly reminded him of sweat. He thought of the girl again, and other girls, past slaves; he never tired of their salty taste, and sweet smelling sweat. Only women could boast of such a thing. Only women were capable of being so fucking sexy you wanted to lick them clean when they considered themselves dirty.
What would it be like to touch him the way he touched me? Would he be as thoroughly under my spell as I seemed to be under his?
It wasn’t enough to fuck my body; he wanted to mindfuck me as well.
I was numb—heartbroken. Not only was I shocked over what he’d done, but I was more shocked over how he’d managed to turn my body against me. The pain had been intense, and yet at times it was as if that same pain added to the violent shiver that coursed through me when he’d made me come.
He was my tormentor and my solace; the creator of the dark and the light within.
His touches were expected now. My skin unconsciously eager, waiting for a stroke to feed this new hunger in me.
He had that big smile on his face again. The same smile he had been using to cause so much inner turmoil. In the dark, it twisted me in knots, in the light—it was almost crippling.
If the first lesson every slave had to learn was to accept that their wishes did not matter, then the first lesson every master had to learn was not to be a slave to their own desires.
He suddenly ached to see her smile up at him like that. Instead, he pressed her back so he might kiss her warm, salty tears from her soft cheeks. She even tasted like sun. Did he prefer her smile or her tears?
All the slaves he had trained had touched him, frequently. But with them he had always remained detached, clinical, informing them what felt good and what needed work along the way. With her, he wanted…something.
He is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen: that includes puppies, babies, rainbows, sunsets, and sunrises. I can’t even call him a man—men don’t look this good.
“For what it’s worth, Livvie, I never thought of you as a whore. And you are…the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Hey, you know my name now.”
“You’ll always be Kitten to me…Livvie.”
For the first time in recent memory, Caleb wanted something other than revenge. He wanted the girl. He wanted Livvie.
There were some aspects about this story that I liked and some that I didn't. The story itself is actually pretty good, as it delves in to breaking a person down to gain the behavior that one is looking for. I haven't read enough BDSM books to know if this is a commonality amongst Doms/Subs? I think it's an interesting concept if you're working towards a relationship together, but that's not really the case here. Here, he is the Master and you are his Pet. I didn't really enjoy reading about someone calling another Master. I don't think that's a kink of mine.
This story was definitely leading down a road where these two are having a hard time fighting an attraction toward one another and there is probably more romance in Book 2, but there just wasn't enough of an emotional connection to the characters for me to keep reading. Plus, I wasn't really interested in the direction the story was taking. Overall though, I did enjoy reading it for the most part.
Nicknames: Pet, Kitten, Livvie
“I am your master.” A cold hand pressed against my sweat-slick forehead. Again, a nagging sense of familiarity. But it was stupid. I didn’t know anyone with an accent. “You are where I want you to be.”
“Address me as Master. Every time you forget, I will be forced to remind you. So you can choose to obey or choose punishment. It’s entirely up to you.”
His touch was simple, but specific, meant to show me he could be like a lover, gentle, intimate, but also he was a man unaccustomed to hearing the word no.
The condensation on the bottle instantly reminded him of sweat. He thought of the girl again, and other girls, past slaves; he never tired of their salty taste, and sweet smelling sweat. Only women could boast of such a thing. Only women were capable of being so fucking sexy you wanted to lick them clean when they considered themselves dirty.
What would it be like to touch him the way he touched me? Would he be as thoroughly under my spell as I seemed to be under his?
It wasn’t enough to fuck my body; he wanted to mindfuck me as well.
I was numb—heartbroken. Not only was I shocked over what he’d done, but I was more shocked over how he’d managed to turn my body against me. The pain had been intense, and yet at times it was as if that same pain added to the violent shiver that coursed through me when he’d made me come.
He was my tormentor and my solace; the creator of the dark and the light within.
His touches were expected now. My skin unconsciously eager, waiting for a stroke to feed this new hunger in me.
He had that big smile on his face again. The same smile he had been using to cause so much inner turmoil. In the dark, it twisted me in knots, in the light—it was almost crippling.
If the first lesson every slave had to learn was to accept that their wishes did not matter, then the first lesson every master had to learn was not to be a slave to their own desires.
He suddenly ached to see her smile up at him like that. Instead, he pressed her back so he might kiss her warm, salty tears from her soft cheeks. She even tasted like sun. Did he prefer her smile or her tears?
All the slaves he had trained had touched him, frequently. But with them he had always remained detached, clinical, informing them what felt good and what needed work along the way. With her, he wanted…something.
He is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen: that includes puppies, babies, rainbows, sunsets, and sunrises. I can’t even call him a man—men don’t look this good.
“For what it’s worth, Livvie, I never thought of you as a whore. And you are…the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Hey, you know my name now.”
“You’ll always be Kitten to me…Livvie.”
For the first time in recent memory, Caleb wanted something other than revenge. He wanted the girl. He wanted Livvie.
Not for people who can't handle dark, uncomfortable subjects but despite the typos and the theme, I liked the story and will definitely keep reading the series.
Every once in a while I have to submerge myself into a more darker book than what I would originally read. I feel like I should open my mind and explore a world of something else besides love and heroes/heroines. A book where love isn’t the center point of the whole story. A book where the characters have issues just like other people have issues. Their issues may be more far fetched or worse but none the less, I like the challenge of reading something different. And thus began…
“Caleb was a strange person, cruel and inhuman; a monster, but at other times, he seemed so capable of something like caring. He made me cry and scream and shake with fear, and nearly a split second later he could make me almost believe he wasn’t responsible for any of it.”
The book starts with Livvie waking up from a drug-enduced sleep to find herself captive in the dark (ha. ha. you get it?) She is tied up by a man that calls her “Pet” and “Kitten” who demands her to call him “Master” (umm, no thanks?) Livvie gets her eyes opened to a dark world (no pun intended). The weirdest part of all is she starts to some how develop feelings for her captor. Can a monster trained his whole life change his ways and change the way his heart is set? Or better yet, can the audience be willing enough to let themselves go into this sinister world that CJ created and also experience all of the things that she wants you to experience through her writing and her vivid imagination?
Here are a list of feelings that I felt during these books (in no particular order, of course.) Anger, fear, I was scared, and then I was happy, I felt so much love, and I cared about the characters, I sympathized them, I down right hated them. I felt lust and probably whatever else you might think of. This book did that to me. CJ Roberts did that to me. This book will open up SO MANY emotions you wont even be able to keep up. On another note, I am very excited that I read a book about a strong girl. I couldn’t handle another Anastasia Steele or what’s her face from the Bared to You series. Livvie was consistent the whole way through the book. She didn’t start out weak and require Caleb to “mend her broken ways”. She was feisty and head strong and who doesn’t love a woman like that? I had my mind set that as I went into this book I would not like Caleb. Who in the hell kidnaps someone and does the things they do and then uses the validation “I had a terrible up bringing” to get the revenge he wants. That doesn’t really fly with me in the real life world because guess what, every one has shitty past at one point but okay moving on from that subject. CJ Roberts MADE me fall in love with Caleb. It wasn’t by choice. It was because of her flawless writing and the ever evolving characters that she created. I thought it was all pieced together perfectly and the words flowed together so magically.
The subject matter is dark. The people are even darker. There are no filtered scenes or dialogue. You get what you get and it is far from PG. And also, how in the hell is it possible for an author to make you love a character so flawed and dingy and fucked up and UGH!?! I thought it wasn’t possible for me to even consider it but I think that’s what makes CJ and her work so great. I thought her writing style was flawless. Like, Tarryn Fisher flawless. That’s a huge compliment.
I was reading quite a few reviews on both of these books. I rather enjoy reading every one elses opinions on the books I read ONLY when I finish said book. Most women found it to be very terrible that anybody would write a book about the subject matter that is written about because wait for it, I know. RAPE IS NOT A JOKE. Not in any way shape or form do I approve anything along those lines. If you like to do some dirty things with your spouse or significant other I will never condone you for that. But lines get blurred (in my opinion) when pain gets mixed in with pleasure. If you don’t want to read about rape that’s fine. Don’t pick this book up. Go read something else. If you don’t want to read a book about Stockholm Syndrome or a man with a tough “uprising” that possible gets his chance at redemption that’s fine too. Nobody is holding a gun to your head making you do it. But if you like to read outside of your comfort zone and open your mind then I would give this book a try. I felt very disturbed at times and I was also very repulsed but I like to steer clear of clichés. I like broadening my interests and this book did just that.
She wrote a third book. It furthers Caleb’s epilogue. I didn’t read it. I was very much satisfied with how CJ wrapped up the second book and so very in love with the ending that I didn’t feel as if I needed to proceed with the third. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t worth it though.
“Caleb was a strange person, cruel and inhuman; a monster, but at other times, he seemed so capable of something like caring. He made me cry and scream and shake with fear, and nearly a split second later he could make me almost believe he wasn’t responsible for any of it.”
The book starts with Livvie waking up from a drug-enduced sleep to find herself captive in the dark (ha. ha. you get it?) She is tied up by a man that calls her “Pet” and “Kitten” who demands her to call him “Master” (umm, no thanks?) Livvie gets her eyes opened to a dark world (no pun intended). The weirdest part of all is she starts to some how develop feelings for her captor. Can a monster trained his whole life change his ways and change the way his heart is set? Or better yet, can the audience be willing enough to let themselves go into this sinister world that CJ created and also experience all of the things that she wants you to experience through her writing and her vivid imagination?
Here are a list of feelings that I felt during these books (in no particular order, of course.) Anger, fear, I was scared, and then I was happy, I felt so much love, and I cared about the characters, I sympathized them, I down right hated them. I felt lust and probably whatever else you might think of. This book did that to me. CJ Roberts did that to me. This book will open up SO MANY emotions you wont even be able to keep up. On another note, I am very excited that I read a book about a strong girl. I couldn’t handle another Anastasia Steele or what’s her face from the Bared to You series. Livvie was consistent the whole way through the book. She didn’t start out weak and require Caleb to “mend her broken ways”. She was feisty and head strong and who doesn’t love a woman like that? I had my mind set that as I went into this book I would not like Caleb. Who in the hell kidnaps someone and does the things they do and then uses the validation “I had a terrible up bringing” to get the revenge he wants. That doesn’t really fly with me in the real life world because guess what, every one has shitty past at one point but okay moving on from that subject. CJ Roberts MADE me fall in love with Caleb. It wasn’t by choice. It was because of her flawless writing and the ever evolving characters that she created. I thought it was all pieced together perfectly and the words flowed together so magically.
The subject matter is dark. The people are even darker. There are no filtered scenes or dialogue. You get what you get and it is far from PG. And also, how in the hell is it possible for an author to make you love a character so flawed and dingy and fucked up and UGH!?! I thought it wasn’t possible for me to even consider it but I think that’s what makes CJ and her work so great. I thought her writing style was flawless. Like, Tarryn Fisher flawless. That’s a huge compliment.
I was reading quite a few reviews on both of these books. I rather enjoy reading every one elses opinions on the books I read ONLY when I finish said book. Most women found it to be very terrible that anybody would write a book about the subject matter that is written about because wait for it, I know. RAPE IS NOT A JOKE. Not in any way shape or form do I approve anything along those lines. If you like to do some dirty things with your spouse or significant other I will never condone you for that. But lines get blurred (in my opinion) when pain gets mixed in with pleasure. If you don’t want to read about rape that’s fine. Don’t pick this book up. Go read something else. If you don’t want to read a book about Stockholm Syndrome or a man with a tough “uprising” that possible gets his chance at redemption that’s fine too. Nobody is holding a gun to your head making you do it. But if you like to read outside of your comfort zone and open your mind then I would give this book a try. I felt very disturbed at times and I was also very repulsed but I like to steer clear of clichés. I like broadening my interests and this book did just that.
She wrote a third book. It furthers Caleb’s epilogue. I didn’t read it. I was very much satisfied with how CJ wrapped up the second book and so very in love with the ending that I didn’t feel as if I needed to proceed with the third. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t worth it though.
I am really drawn to this story line. I didn't think I would be but it is dark & totally different than anything I have read. I am enjoying mixing up the mushy gushy love stories with this series. Can't wait to finish the last two books.
wow, this book. it was intense. i finished it in one take.
Really? why the people give five or four stars to this... CR*P, I hate to the characters!! .-. the girl don't have dignity, she is like "oh I know that you hate me...but please kiss me" WTF?!?!? this is not love!! is only sex, why the people love this book?!?!