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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
I really wanted to not like this book. It was so dark and twisted, and yet, I couldn't help but fall into its charm. There seems to be no such thing as strict black and white in this story, and I think that's what makes it so successful as a novel. The characters are painfully human, to the point where you start to wonder what you would do if you were placed in their shoes under the same circumstances. I can't give it a full five out of five simply because there are some parts that seem too good or too bad to ring true with the rest of the story. However, it is still a pretty good read, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes gritty erotica with a dash of romantic notions.
4.5 stars - very dark, but quite good. I couldn't put it down.
I am not sure how to rate this book tbh. It is classified as dark romance. I don’t see any romance in it and I think it’s disturbing considering this as romance. From a romance perspective I absolutely hated it. However, if I look at it from thriller or horror book perspective, I think it was actually a good read in a way that made me sick at times that it definitely fulfilled the purpose of an horror story.
Why someone would call this a romance is beyond my comprehension even with the ‘dark’ before it. This a story about a girl who is kidnapped, rapped, physically and emotionally abused and made a sex slave. Is this romance ? No way. It is freaking disturbing horror story that kept me awake at night.
Why someone would call this a romance is beyond my comprehension even with the ‘dark’ before it. This a story about a girl who is kidnapped, rapped, physically and emotionally abused and made a sex slave. Is this romance ? No way. It is freaking disturbing horror story that kept me awake at night.
This was a very dark and twisted story about sex trafficking. It was really well written. I kept turning and turning the pages so I could know what happened to Livvie. And since there was no real salvation in this first book, now I have to read the next. lol
1.5 stars. Trivialization of abuse never sat well with me.
I've started and deleted this review a few times and that's because I can't even compute what I'm feeling. It's dark and emotional but beautiful all at the same time. The writing is wonderful and the way the author captures the mood you can almost feel as though you are held captive too by all the tension. I never normally go for a book like this because my emotions can't withstand some of the horror that comes with it but it literally had 5 star ratings from most of my GR friends and I absolutely know why. This is the first time I've purchased book 2 before I even finished the 1st.
I read all the warnings about how dark this book was. I put it off because of that. Finally I decided to pick it up. The warnings are real. This book shows a darkness that goes beyond anything you think you have read. The stuff of nightmares. The kind of stuff you know it's real, but you din't really grasp how real. This book brings it into focus. You realize you should hate Caleb. Wish him painful deaths (yes plural) and yet... you find yourself wanting him to find redemption, to save himself and her. Livvie tugs at every heartstring you possess. You find yourself discovering similarities between her and you, and it hurts all the more, what she's going through. Despite all of the darkness, this book grabs at you and doesn't let go... until the end, but then the end is a cliffhanger and you find yourself not letting go. You have to know what happens...
This book...this BOOK! These characters! Do I love Caleb or do I hate him? Is Livvie strong (HELL YEAH)? So many questions. So many emotions. I cried a couple of times in this book. I felt so bad for Livvie. Her emotions jumped off the page. Then Caleb...the things he went thorough as a child. NOT that it excuses his behavior now...at ALL.
It was dark but not as dark as I thought it would be. It was "uncomfortable" dark and I have a feeling the next book will be even more so. Even though...I can't wait to read it.
Loaded the 2nd book up and read to go. Got to see where C.J. Roberts is going to take me in the 2nd half of this fabulous story.
It was dark but not as dark as I thought it would be. It was "uncomfortable" dark and I have a feeling the next book will be even more so. Even though...I can't wait to read it.
Loaded the 2nd book up and read to go. Got to see where C.J. Roberts is going to take me in the 2nd half of this fabulous story.
Ughhhh. I wanted to love this book. I really did. There were parts that I enjoyed, but I really couldn’t get past Livvie/Olivia/Kitten.
The “heroine” came off as so immature and childish to me! I really love a strong female character, and she just wasn’t that for me. Sure - she went through hell and back, but the whole time I just kept thinking “this poor girl has mommy and daddy issues.” 75% of the book was her referencing back to her mom, and how much she missed her and loved her. I get it - you miss your mommy, but COMMME ONNNN.
Then there’s Caleb. As fu*%ed up as he treats Olivia I still kind of liked his complexity. I knew there had to be something deeper to his personality, and the poor guy has been through the ringer, but I still don’t think it justifies his actions. He was BORDERLINE rapist. I’m still trying to decide whether or not he crossed that line, but I really don’t think the physical reaction Livvie had to Caleb’s advances outweighs the lack of consent and lack of emotional desire. I still like him because he’s obviously a fighter, and it shows...but I can’t view this book as a love story.
I gave it 3 stars because the last 15% was intriguing. I definitely couldn’t put it down, but I still don’t care to read the next book. I have tons of questions - what happened to Nicole? Does their relationship withstand? Does she actually get sold? But I don’t care about the answers enough to read the next book. It’s a shame, because this book did have potential! I just didn’t have any connection important enough to continue reading the story. Ugh.
The “heroine” came off as so immature and childish to me! I really love a strong female character, and she just wasn’t that for me. Sure - she went through hell and back, but the whole time I just kept thinking “this poor girl has mommy and daddy issues.” 75% of the book was her referencing back to her mom, and how much she missed her and loved her. I get it - you miss your mommy, but COMMME ONNNN.
Then there’s Caleb. As fu*%ed up as he treats Olivia I still kind of liked his complexity. I knew there had to be something deeper to his personality, and the poor guy has been through the ringer, but I still don’t think it justifies his actions. He was BORDERLINE rapist. I’m still trying to decide whether or not he crossed that line, but I really don’t think the physical reaction Livvie had to Caleb’s advances outweighs the lack of consent and lack of emotional desire. I still like him because he’s obviously a fighter, and it shows...but I can’t view this book as a love story.
I gave it 3 stars because the last 15% was intriguing. I definitely couldn’t put it down, but I still don’t care to read the next book. I have tons of questions - what happened to Nicole? Does their relationship withstand? Does she actually get sold? But I don’t care about the answers enough to read the next book. It’s a shame, because this book did have potential! I just didn’t have any connection important enough to continue reading the story. Ugh.
Well... the description was a bit misleading. I got the book thinking it was a sexy romance with some dabbling into bdsm, at all times praying to Cthulhu, Aphrodite or Freyja that it was better than that awful "50 Shades of Grey" (because I sincerely wouldn't run away screaming if a sexy rich mean fuck whipped my ass) and more realistic than "Bared to You" (because as much as I love sex... there is NO WAY a man or woman can make me come 7 times in an hour).
But this was a much darker and heavier and sinister, at once I sat straight in my bed and clutched the kindle firmly with both hands and smiled diabolically at what I had come coincidentally across. As I started reading I was reminded of "The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty" and then when I saw that Kitten (because that IS her name) was smart and composed (specially when she realized the only way to escape unbroken and with power was to make Caleb love her). "Carrie's Story" flashed in mind with a tingling fear that if this book didn't stop itself it could become too dark and too abrasive to be enjoyable (I prayed again to Hephaestus and Thor to save this book from being in the pits of that which I will never read again "Story of O").
There is a difference between bdsm and being fucked up. Bdsm is all about making a person feel objectified by indeed objectifying, but it is another whole fucking thing to make a person an object, that's why "Story of O" didn't really float my boat.
Yet coming back to this novel... It was its own master. It was dark and emotional and I thanked Zeus and Hera I didn't buy a paperback because yeah, I wouldn't be able to lend it out ever again. It is a book that while presenting a tough and horrible reality, does it with the magic of a writer and it is up to certain point beautified by the characters and how deep their connections with the reader go. That is to say I abhor any and all sorts of unwilling sex trade, specially concerning children and people being objects, but the book while walking that fine line makes it out unscathed by having Caleb in it. Caleb is a child sex slave that survived his awful ordeal somewhat sane and lives now only for revenge and he finds himself at a crossroads if he will become the man he hates in order to get revenge. Kitten is an 18 year old girl that has suffered under the stigma of religiosity and misogyny; her mom is an unstable woman scarred by her whoredness. She has desires, dreams and fantasies, all entwined with what Caleb is offering her; pain, submissiveness and pleasure.
Sure the book is intense, but as many in the genre falls back into the dramatic aspect of the plot too much, relies on it too much cutting short the good scenes and the moments that make you salivate and yearn for more like an addict. I could have done without the biker drama and without Rafiq's inopportune emotional battery of Caleb.
I want Kitten to find herself in her new name and I want Caleb to switch places with her, so I'll just disappear and read the sequel ("Seduced in the Dark") with a jar of nutella by my side.
But this was a much darker and heavier and sinister, at once I sat straight in my bed and clutched the kindle firmly with both hands and smiled diabolically at what I had come coincidentally across. As I started reading I was reminded of "The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty" and then when I saw that Kitten (because that IS her name) was smart and composed (specially when she realized the only way to escape unbroken and with power was to make Caleb love her). "Carrie's Story" flashed in mind with a tingling fear that if this book didn't stop itself it could become too dark and too abrasive to be enjoyable (I prayed again to Hephaestus and Thor to save this book from being in the pits of that which I will never read again "Story of O").
There is a difference between bdsm and being fucked up. Bdsm is all about making a person feel objectified by indeed objectifying, but it is another whole fucking thing to make a person an object, that's why "Story of O" didn't really float my boat.
Yet coming back to this novel... It was its own master. It was dark and emotional and I thanked Zeus and Hera I didn't buy a paperback because yeah, I wouldn't be able to lend it out ever again. It is a book that while presenting a tough and horrible reality, does it with the magic of a writer and it is up to certain point beautified by the characters and how deep their connections with the reader go. That is to say I abhor any and all sorts of unwilling sex trade, specially concerning children and people being objects, but the book while walking that fine line makes it out unscathed by having Caleb in it. Caleb is a child sex slave that survived his awful ordeal somewhat sane and lives now only for revenge and he finds himself at a crossroads if he will become the man he hates in order to get revenge. Kitten is an 18 year old girl that has suffered under the stigma of religiosity and misogyny; her mom is an unstable woman scarred by her whoredness. She has desires, dreams and fantasies, all entwined with what Caleb is offering her; pain, submissiveness and pleasure.
Sure the book is intense, but as many in the genre falls back into the dramatic aspect of the plot too much, relies on it too much cutting short the good scenes and the moments that make you salivate and yearn for more like an addict. I could have done without the biker drama and without Rafiq's inopportune emotional battery of Caleb.
I want Kitten to find herself in her new name and I want Caleb to switch places with her, so I'll just disappear and read the sequel ("Seduced in the Dark") with a jar of nutella by my side.