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A review by amiascah
Tears of Tess by Pepper Winters
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I am not a fan of writing negative reviews, and I'm not a vanilla queen saying negative things cause BDSM scares me and I shouldn't have picked up this book. I knew what I was picking up and I enjoy dark fantasy, when done right, but there was so much just wrong with this.
The first third of the book felt like internal slut shaming. Instead of acknowledging all her wants and desires as normal kinks that people have and enjoy and that it can be an empowering and safe sex life I left the book feeling like all their kinks are their dirty little secret and that both Tess and Q feel ashamed to enjoy what they enjoy, they're happy to find one another but that they are odd freaks, monsters and that neither of them are good people just cause they like bondage and pain.
I don't think other than learning that he's ashamed of how he feels which you learn in the last 10 pages of the book that I learned anything all about Q. How are you supposed to connect with a character if they remain a mystery for the entire book? And why all the secrecy? Why didn't they tell Tess that they are essentially a halfway house for trafficked women? What would be the harm in telling a woman that they are trying to rehabilitate, who's not broken yet that she can go home? Q had to know he was her first owner? So where's the communication?
Tess bothered me, I could have come around to her if her character grew and she welcomed that she was not a freak or a monster, and maybe if she wasn't so dumb. I can't get over the tracker, the big to do about how she's so brave and smart and how she escaped and quickly she has to snip the tracker off her ankle but then.... leaves it in the car she's traveling in? And who leaves the populated town area with just one man? After being abducted I would hope I remember to stay where there are loads of people and I feel like I would gravitate more towards women after being raped with a knife handle (which probably just means that I'll be lured away by other trafficked women if I ever get taken). And then after she gets back and finds out she's being sent away doesn't she blame Franco the guard? I assume it's been a whirlwind of horrible for her, but how is this his fault? I found her incredibly whinny, from the beginning with Brax and how he just can't do it for her cause he's too soft and nice (don't marry him then, take your vibrator and go) and then the back and forth of wanting Q not wanting Q. I did like, at times, keeping her name from him, when she first did it it showed a bit of back bone and I thought maybe things will be better. And at the end I appreciated her finishing school and taking control of her life. There was one line in there about revenge and the doctor/tattoo artist lady that has her in Mexico getting what she's due and I was happy thinking maybe she's gonna go on a killing spree but she just runs back to Q.
The first third of the book felt like internal slut shaming. Instead of acknowledging all her wants and desires as normal kinks that people have and enjoy and that it can be an empowering and safe sex life I left the book feeling like all their kinks are their dirty little secret and that both Tess and Q feel ashamed to enjoy what they enjoy, they're happy to find one another but that they are odd freaks, monsters and that neither of them are good people just cause they like bondage and pain.
I don't think other than learning that he's ashamed of how he feels which you learn in the last 10 pages of the book that I learned anything all about Q. How are you supposed to connect with a character if they remain a mystery for the entire book? And why all the secrecy? Why didn't they tell Tess that they are essentially a halfway house for trafficked women? What would be the harm in telling a woman that they are trying to rehabilitate, who's not broken yet that she can go home? Q had to know he was her first owner? So where's the communication?
Tess bothered me, I could have come around to her if her character grew and she welcomed that she was not a freak or a monster, and maybe if she wasn't so dumb. I can't get over the tracker, the big to do about how she's so brave and smart and how she escaped and quickly she has to snip the tracker off her ankle but then.... leaves it in the car she's traveling in? And who leaves the populated town area with just one man? After being abducted I would hope I remember to stay where there are loads of people and I feel like I would gravitate more towards women after being raped with a knife handle (which probably just means that I'll be lured away by other trafficked women if I ever get taken). And then after she gets back and finds out she's being sent away doesn't she blame Franco the guard? I assume it's been a whirlwind of horrible for her, but how is this his fault? I found her incredibly whinny, from the beginning with Brax and how he just can't do it for her cause he's too soft and nice (don't marry him then, take your vibrator and go) and then the back and forth of wanting Q not wanting Q. I did like, at times, keeping her name from him, when she first did it it showed a bit of back bone and I thought maybe things will be better. And at the end I appreciated her finishing school and taking control of her life. There was one line in there about revenge and the doctor/tattoo artist lady that has her in Mexico getting what she's due and I was happy thinking maybe she's gonna go on a killing spree but she just runs back to Q.