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A review by justabean_reads
The Captive by Grace Burrowes
2.0
I started into this book really loving it. I'm a sucker for a well told h/c-heavy narrative that focuses on recovery, healing, and how to get on with life when everything you love's fallen to ruin and you're not yourself any more. The story started as a slightly torture happy (I'd been warned) version of that: two traumatised people learning to live again. Hardly new ground, but well told.
Then the telling derailed. The background plot meant to keep the action ticking along required Our Heroine to carry the idiot ball in such a staggering way that it destroyed her character (which reminded me of the other Burrows book I'd read, where someone spent 200 pages thinking an obvious lady was a serving girl), and Our Hero betrayed every bit of trust he'd spend wheedling out of the woman he's supposed to love (after having bullied her into a relationship in the first place). Plus the nice commentary on different ways society treats different kinds of violence turned into a Don't Miss The Message cluebat assault, and the pacing disintegrated around the book's ears.
Which is a pity, as I love me some h/c and the book had potential to say smart things about interesting topics, before it tripped on its feet and fell to its death.
Then the telling derailed. The background plot meant to keep the action ticking along required Our Heroine to carry the idiot ball in such a staggering way that it destroyed her character (which reminded me of the other Burrows book I'd read, where someone spent 200 pages thinking an obvious lady was a serving girl), and Our Hero betrayed every bit of trust he'd spend wheedling out of the woman he's supposed to love (after having bullied her into a relationship in the first place). Plus the nice commentary on different ways society treats different kinds of violence turned into a Don't Miss The Message cluebat assault, and the pacing disintegrated around the book's ears.
Which is a pity, as I love me some h/c and the book had potential to say smart things about interesting topics, before it tripped on its feet and fell to its death.