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A review by pamgodwin
Tears of Tess by Pepper Winters
4.0
For an abduction/slave novel, it's surprisingly soft. You won't find gut-wrenching scenes that challenge you like the degradation you'd find in horror and captivity narratives. The male protag is kinky, but he's temperamentally ashamed of his desires, and keeps them fettered beneath his honorable persona. This might frustrate dark erotica readers. But sans the sappy I-love-you dialogues, I wouldn't label this a lighthearted romance, either. It lands somewhere in between.
The symbiosis of consent and non-consent is the book's psychological core, and the severe disapproval of rape fantasies is scattered throughout it like feathers from a startled sparrow.
Q wants to rape and hurt Tess. Tess wants to be raped and hurt. They're both appalled by this, and their flux from spurn to assent back to spurn is jarring. Once you become sympathetic to one way of thinking, their convictions change again, leaving you disconnected. Some of this might've been alleviated with more showing and less telling. For example, you're told she's broken then strengthened then broken again, though you're not feeling the journey between the named emotions.
Were this book judged entirely by Tess's courage, it would be a masterpiece. She sheds plenty of tears, but she's no wilting flower. Each time she makes up her mind to do something--fight, flight, fight again--she follows through, fearlessly. I only wish she were more consistent in her crusades. And I wish there was more dialogue with Q. He isn't given enough time with you to develop his psychological position. The Epilogue offers the first and only Q headspace, which is a broad summary of the story in his POV.
Overall, it's an entertaining, brooding tale with some memorable moments. I recommend to romance readers looking for a soft psychological thriller with a few well-written sex scenes.
The symbiosis of consent and non-consent is the book's psychological core, and the severe disapproval of rape fantasies is scattered throughout it like feathers from a startled sparrow.
Q wants to rape and hurt Tess. Tess wants to be raped and hurt. They're both appalled by this, and their flux from spurn to assent back to spurn is jarring. Once you become sympathetic to one way of thinking, their convictions change again, leaving you disconnected. Some of this might've been alleviated with more showing and less telling. For example, you're told she's broken then strengthened then broken again, though you're not feeling the journey between the named emotions.
Were this book judged entirely by Tess's courage, it would be a masterpiece. She sheds plenty of tears, but she's no wilting flower. Each time she makes up her mind to do something--fight, flight, fight again--she follows through, fearlessly. I only wish she were more consistent in her crusades. And I wish there was more dialogue with Q. He isn't given enough time with you to develop his psychological position. The Epilogue offers the first and only Q headspace, which is a broad summary of the story in his POV.
Overall, it's an entertaining, brooding tale with some memorable moments. I recommend to romance readers looking for a soft psychological thriller with a few well-written sex scenes.