A review by gudzilla
Counsellor by Celia Aaron

3.0

ARC received from netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

Many of my GR friends enjoy this so I tried it as well. Generally I stay away from such dark topics and don't take pleasure reading of abusive relationships.



I could not decide whether this is awful than FSoG or not. In prior, Ana has choice whether to sign the contract or not and she chose to be abused where as in this, Stella doesn't have such choice and I can understand need for such circumstance. If given a choice, not single human being will show willingness to suffer as Acquisition. It is dark read, it is story of people who enjoy inflicting pain on others and get kicks out of it. It is truly horrible.

So, why give it 3 stars? Because writing is strong. It is compelling and unputdownable (don't roll your eyes, it is actually a word now). I really liked the writing style and finished the entire book in a single day. But I was disappointed not a single thing is answered in this book :(

Spoiler

I mean I really wanted to know - what happened to Stella's mother? Why Stella was abused by her own mother? how her mother died? why Stella tried to commit suicide? And what about Sinclair? Why this Acquisition is necessary? Why he is participating if he doesn't like that a single bit? What is story of his mother, who entered the same competition and won, few years ago?

My head hurts thinking of these questions -



Luckily new installment of Counsellor (Magnate), was also available on netgalley and I got it so I simply jumping onto the next one.