Rating: 5 WTF stars
This was my second time reading this book and if you have never read it you will be constantly thinking WTF?!?!?!?! It is an intense, dark, and emotional book that will spark in you a lot of questions and feeling within yourself and it will make you second guessing your sanity–often. With that said I absolutely fucking LOVE LOVE LOVE this book! It is a dark read with a good amount of violence in it.
The two main characters are Livvie and Caleb. Caleb has been looking for the perfect girl to help him fulfill obligations he has to his (for lack of a better word) mentor in avenging his family. Caleb has been watching Livvie and she is oblivious to this–he’s been observing her and from her actions and reactions to certain things he decides she possesses the traits he needs to help him in his mission. Once his decision is made he arranges for her to be kidnapped and brought to him. Livvie’s life changes forever on that day.
She wakes up beaten, blindfolded and tied to a bed. She thinks she is alone but her captor is waiting for her. He then begins the process of stripping her of everything: clothes, dignity, her name and continues his torture by playing one hell of a mindfuck on her emotions and her heart. He needs to train her to become the perfect pleasure slave so that he can gain access to the Flower Sale and come face to face with the person who is responsible for all of the misery of his mentor and fulfill his debt. In the course of his “training” he repeatedly beats, tortures, and breaks away pieces of Livvie’s spirit.
However, in the course of all this something begins to happen and Livvie finds herself wanting, needing and craving Caleb’s touch, affection and his small bouts of kindness. She doesn’t quite understand it and just adds a layer to the total mind fucking she is receiving. Livvie is not the first pleasure slave he has trained and has worked hard to gain his reputation–which is what is getting him access to the Flower Sale–but he begins to feel something for Livvie. We learn some interesting and disturbing facts about Caleb’s history in the book and explains a bit why he is the way he is. He has never ever felt anything for any of his previous slaves–not sympathy, not sorrow, not remorse and definitely not guilt–nothing so when he begins to show that he has some feelings for Livvie you can tell that he is conflicted and trying hard to fight them.
Here is some of my favorite quotes from the book:
“The only thing my mind could focus on was his closeness. The intense warmth of his soft fingers press into my wrists. The clean, wet smell of his skin in the air around me. The invisible pressure of his gaze up me. What was this?”
“His touch was simple, but specific, meant to show me he could be like a lover, gentle, intimate, but also that he was a man unaccustomed to hearing the word no. Yes. I understood. He was a man, and I? I was nothing but a girl, not even a woman. I was meant to fall at his feet and worship at the altar of his masculinity, grateful that he’d deigned to acknowledge me. All this, from a simple touch.”
“He was my tormentor and my solace; the creator of the dark and the light within. I didn’t care that he would undoubtedly hurt me at any moment, right now; I just needed somebody to hold me, somebody to be kind to me, somebody to tell me exactly those words.”
(by C.J. Roberts)
The reactions from both characters when Livvie finally finds out why she was taken is just WOW! I won’t say anymore on that because the author does a fantastic job. However, again you will be questioning your sanity. This isn’t a book where the lines are clear and you have a decisive answer to things like what is good/bad; right/wrong, yes/no. By the time you get to the end of the book your reactions and feelings will be upside down and you when you reach the last page you will just sit there and say WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT????!?!!?
Thanks for reading my review!! 🙂
