4.5 Stamps
This
book is a very dark look at the world of human trafficking and the wicked
people who participate in this life. The
main characters are:
Ø
Susannah
a rookie FBI agent in her public life and a Domme in her private life
Ø
Jasper
Madewell, Susannah’s 18 year old neighbor, who loves her and she loves him, however,
because of his age she rejects his advances.
Ø
Tyler
Montague, Susannah’s FBI partner and mentor.
He also wants a personal relationship with Susannah but she only sees
him as a friend.
Ø
Victor
and Nicholas are the very bad and severely disturbed men who run a very large
human trafficking ring.
Ø
Travis,
Dante and Malachi are secondary characters who play a significant role in
Susannah’s life. They are her brother
and friends who see her through a very tough time in her life.
What
I like about this book:
It is important to mention
upfront that this isn’t a short one day read.
I spend a lot of time complaining about the trend lately of very short
80 to 100 page serials so I must applaud authors who take the time to give us a
full length novel and then some. This
book is approximately 600 pages so you get your money’s worth.
The Characters:
Love, love, love the
characters—all of them.
The characters are well
written and developed. The reader gets
into the head of each character to the point that you know what they are
thinking. You feel their joy and pain
during each step of their journey. The
“bad guys” are pure evil. There isn’t
any attempt to make them likeable in any way.
The reader is supposed to hate them and trust me you will. The support characters are perfect. They fill in the blanks so to speak and allow
the reader to understand the main characters more completely.
Susannah is my favorite type
of heroine. She is strong but
vulnerable. She hurts like anyone else
and, at the same time, draws on her inner courage to pull herself out of her doldrums
and fight.
Jasper is a super smart, very
attractive young man with a winning personality and he is tough. There are many times throughout the story
that you will cry for him both happy and sad tears.
The Storyline:
Any story with the underlying
theme of human trafficking is going to be dark and this definitely fits the bill. We see the human trafficking world from all
sides, law enforcement trying to track down and prosecute the scumbags, the
scumbags themselves, the victims, and the participants who actually purchase
and abuse the young people who are caught in this evil web.
BDSM is a real part of the
story. It shows the lifestyle as an
acceptable kink but then it also shows evil masquerading as BDSM in the
underworld. There are several times in
the book that I could feel my stomach rumbling when the evil made me sick.
The love story is
beautiful. Actually there are several
love stories running concurrently. The
one between Jasper and Susannah is lovely.
It is hard to say too much about this relationship without giving away clues
to the storyline that the reader needs to experience personally. The love story between Travis and Dante is
real and entertaining. I love these two
characters and how they lighten some dark moments in the story while still
showing their love for each other.
Gretchen, the surrogate mother figure, loves the eclectic group like
family.
The mystery or crime solving
and ending is very satisfying. I enjoyed
the twists and turns of the plot. There
are times where the reader is sitting on the edge of the chair full of
trepidation and biting ones finger nails.
The fear in the pit of my stomach during the last few chapters is tangible.
What
I didn’t like:
There are times that I found
myself waving my hand because I couldn’t picture some of the events actually
happening. Since these scenes are mostly
associated with the human trafficking and the law enforcement aspect of the
story, it was easy for me to give the hand wave because I don’t have any real
knowledge of this area.
I loved the ending but I
wanted a little more. I don’t know what
I wanted and I guess that is why it falls into an unclear area of what I didn’t
like. I need to stress that the ending
is a very good ending I just want more.
**
I haven’t read anything by Ms.
Grinder or Ms. McKinney in the past but I will look for them in the
future. In summary, this book is a good,
solid B+ for me. I like dark stories
with twists. My only caution is the
reader needs to know going in that you will cry and you will feel a lot of
anger and, thankfully in the end you will smile.
I received an ARC for an
honest review.
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