Dear A. –
I am writing to express my gratitude for your gift. There are no sufficient words, but please accept my sincerest thank you.
Yours,
R.
She writes me back.
I didn’t expect that.
She tells me she’s a lover of chicken pizza and video games, a hot sorority girl with the nickname Sloth. She wants to know something about me in return. She says I owe her.
This is how she saves my life. She doesn’t even know it. We’ve never even seen each other. But I need a reason. Just one reason to continue. She becomes mine.
The anonymity is good. She doesn’t need to know me, but I need her kindness. We both live our lives: a letter here, a post card there. For three years, I escape my demons. And then one day I’m pulled back in.
I’ve resigned myself to what I know is coming. Until the girl I’m spanking gives her safe word: Sloth.
And then the lie I’m living starts to unravel.
I am writing to express my gratitude for your gift. There are no sufficient words, but please accept my sincerest thank you.
Yours,
R.
She writes me back.
I didn’t expect that.
She tells me she’s a lover of chicken pizza and video games, a hot sorority girl with the nickname Sloth. She wants to know something about me in return. She says I owe her.
This is how she saves my life. She doesn’t even know it. We’ve never even seen each other. But I need a reason. Just one reason to continue. She becomes mine.
The anonymity is good. She doesn’t need to know me, but I need her kindness. We both live our lives: a letter here, a post card there. For three years, I escape my demons. And then one day I’m pulled back in.
I’ve resigned myself to what I know is coming. Until the girl I’m spanking gives her safe word: Sloth.
And then the lie I’m living starts to unravel.
I whirl around, because I need to go now. Need to run.
He grabs my arms, snatching me around to face him, holding me in front of him. Holding me still as he tries to tell me things I never want to hear.
"Stop it! Shut up! Shut up, Kellan! Fuck you!" He pulls me closer, and I slap his face.
The sound echoes through the foyer. His smooth, tanned check stains brilliant crimson.
He doesn't move a muscle. Doesn't even blink as I look at him for what I know will be the last time.
I'm sorry. His lips move silently. I don't care. I can't. His secrets ruined my life. He ruined my life!
If I live to be hundred, my heart will never be the same.
He grabs my arms, snatching me around to face him, holding me in front of him. Holding me still as he tries to tell me things I never want to hear.
"Stop it! Shut up! Shut up, Kellan! Fuck you!" He pulls me closer, and I slap his face.
The sound echoes through the foyer. His smooth, tanned check stains brilliant crimson.
He doesn't move a muscle. Doesn't even blink as I look at him for what I know will be the last time.
I'm sorry. His lips move silently. I don't care. I can't. His secrets ruined my life. He ruined my life!
If I live to be hundred, my heart will never be the same.
NOTE from author: Sloth
is an erotic romance. It’s a dark mystery, so if you’re sad, read
another book. This one is real, and hard. Not that kind of hard. (That
kind of hard, too). Consider yourself warned.
P.S. The book ends on a beach. That’s all I’m saying. As for an HEA, you’ll have to read and see.
P.S.S. Sloth is long—about 500 pages. It was supposed to be short and quick. Instead it’s a behemoth that consumed its author for six months.
P.S. The book ends on a beach. That’s all I’m saying. As for an HEA, you’ll have to read and see.
P.S.S. Sloth is long—about 500 pages. It was supposed to be short and quick. Instead it’s a behemoth that consumed its author for six months.
Sloth is an excellent reading adventure that everyone needs to take. Before I continue I want to reiterate the
author’s comment. Don’t start this book
if you are not in the frame of mind to be crushed emotionally. Trust me you will go down a steep hill right
into the pits of despair. That said it
is worth the ride if you can handle suspense, romance, angst, tears, and joy.
First let me take a minute to thank Ms. James for not going with her
initial idea of releasing this story as a series. I don’t think my heart or my head could
handle the wait between each installment.
Now onto my comments about the story.
The story is divided into three parts.
Part I starts with a quote from Edgar Allen Poe “I was never insane except
upon occasions when my heart was touched.”
Then continues with a series of letters between “A” (Sloth) and
“R”. R initiates the letters with a
thank you note for a gift. At this point
we don’t know the connection between Sloth and “R” but the letters are important
to the story.
Sloth and R send a series of letters, well notes really, back and forth
from October 2011 through August 2014. They
remain intermittent pen pals while the reader gets to know a little about each
other. (As an aside, I read on my phone
using the Kindle app. If you aren’t
using a Kindle device download the app to your PC or tablet. I had to use a magnifying glass as they are
actual hand written notes scanned into the book. The phone app doesn’t have the
enlarge capabilities that the actual Kindle has so reading some of the letters is
little frustrating.)
After the letters we jump into the life of Cleo Whatley. She is a young college girl from the poor
side of the tracks. She is smart,
attending a private college on a scholarship, however she doesn’t have any
spending money. Cleo needs spending
money because she likes to buy designer clothes and the nice things she never
had. Most jobs available to her don’t
give her the cash she need so, to reach her goals, she becomes a successful
marijuana dealer.
Enter Kellan Walsh the student government president. He is an anti-drugs rich kid who makes a
point of writing editorials against drug use and illegal sales. He has the ability to make Cleo’s life hell
and can get her expelled. Kellan comes
up with a proposition for Cleo to continue to earn money and work with
him.
Cleo is skeptical but doesn’t see any way out. She needs to stay in
school and she needs to help her family at home. As Cleo and Kellan spend more time together
they connect with one another. Cleo is
falling for her former adversary and she knows they both have secrets that they
aren’t sharing.
I fell in love with Cleo from the start. She is the type of woman that I can call my
friend. She is strong and doesn’t let her
past and misfortune stand in her way.
Kellan, on the other hand, I didn’t like at first. He was creepy and entitled but oh does he
grow on you.
“You’re almost just like me, Cleo. But you’re the good version. You’re
the version people want to take home, and to bed.”
Part II is the coming together of the main characters. Here Sloth unravels their secrets one by one
and during the process the reader is held hostage to a wide array of emotions in
a way that I can only liken to an emotional kaleidoscope. With each turn of the page my emotions formed
a new pattern that settled in my heart, stomach, head or combinations of all
these.
“he cuts the lights and turns toward me and grips my face so hard his
fingers maybe bruise me and he whispers: “It was always you.”
Part III is the best of the worse of the story. It is emotionally draining to the point that
I didn’t think I could make it to the end.
At one point I know I cried like a baby for at least fifteen minutes. The journey that this couple travel is
amazing and heart wrenching. It is a
very realistic look at people who are faced with their life and decisions that
we all need to make.
“His hand rubs over my hair as his voice rumbles near my ear. “Not
stupid. Tell me why you’re crying.” “It makes me sad that you were lonely.”
The epilogue is perfect. It
incorporates all the feels from the entire book and then some into this little
chapter. I know what I write here is
sketchy and vague but I don’t think it is fair to deny the next reader the discovery
of events of Cleo and Kellan on your own.
I thoroughly enjoyed this reading experience regardless of how many
times I cried and recovered. Isn’t that
exactly what a good writer can do for a reader create a story that puts the
reader right in the middle of the action so beautifully and completely that you
live with the characters stay with you even for a time after you read The
End? Ella James is a great writer and I
can still feel this story a week after reading it. And, as soon as I can handle all the ups and
downs again I’m going back to the beginning and reading Sloth again.
4.5 STARS
Amazon US:
Ella James is a USA Today bestselling
author who writes teen and adult romance. She is happily married to a man who
knows how to wield a red pen, and together they are raising two children who
will probably grow up believing everyone's parents go to war over the placement
of a comma.
Ella's books have been listed on numerous Amazon bestseller lists, including the Movers & Shakers list and the Amazon Top 25 overall; two were listed among Amazon's Top 100 Bestselling Young Adult Ebooks of 2012.
To find out more about Ella's projects and get dates on upcoming releases, follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ellajamesbooks and follow her blog, www.ellajamesbooks.com. Questions or comments? Tweet her at author_ellaj or e-mail her at ella@ellajamesbooks.com.
Ella is represented by Rebecca Friedman of the Rebecca Friedman Literary Agency.
Ella's books have been listed on numerous Amazon bestseller lists, including the Movers & Shakers list and the Amazon Top 25 overall; two were listed among Amazon's Top 100 Bestselling Young Adult Ebooks of 2012.
To find out more about Ella's projects and get dates on upcoming releases, follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ellajamesbooks and follow her blog, www.ellajamesbooks.com. Questions or comments? Tweet her at author_ellaj or e-mail her at ella@ellajamesbooks.com.
Ella is represented by Rebecca Friedman of the Rebecca Friedman Literary Agency.
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