Story has been revised and lengthened. Upped my rating from 3.5 to 4.5 stars.
A well written dark fic in which Russian Misha tortures and rapes captured American soldier Jensen.
Too tired and confused to write something sensible. I liked some parts of the story and disliked the others. The hero was scary as hell. The heroine's tears actually turned him on. And he hugged her when she really needed it. And he liked knives. And he drove nine hours to save her from a bad situation. And he was such a sweetheart. And a total bastard.
I believe this book goes to the "mindfuck" category.
I have a weakness for mountains and cabins and the pictures of Colorado mountains always leave me breathless. You can already guess that I liked the setting a lot. As in a lot.
Cassidy was a great character. She was independent, hard-working, and fearless. She loved what she did and to my relief she wasn't obsessed with clothes, shoes, jewellery, or makeup. She wasn't a kickass like Sylvie, but she also wasn't a doormat like Anya and Hanna. She was confident and knew what she wanted and also went after it with all her passion.
Deacon was cold and mysterious at the beginning, but attentive and caring when they started their relationship. You have to love the man, who cleans the gutters without you nagging endlessly about it. After Grant, who had so little page space, but turned out to be the biggest asshole, Deacon was like a breath of fresh air. And this man had a past. I was sobbing like crazy while reading about it.
Now about the story. The fist half of the book was amazing. I liked the pace of the story, how it flew and gave me time to enjoy getting to know the main characters. I liked to read about Cassie fixing the cabins and laughed when every time John Priest came back, the price of the cabin had gone up. The sex scenes were emotional and you could feel the bond between Cassie and Deacon. I also enjoyed their banter and the way they discussed things.
The second half of the book wasn't so enjoyable any more. There were too many sex scenes and they started "playing" in the bedroom. After that vanilla flew out of the window and all these numerous scenes were about bondage, spankings, and anal sex. The storyline somehow disappeared, I couldn't feel the emotional bond anymore. I started skipping sex scenes again. The only likeable things were that they "played fair", so Cassie wasn't the only one tied to the bed and both main characters accepted the other as they were.
Am I disappointed I read it? No. Am I going to reread it in the future. I don't think so. But I'm looking forward to reading Nick's story and I hope that there is more about Marcus Sloan and Daisy.
Oh, by the way, the scenes in a supermarket, I can totally relate to.
Way too long again. I liked Creed but loved Sylvie. She was a tough broad.
It was annoying that author didn't show the things but just said it happened. The only scenes she actually showed were sex scenes. Finally I started skipping those. I wanted more of a story - Sylvie's relationship with her friends and Knight and Creed's with his children.
This book needs serious editing, but the storyline and characters were really good.
About the plot:
500 years ago Tornian emperor did something so awful their Goddess cursed the whole race. As a result less and less females were born. At first it was celebrated because Tornians were warriors, but then they realized something needed to be done to prevent extinction.
So, nowadays females are protected at all cost. There are Joining Ceremonies where females can choose the warrior they want to join with. There's no love or affection, just things male has to give, so that his bloodline could continue. After the birth warrior gets the child and the female can leave to choose another male, who has enough wealth to give her things she desires.
Things change when a compatible race has been found and twelve unprotected females are taken. Yes, you guessed correctly. The women are snatched from Earth.
Lisa is a widow with two small children, who is taken while visiting her husband's grave. When she wakes in a spaceship and the other women find out that the aliens separated mother from her children Tornians have a mutiny in their hands. But then a scarred warrior Grim, who is actually a king and emperor's brother, offers to retrieve Lisa's children if the woman is ready to join with him. Lisa is not stupid. She knows these bastards will never release her, so, she accepts Grim's offer, when the warrior promises that he will be the only male she has to join with.
But there are several problems - because of his scars no female sees Grim fit and worthy to join with. Tornian females think that because Grim got scarred in a battle, he is not capable of protecting them. Therefore, Grim taking Lisa and her children is against the law and brings a heap of problems in its wake. And of course, Lisa's children are daughters. Something Grim discover not until he goes with Lisa to get the children. Now Grim has three females in his care and there a quite a lot of males in Tornian, who see it as a big mistake.
My thoughts:
The story was fast-paced, exciting, and even though there were some obvious turns in a plot, it never got boring. It had a fairytale or historical romance kind of feel - living in castles, training in fields. But the story was also about the empire - its history, technology, and achievements. The more I think about it, I guess, I would say it was steampunk in space? I also wouldn't categorize it as an erotic romance. Sure, there was sex in the story, but it was never as explicit as in other alien romances I've read. It's definitely an adult romance but not an erotic romance.
I liked how bright Lisa was. She had a lot of spunk. Her daughters were just charming. It was so much fun to read what these three brought to Grim's life. At times his confusion was hilarious, but always sweet. Lisa and Grim had quite a lot of misunderstandings but the author never let them drag. These main characters actually communicated and solved their problems.
All the secondary characters had their own voices and I hope some of them are going to get their own stories. The villains had quite a decent plan and action scenes were great.
I really want to give it 5 stars, because the story actually deserves it, but I can't because of the countless typos. The editing was non-existent.
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