A. J. Rose

I was really engaged with this one, until the mystery aspect and believability just entirely fell apart in the end. Suddenly the characters were idiots and things happened not because they made sense but just to finagle a particular climactic ending. Seeing the baddie way ahead of time (which I did) is one thing, but this setup was kind of baloney and really let the book down. I did like the romance though, and the BDSM aspect was handled knowledgeably and with respect which is great. So overall I'm giving it 4 stars despite the disappointing ending.

Days later and I'm still really ticked at the ending. It's like they just shut off their brains! It steals some of the thunder of their trials after, when I have such a strong feeling of 'None of this had to happen! You could have just *not* served yourself up on a platter directly to the villain!' Blarg! I get that it was part of the author's plan for them to end up where they did, but then the path there needed to be especially clever, and it just WAS NOT. The killer is someone BDSM *adjacent* you say? Like the unpleasant man who had actual appointments with all of the victims and has been acting strangely? Who his detective partner warned him against?? They know for a fact that the killer has been drugging the victims' drinks but then both leave their beverages alone with him?!? To even make the appointment in the first place like it just *could not wait* when they're actually in no hurry whatsoever... It's just all so much of a reach that all the reasoning is stretched to the point of transparency. *sigh* But, I liked the rest enough that I still can't lower the book to just middling. I just resent that that particular part, which was a big one, was so wonky and let down all the rest when it might have been amazing.… (meer)

I didn't like how contrived the last book ended, with the characters having to toss out all common sense in order to end up where they did, (otherwise I enjoyed the book though), so I could tell I felt a little less sympathetic to the characters recovering from that in this one. Not that people who do really dumb things deserve terrible consequences, just that it was very trying to watch them waltz right into that danger, and that exasperation just continued on with this long recovery. It just shouldn't have been necessary to begin with because it could have so easily been avoided with a tiny bit of common sense or precaution.

But, by the time the characters finally started leaning on each other again, it was easier to move past that frustration, and the book picked up. This case wasn't as engaging for me, but I appreciated the creativity of the characters to work around their limitations, so I still enjoyed the book above average.… (meer)

I feel like I have a pretty high tolerance for reading about evil and violence, but this was way more gruesome than I was expecting, even having read the premise. Almost every single page of the book takes place during what would surely be one of the most stressful and traumatizing events that could possibly happen to a family, and focuses on one of the worst crimes that exists. So it is wildly dark. It wasn't poorly written, and I did want to know how things would play out, but I also didn't really enjoy this one. Something agonizing would happen and I'd think, 'yeah, that *did* get very grim!' and then be surprised anew at some fresh horror later on. It just continued.

In the first book the main characters did something absolutely bone-headed and got into terrible trouble, and I remember feeling resentment about that. More that they brainlessly waltzed into the danger than that they actually ended up there. There's a similar setup in this one, and again, I don't believe the characters could reasonably make such a doomed choice, so everything after feels more like a needless slap in the face than it would if they'd ended up there somehow without having like, gone out of their way to dig their own grave first. *serious spoilers* All the captives would be saved if a single one of them made it out to bring help. Myah, with her police training and having been in better shape to start with, as well as being the only one not currently doped or inferm, definitely stands the best chance of getting out, thus saving everyone. That she would instead choose to hobble herself by trying to bring someone *barely able to limp along*, just dooms them all to terrible fates. It was excrutiating to know that and still have to watch that attempt, and it's consequences, play out anyway.

It would be one thing if it were her child or something, who would definitely be killed without a use to them beyond controlling her. But these boys *had* some worth to them (especially the one with a buyer lined up) so without her there to witness it, they were unlikely to be terribly harmed in the few hours it would take to call in the calvary.

I get why the author would want her to mount an attempt (she wouldn't be who she is if she just sat back waiting to be rescued), and why they might not want her to succeed at it (it would kind of invalidate all the work the others had gone through to find her if she just walked out on her own anyway), but there were so many other ways to achieve that result that wouldn't have required her to suddenly toss aside all reason.

That issue aside, I did like how tough Myah was, and the loyalty she inspired in those who cared about her. I would have appreciated some more of the recovery part after 300 pages of the trauma part, rather than just the tiny snippet we're given.… (meer)