I don't know why I waited so long to read this. Every book I have ever read by Erica has totally blown me away. They may take a minute to sink into them, or they may grab you from the first page. When you want sold storytelling, solid characters and a deep, dark theme where you cannot possibly guess the plot in advance, go to Erica Chilson.

This one is a past/present where Miranda is waking up in a hospital bed, she has retrograde amnesia, and spends the book slowly regaining her memories. Told in the first person, the reader knows what Miranda knows. We are questioning what is happening just like she is, and like her, we are dependent upon the other characters to tell us what is going on when her memories aren't supplying the answers. Although, by the end of the book - even much more before then, we learn everything. The horror of what happened to Miranda and her struggle to regain herself after the fact made for a great read.

She is the leader of a mafia family, and the book deals with her relationship with her husband, husband's brother, and cousin/lover (not closely related cousins). The abuse she experienced at the hand of her husband and his father. These revelations take place over time and the story is told as current things happening and the flashbacks they reveal. As Miranda regains her memory she goes through a lot of pain over what has happened to her that put her in the hospital to begin with.

This was an excellent book that I would recommend to anyone looking for a standalone with a solid story, some erotic and LGBT themes, as well as solid character building. A truly dark, erotic fiction. ( )