Snap by Tara Dawn

SNAP by Tara Dawn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Writing: ★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★

Overall rating: 4.3

****4 "Crazy As Hell" Stars****

*This book contains scenes of drug use, rape, and brutality. It is intended for readers over 18. Reader discretion is advised.*

Okay I need to...

 

WOW! What a read! What a ride! Tara Dawn is a new to me author, and she can write dark and fucked up with the best of them. The warning above... and on the blurb? Heed it. Because the book has it all. In spades.

Hazel is a single woman who works at Maggie's, a bar/restaurant establishment. She works hard and rarely has any time off. But, she loves her job, and wouldn't trade it for all the days off in the world.

 

She is looking for a relationship, or someone to just spend some time with, and she meets Phil, goes on a few dates and realizes that he's not for her. She tells her best friend, Cady, that she is going to break off the budding relationship and on the forth and, in her mind, final date, things go horribly wrong.

 

She is beaten and raped, and wakes up with the blood, bruises, and scars to prove it, but has barely a memory of it; just snippets of what happened, but she knows it was Phil.

When Phil shows up at her job, and again becomes abusive, in steps Cash, the handsome stranger that was in the bar earlier watching her. Cash is her (dark) Knight in a sexy body armor, and looks delicious.

 

Cash is there for a reason, but we don't really know *what* that reason is. But we know it's not something good. Or is it?

This man is sexy, and even though he isn't there for a relationship, he can't seem to stay away from this damsel in distress. There is an instant connection between them. Like 2 halves of a whole that have finally snapped together, and he feels the need to protect her.

 

Cash knows something has happened to Hazel. Something bad. Something painful. And for some reason, he wants to help heal that pain for her. He wants to replace the bad memories with good ones, even if it's only for one night.

 

But that darkness remains, Phil is watching and lurking around. Cash and her friends Cady and Erick, no matter how much they try to keep her safe, that darkness just leaches it's way into Hazel's life.

 

And then there's the ending. Major cliffhanger. I hate major cliffhangers. Majorly. Hate. Them.

 

But I won't have too long too wait, since TAINT comes out next month (March 2016).

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Review: Darkness Follows by J.L. Drake

Darkness Follows by J.L. Drake

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★

Overall rating: 4.6

*****5 Creepy Jimmy Stars!*****

First of all I want to mention the cover of this book. It's the perfect rendition of what, in my mind, Emily looks like, and it really helped me to envision her throughout the book. Well done!

Darkness Follows picks up right where Darkness Lurks leaves off. Emily has been taken by Jimmy Lasko and he's got her gagged and ziptied to an old wooden chair. Emily is, naturally, frightened and is trying to calm herself when the door opens and a masked man walks in. But worse than that, there's a computer in the room, and it's broadcasting directly to Seth and the OPD. Seth and his co-workers can see and hear everything that is happening to Emily.

Seth is beside himself, and he blames himself for Emily getting kidnapped. If only he hadn't allowed himself to get to close. If only, if only, if only..

Days and days pass before Emily finally gets the chance to escape, and she takes full advantage of it. All she wants, all she thinks about, is getting back to Seth and his loving and protective arms.

*SCREEEEECH*

Not so fast, Emily. She gets back only to find that once again, Seth has pulled away. He's pulling the, "I need some space" card, and it makes me want to throttle him. He feels that if he hadn't let himself get too close, then he could have protected Emily better by not being distracted.

Emily during this time, kinda goes off the rails. She won't listen to common sense, she won't *use* common sense. Even goes so far as taking a mini-vacay at a spa.

Seriously, Emily? I found her to be very selfish and dangerous, and I worried that that combination was going to cause someone that she cares about to get hurt, or worse, killed.

Jimmy's creep factor is amped up in this book, just when you thought he couldn't get any more creepy, he does.

I can't go into too much about him in this review, there's just no way to do so and not spoil something for others. So i'll just leave it that you should definitely read with the lights on and the doors locked!

This book had me on the edge of my seat, biting my nails, and growling at Emily and Seth in frustration. But I wouldn't change a thing... well except for Emily's "brave side"... that got to be pretty annoying in the book, a bit overused. Other than that tiny little detail this book was over the top brilliant!

Oh, and the ending! I did NOT see that coming! Mind was officially blown!

This book, like book one, ends in a MAJOR cliffhanger. But, book 3, Darkness Falls, comes out on October 13, 2015! I'm hope this will wrap up this series, because...

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Review: Darkness Lurks by J.L. Drake

Darkness Lurks by J.L. Drake

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


*GASP*

*SHOCK*

Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★

Overall rating: 5.0

*****5 SHOCKED STARS*****

*GASP*

J.L. Drake is a "new to me" author, and I absolutely LOVED her writing style, the way she told this story. I could picture everything as it happened, I could hear the character's voices, I felt like I *knew* these characters. This was a real page turner for me! Couldn't get enough!

This book was dark and creepy, intense and suspenseful and I couldn't get enough!

Emily McPhee, there were moments in this book that I really just wanted to smack her and wake her the hell up. She just didn't listen or use common sense half the time. She is like the idiot girl that runs into the old abandoned barn on a dark rainy night, tripping and falling all the way, only to run right into the arms of the guy with the chainsaw. But she was loveably (yes, I'm making that a word!) clueless, and totally in love with Seth Connors.

Seth Connors, ahhhh, Seth, I really enjoyed this character, although, at times I felt like he listened to too many outside influences instead of his own head. Seth has been on the police force for a couple of years, he takes his job very seriously, and because of that, he tries to keep his feelings for Emily purely in the friend zone.

Jimmy Lasko, this guy was a Grade A, Class One, psychopath. One of the scariest and most disturbed I've read about. He's sick and twisted and Ms. Drake writes his character so well and so believable that I actually sit up and take notice of things that go bump in the night!

Jimmy is obsessed with Emily. Over the top, creep factor to the inth degree! He wants her, and he means to have her. He stalks her constantly. It's his stalking that alerts Emily to something not being right when she starts hearing noises in her house.

Seth, who lives next door, encourages Emily to get a roommate, someone to be an extra set of eyes and ears and hopefully a deterrent to anyone meaning to do her any harm.

She does interview a few people, but in her heart, she know that Seth would be the perfect roommate, and wouldn't that just be handy to have him living in the same house with her, even if he did only want to be friends!

But Seth does want more, he's also in love with Emily, but the protector in him, not to mention those pesky outside influences, knows that in order to keep her safe, he has to keep her at arm's length.

There are a whole host of characters in this book that fill in the story so perfectly. Everyone has a place, characters aren't just there to fluff things up.

Warning, this book ends in a cliffhanger, so have the second book, Darkness Follows, on hand to continue this brilliant series! I've definitely found a new author to love... and stalk for more books!

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Dark and Totally Twisted!

Obsession: Girl Abducted by Claire Thompson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**Warning Extremely Dark Non-Con**

What the hell did I just read? I loved it, I hated it, and I wanted more of it.

As of late I've been exploring more of the darker non-con books and then I happened on to this one. Yeah, I wanted dark, and I wanted non-con and I got exactly that and more. This is a very hardcore dark non-con read that starts with abduction and is non-stop torture. All very explicit and aggressive. And one of the most graphically disturbing books I've read. And the best part? It was plausible and very believable.

Mark is one twisted individual, obsessed with a BDSM porn star, Emily. He's watched her for years, has all of her movies and has stalked her enough to know her daily routines, her family, friends and where they all live, and he has a plan to finally make Emily his.

Mark kidnaps Emily and takes her home where he completely breaks her down and makes her his slave. But it's the way he does things that will totally twist you up, make you think you can't read another page but at the same time you can't look away. That is exactly what this book did to me. I could not stop reading.

This book is full of degradation, humiliation, and heavy S&M to include water sports, forniphilia, bondage, rape, branding, piercing, sodomy. All manner of whips, floggers, canes, and suspension hooks. Oh my! And let's not forget the cage in the closet.

The total mind bender in all of this is how the author actually made me feel for Mark at the end. What? Really? Not only was my mind twisted up by the end of this book, but so was my heart.

This book left me wanting more. An epilogue would have been nice. A "One Year Later" type of chapter.

Story Concept 4 Stars
Writing 5 Stars
Believability 4 Stars
Character investment 5 Stars

Average of 4 Stars for this book.


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