24690 by A.A. Dark

24690 by A.A. Dark

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


More reviews at Li'l Kit's Reviews.

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

Overall rating: 5.0

*****5 "Gory & Sadistic" Stars*****

"Everyone here was either slave, master, medical, or guard. Even the Attendants were slaves."

"Slave twenty-four-six-ninety was going to be mine. I had made sure of it."

I happened onto this book quite by accident and I'm so glad I did. This book puts me in the mind of Pepper Winters' Indebted series with the no holds barred darkness. This author holds nothing back in how black she paints the picture around these characters. The twists and turns just in the first half of the book kept my mind reeling. Just when I thought I knew something, I was wrong, every single time. That is probably the thing I loved most about this book, all the mind-fuckery.

Alaska Angelini writing under the pen name of A.A. Dark, is currently right up there with my favorite "Queens of Dark and Taboo". If you like true darkness, then this book is totally for you.

"I wasn't Everleigh anymore. I was no one but a dead slave, alive."

The main male characters, Bram and West, are the stuff nightmares are made of! Bram is the "Main Master" of Whitlock, a dark and sinister place where the rich and famous come to play. Anything goes between the Master's and the slaves. From purchasing one at an auction until they die either naturally or at the hand of their owner, the slaves can be subjected to all manner of deviant behavior from a simple slap to rape to flaying. There are no consequences, the slaves are nothing but toys to be played with, then discarded by death once they are broken.

Slave 24690 has been at Whitlock since she was kidnapped at 10 years old. When she came "of age" she was auctioned off and purchased by her first master. Outside of beatings, she was treated very well... until her master is murdered and she is blamed.

Bram took care of slave 24690 from the time she was 10 until she went to auction. He didn't touch her. He kept her safe, and in the dark recesses of his mind, he knew he held affection for her. But it was something Bram would never act on. Bram had sworn to never take a slave.

When Bram's father died Bram became the new Main Master of Whitlock. It was his, and everyone there worked for him. Period.

West was Bram's best friend from childhood. Where Bram was raised with a silver spoon lodged firmly in his mouth, West was not. Bram's father, seeing how close the boys were as children, as close as brothers, paid for West's education, and he became, pretty much, Bram's right hand man once Bram took over Whitlock.

West harbored a jealousy, however. No matter how good he was, Bram was always one step better. He kept the jealousy hidden, Bram was his brother, and the Main Master. Bram deserved West's respect.

As the story moves on, the darkness becomes a black hole that just sucked me in. Chapter by chapter. Page by page. At times the next frightening twist was almost too much, and I had to put my Kindle down, wrap it in a blanket, and put it under the bed or couch... afraid that what I was reading could jump off the screen and play itself out in front of me. That's how well A.A. Dark/Alaska Angelini writes. It's more than a movie playing in my head, it feels as if I'm right *there*>

From the blurb:

"***WARNING***
This book contains EXTREMELY disturbing situations, explicit sexual content, and very graphic language. This book EXCEEDS the dark genre and has been classified as PITCH BLACK. May contain triggers for some. Read at your own risk!!"

Consider yourself warned. But even *that* warning isn't enough to express how "Pitch Black" this book is.

There were times, towards the end that my mind drifted a bit.. there were a couple of parts that were unbelievable for me, and a bit redundant. But, they didn't last long and I was back in the house of horrors again. There were many editing and grammar mistakes in this book, but not enough to detract to much from the experience.

I was going to deduct one star from this 5 star read, but I couldn't do it! The book is too good! My gripe: The author makes no mention about this being the first in a series, not even a hint at that fact. So the major cliffhanger ending did not amuse me in the least. But I got over it! There is hope on the horizon with book 2, "White Out" being written. Keep up with the Author's Facebook page (and look for the YouTube trailer on her closed group page for White Out. It's amazing!).

Stay busy writing Alaska! You don't have any time for breaks, I need White Out! (oh and a blurb here on Goodreads would be nice so we can mark it as "To Read" and keep up with a release date!)

View all my reviews

Review: Wrath by L.P. Lovell and Stevie J. Cole

Wrath by L.P. Lovell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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


Overall rating: 5.0

*****5 "Evolve to Survive" Stars*****

Where do I start with this book? There have only ever been two books that brought tears to my eyes. This one did more than that, it made me cry, a really ugly cry, and I felt like my heart was shattering.

I was so wrapped up in these characters, the authors pulled me in and made me part of their lives. So much so, that when I got to 87% I actually had to put my Kindle down and try to breathe. It was late and I thought, "No. I can't do this." So even though I could have finished this last night, I had to stop and get my emotions in check. At the same time, I wanted to savor the story, stretch it out just a little longer.

When I started reading this series, I was expecting dark.. but Wrong only gave me little peeks into the dark here and there. But, Wrath? It threw the door open and drug me down in to darkness hell.

"I will never come back from this. Even if he doesn't kill me, I gave up my life for love. I just hope it was enough."

Joe is the personification of evil. While he was mainly quiet in the first book, he comes out full on twisted, sadistic, depraved and deprived. In complete monster mode, in this book. He is the stuff real nightmares are made of. His pleasure comes from completely breaking a person's mind, body and spirit before ending their lives. He wants his victim to beg him for death. And he *will* make them beg.

When Joe took Tor, she was his ultimate victim, the one he needed to completely destroy Jude. But he didn't really count on the love that Jude and Tor had.

Tor and Jude are finally reunited but Joe is still out there, and no matter how much Jude swears to keep her safe, can he really?

"It's like all the little pieces of my fucked up existence click into place. Evolve to survive, this is what I need to survive. Blood. Revenge. Wrath."

Revenge is Tor's driving force at this point. It's a what she needs to move on. It's all she thinks about, and she needs Jude to get on board with it, quickly, because now, more than ever the stakes just went up ten fold.

"She is the only thing in my life that has ever felt right. It's fucked up, and it's wrong, but I love her. She's fucking everything."

In the first book, Jude was softer. That changes exponentially in this book. He becomes a man with a mission, and that mission is to kill Joe before Joe kills them first. Jude doesn't love, it's not who he is. But he loves Tor, there is no doubt in his mind about that, and he doesn't even know how it happened. But it's that love that causes him to put everything on the line to find Joe.

"Holy fucking shit, when did Tor become so fucking violent? The fucked up part is that it's making my damn dick hard."

This book also broke up the dark with some really funny banter between Jude and Tor. It's made them real, it made me love them. It made me scared for them.

"Tor may be broken, but she's evolved, she's dark and deadly, and sexy as fuck."

As this book progressed, I kept looking at how much was left. I didn't want it to end, and I really kept thinking.. "oh, this isn't going to end well."

The story wraps up all the lose ends. The flow was perfect. It didn't feel rushed. This book is going down as my newest favorite "Dark read".

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Marney. I loved him. He was the perfect secondary character that held everything together. His story line weaved in and out of Jude and Tor's story. A piece of dark thread in a beautifully fucked up, tragic, tapestry entitled.. Wrath.

View all my reviews