Lillian never could have imagined being abducted and chained up in the dark. Worse yet, being just one of many girls kidnapped and held captive by a madman. All she can do now is hope that she survives the brutality of their captor long enough to find a way to free herself and her new captive friends.
When Richard Haines’ girlfriend goes missing, he makes it his personal mission to find the woman he loves and bring her home to the safety of their loved ones. Seeking the help of friends and family, Richard abandons everything except for his pursuit of Lillian. But when someone else close to Richard goes missing, and the bodies of the abducted girls start showing up in the hills outside Boulder, the only thing he can do is hope that he finds her before it is too late.
I am so impressed with this new author. She came out
of the gates with a powerful novel for the readers who enjoy a dark and twisted
read. She tackled the dual POV of storytelling and kept it consistent and
smooth. The characters in this story were very well developed and told
powerful yet distressing details of how they felt going through the nightmare
that greeted Lee and Richard.
The synopsis gives you a glimpse at what you are about
encounter with this plot. Lee and Richard are in love yet they haven’t
said those three little words yet. Lee runs track, using the sport of
running to keep her mind clear and stress level down as she goes to
college. One day she finds herself getting into the car only to wake up
in a cell like room. Chained to the wall she tries to figure out what
happen and how can she get back to Richard.
In this cell she meets the missing women of the college that
the community has been searching for. Eventually she comes face to face
with the people involved who are holding them. The author did a wonderful
job with giving us the scenes of abuse and torture but not with the amount of
details that you would normally expect in today’s writing. She proved
that an author can evoke an extreme amount of emotions from the readers with
great scene development and not drown the story in the details of
actions. I could feel the anger and panic of Lee as I read and was
grateful more times than I can count that I didn’t have to “see” what she went
through.
Another aspect to this book that is different from most is
we weren’t left having the loose ends tied up in an epilogue. She took us
past the horrific event and let us see how the characters recovered and dealt
with the “wheels of justice”. The emotions from the traumatic situation carried
over to the last 1/3rd of the book where we reached our
closure.
I was so impressed by her talent, especially being new to
the author career, but I can’t put into words the courage she had to tackle
such a deep and dark story as her first novel. This genre is my favorite
to read and I have pretty high standards as to what I expect when I open a book
of this kind. She met all of my expectations that I would have for a new
author of this type of story. Of course no book is perfect and I feel I
need to let the readers know that there is some predictability in this story but
after I finished it and thought about it, I am not sure she could have done
anything differently in the way she laid out her plot. The other issue is
the last half felt a bit rushed for me. I wanted to spend more time with the
characters and get a stronger feel for how they were dealing with what
happen.
Even with those two minor issues, this book blew me away and
I would strongly recommend it to any reader who needs more than a fluffy
romance to entertain them. I will certainly be watching to see what comes
from this author in the future.
Black Rose is a dark psychological thriller
that details the story of a college student named Lillian Locke and her
abduction by a psychotic sexual predator who has been kidnapping young women in
and around Boulder, Colorado. Now she’s one of a few women chained up in a
basement at the mercy of a man who sees her and the others as objects in his
personal harem. Lillian isn’t one to sit back and let someone control her
destiny. She gives hope to the other young women and fights back against her
captor. Will her desire to take him down be the solace and key to their
freedom?
Lillian’s strength of character really makes this story stand out. Her emotional investment in protecting the other women and her push to make sure their abductor and torturer gets exactly what he deserves created an emotional connection that had me completely invested in the outcome of the story. I cringed at the painful and dark moments but I also cheered every time Lillian pushed her captor’s buttons. While Lillian fights back her boyfriend Richard is on the outside doing everything in his power to find her. His determination and love for Lillian was heart warming as well as heart wrenching. I felt his helplessness and pain as he searched relentlessly for the love of his life.
Any good psychological thriller worth reading has a villain that keeps you on the edge of your seat and this storyline had just that. The villain in this storyline takes psychotic to another level. Every time he was in a scene I couldn’t help but shiver uncomfortably. I was biting my nails, holding my breath and clenching my jaw. This book was a page-turner with action and a fast paced storyline.
Lillian’s strength of character really makes this story stand out. Her emotional investment in protecting the other women and her push to make sure their abductor and torturer gets exactly what he deserves created an emotional connection that had me completely invested in the outcome of the story. I cringed at the painful and dark moments but I also cheered every time Lillian pushed her captor’s buttons. While Lillian fights back her boyfriend Richard is on the outside doing everything in his power to find her. His determination and love for Lillian was heart warming as well as heart wrenching. I felt his helplessness and pain as he searched relentlessly for the love of his life.
Any good psychological thriller worth reading has a villain that keeps you on the edge of your seat and this storyline had just that. The villain in this storyline takes psychotic to another level. Every time he was in a scene I couldn’t help but shiver uncomfortably. I was biting my nails, holding my breath and clenching my jaw. This book was a page-turner with action and a fast paced storyline.
The
content is intense and gripping and may not be for everyone. However, while
some readers may find some of the scenes too intense the intensity paints a
visual glance into the mindset of the characters and Thompson carefully
maintains the integrity of the storyline without exploiting the graphic nature
of the material. Every word felt necessary in order to build up the story to a
satisfying and truthful ending.
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Kris Thompson is a veteran of the US Navy and single mother of three. When she’s not knitting scarves, chasing her children around or baking, you’ll find her enjoying a good book or writing down notes for her own upcoming stories. Writing has been a passion for Kris for many years, and seeing those stories printed on paper is a dream come true.
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