His name was Joshua Carter. Now it's whatever she wants it to be.
She is a Deliverer.
She lures young men and delivers them to be sold. She delivers the strikes that enforce their obedience. She delivers the sexual training that determines their purchase price.
As long as she delivers, the arrangement that protects her family will hold.
Delivering is all she knows.
The one thing she can't deliver is a captive from slavery.
Until him.
And her stubborn slave thinks he can deliver her...from herself.
Romantic Thriller
Stand Alone (no cliff-hanger). The sequel is coming Summer 2014.
Content warning: Graphic sex, violence, and psychological abuse. Age 18+ only.
I never knew where this story was
going to take me, but I can promise you each twist and turn was worth every
second I put into reading this book. It will be difficult for me to write
this review because I just want to talk and talk about this book, but you need
to experience each moment for yourself so you can really get into the story and
live it through the eyes of Liv and Josh.
Josh Carter is a college student,
studying to become a pastor to fulfill the promise his parents made to
God. He is a farm boy, only child and star football player for Baylor
University Bears. He fits the description that Liv is looking for, a
strong handsome young guy, virgin and one who should be easy to break
mentally. What she doesn’t expect is his compassion and determination to
see the good in people, even those hurting him. He has a few lessons he
learns about himself as well in this story. He finds that there are times
the Bible doesn’t give you a solution for the dire situation you end up in and
two, he learned he was living his parents dreams not his own.
Liv was kidnapped when she was a
teenager, taught to be a slave and then later taught to be a Mistress.
Her role in life now is to find the kind of person the buyer wants, break them
down and build them to be the proper sex slave for the buyer. She had
already done this a few times and she lived with the man who had kidnapped her,
Van. They have a complicated and confusing relationship going. At
times I couldn’t stand Van but then he would show how much he really did feel
for Liv and I would have to start liking him again.
Van was rescued from a meth house as
a kid by a man named Mr. E. He in turn ran the sex slave business for Mr.
E and treated him like a father. His loyalty was confusing at
times. I wondered on more than one occasion if it wasn’t more fear than
loyalty but by the end of the story I was given the answers and was totally
blown away by it.
These three characters can be
confusing at times. Why did Josh not harbor any anger towards Liv for
kidnapping him and doing horrible things to him, while his parents are
suffering with the question what happen to their only child? Liv opened up to
Josh rather quickly but then after seeing the whole story she was about to break
in the first place and he gave her the safety to finally confess her past and
who she was protecting. Van had his moment to shed light on his real role
in this business and dang it he made me adore him even after all the horrible
things he had been involved in.
This book takes you on an emotional
roller coaster and you can’t ever settle into your assumptions and feelings for
the characters. Just when you think you have it figured out a new angle
appears and totally destroys your beliefs you had just pages before. I
loved this book. Yes it is a bit dark and twisted but the writing was
never so extreme that I cringed and had to pause to catch my breath. It
was very well done for anyone who wants to take a look into the dark and twisted
minds of humans but don’t have the stomach for the full version of
darkness. I look forward to reading more of her books.
I love dark and twisted books so I
was sucked in from the awesome synopsis on this book and boy did it
deliver!!
Liv is the deliverer. She is a
captive herself but she trains new captures to be sex slaves for buyers. I
don't want to give any part of the story away but I will say that she is an
extremely complex character and you won't know how it all unravels and make
sense till the end. Lots of unforeseen twists and turns with the young,
tortured lady.
Joshua is a home grown, good ol'
boy.... but he has a dark side that he was afraid to express or really think
about till he is taken from all that he knows. Instead of hating his
punishments... he likes them even though he is a virgin who has no experience
with such things.
Such a great dark story with many unforeseen
things I can say I was surprised many times throughout this very well written
story. Can't wait for more!!
On
his back, muscles bared, bound, and stretched the full length of the box, he
was an erotic picture. She was a criminal, and as ashamed as she was by that,
the disgusting, fucked-up part of her anticipated spending the next ten weeks
touching every inch of this man.
She
dragged her gaze from his body to his face, and guilt slammed into her.
He
stared up at her with so much pain in his eyes. “Don’t
hurt my parents.”
Her
gut twisted. She knew that pain, lived it every day. She leaned in, lips
hovering a breath away, and repeated what Mr. E had said to her. “That’s up to you.”
Resolve
hardened his face. She knew that emotion, too. Her time in the box was
permanently carved in memory, which had made Van’s
threats of returning her there an effective form of control in her training.
Tendrils
of resentment coiled around her throat. To dwell on her or the boy’s predicament would only bring irresponsible hesitation. So
she did what she always did to distract her thoughts.
She
reached into the cold place inside her, searching for something yearning she
could sing with dispassion. The beginning verses of “What It Is” by Kodaline fell past her
lips and shivered through the room. She sang with an icy pitch as she removed a
blindfold from the trunk by the box and tied it over his wide, glaring eyes.
To
deprive smell, a swimmer’s nose plug went on next. He could
breathe through his mouth, and the cracks in the box allowed airflow, but it
wouldn’t feel that way to him once she shut the lid.
The
skin on his face was hot and damp, the muscles beneath jerking against her
fingers. She continued to sing as she cuffed headphones over his ears, plugged
them into the tablet outside of the box, and activated the timer. Twenty
minutes of heart-hammering silence.
The
music in her voice strangled, stopped. Twenty minutes alone with his thoughts.
Then the misery would begin.
“It’s just the way it is,” she
murmured with an ache in her throat.
His
body was motionless, but she didn’t
miss the goosebumps creeping across his skin or the slight tremor in his
cheeks. The sudden desire to comfort him drew her closer, bending her at the
waist, until her mouth brushed his, softly, unjustly. His lips pulled away in a
quiver that she felt throughout her body.
She
straightened and rubbed her breastbone, unable to soothe the ache beneath it. “I’m so sorry.” A whisper, too low to pass through the
earphones.
Then she closed the lid.
Pam Godwin lives in the Midwest with her husband, their two
children, and a foulmouthed parrot. When she ran away, she traveled fourteen
countries across five continents, attended three universities, and married the
vocalist of her favorite rock band.
Java, tobacco, and dark romance novels are her favorite indulgences, and might be considered more unhealthy than her aversion to sleeping, eating meat, and dolls with blinking eyes.
Java, tobacco, and dark romance novels are her favorite indulgences, and might be considered more unhealthy than her aversion to sleeping, eating meat, and dolls with blinking eyes.
5 winners will win a signed copy of Deliver by Pam Godwin (Open International)
Fantastic reviews! Thanks so much for reading and participating in the blog tour.
ReplyDelete