Review: I liked it but...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 26, 2014
Let me preface this by giving you a little info about each author. Dawn Robertson writes semi-dark stuff. She’s more of the weak girl posed as a strong woman being saved by the big, strong guy type writer. Lily White on the other hand, is full fledged dark. Her book Her Master’s Courtesan is so dark, that I am still trying to find the light, and I read it about two months ago. So I was interested in seeing how these two worked together.Eleni lost her parents to an overdose when she was young. Once she was old enough, she lost herself in alcohol and sex. She used those to quiet the voices that filled her mind each and every day.Gabriel has stalked Eleni from the first time he saw her. He lost his parents in a crash due to a drunk driver. He was in that car, he survived, but with scars all over his body. He hated Eleni. He hated her disease. It was her fault, in his eyes, that his parents were dead. So, he decided to do something about it.He kidnapped her. He broke her down. He beat her, he taunted her, he mocked her. He never once raped her. Why and how? Because she wanted it too.The voices in Gabriel’s head told him that she would never love him. She would never want him. He listened to those voices. He finally gave in and snapped. He was going to kill her.Overall, I have to give this book three and a half stars. I love both Lily and Dawn, I do. But I think they need to learn to meet in the middle when it comes to the level of darkness.For those of you that do not know what a “dark read” is, I’ll explain the best way I can. Dark reads are more centered around the taboo side of love and sex. They can range from sex slaves, to BDSM, to rape. Most of these will involve scenes that could trigger memories for those that have experienced the more horrible tragedies in life. I love them. I love dark reads. I don’t know why, but I just do.As I was saying, I feel like this book could have been a lot better with a heavier dark side to it. Lily already warned me that it wasn’t her usual style, so I expected that. Dawn doesn’t often write to the level of dark that Lily does. It had its moments though.I also really hated that the characters seemed to run around inside their heads a lot. Yes, Gabriel might be schizophrenic, it hasn’t been proven, but the runaround just seemed too much for me. And Eleni herself even admitted it. He was always hot and cold. Eleni, too, was giving herself the runaround. One minute she loved him, the other she couldn’t get away fast enough. My head couldn’t stop spinning.Now, there was some good in this. First off, depending on how you feel about the so-called “relationship” that Eleni and Gabriel have, the ending could be perfect. There was some light at the end of the tunnel. I can’t give it away, but yes, I kind of liked the ending… not really a big fan of Gabriel, though. I think he’s a dick.I can’t wait for more from Dawn and Lily. I know they will write together again, and I think that they can meet in the middle this time. But as of now, Lily has four works in progress and I know of one that Dawn is working on, so while I wait, I’ll be happily reading their new releases… which they need to hurry up with.