Review: Intense
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 5, 2013
This is some brilliant writing. I went into this book with eyes wide open... you have to, because the content of the story most definitely pushes the limits of what's safe and sane. The content is disturbing, but wow what an interesting story.  I'm just at a loss for words on how to comment on this book because I still find myself shaking my head in disbelief on the events that unfolded.... and that's the work of a good writer.So you have Aquilla, a girl who is so loved by her father that he isolates her from the world, to protect her... from his sick criminal life.  Then you have Julius, the protective, much older brother whose bond with Aquilla is so deep and so strong that nothing can tear them apart... that is, until Aquilla starts to come into her own as a teenager and pushes all the rules and boundaries her father and brother have so carefully spent years building. She starts to discover the truth about her father's criminal activities, starts to question if she really is his daughter because she looks absolutely nothing like him or her brother, and she begins to let her guard down about her secret attraction to her brother.  And boy does she let her guard down... they both do.  It's pretty apparent by now that Julius is not her biological brother, and Julius has some pretty sick demons to wrestle with when it comes to sex... especially sex with Aquilla.  But their love for each other is deep and undeniable... and all too short-lived.Aquilla learns the truth.  Her father is killed, Julius takes off and leaves Aquilla to fend for herself at the mercy of the FBI who has just raided her home located on an island in South America somewhere.  Aquilla is in love with Julius who is now on the run. She's forced to travel back to the US to be reunited with her middle-class family who lost her 14 years prior after she disappeared.  She's mad and pissed off and wants nothing to do with this new family. She loved her old family, her old life, it's all she knew and she was happy.  As sick as the reality of her prior life was, I really felt Aquilla's pain.  And I really felt the pain of her new family who suffered 14 years not knowing where she was or if she were alive or dead.  Aquilla is very rebellious and I was convinced she'd give up and run away to find Julius. And as frustrated as her family was with Aquilla's resistance to them, and the disbelief that she would even have feelings for someone like Julius, they hung in there too.And then there's Julius. He's untraceable to the FBI, but if he tried to find Aquilla, he'd be caught and put in prison. I was so on edge and could not figure out how this would end on any sort of happy note. I mean the guy was pretty twisted on a few levels. II found myself so conflicted with him.  He's wrong on so many levels but yet, not evil... just a product of his father's sick lifestyle that he tries desperately to keep under control. In many ways, Aquilla redeems the part of his heart that is good.I was very pleasantly surprised how all the many details fit in to place in the end... I really wasn't sure it was going to happen.  It was such a good love story, not only between two lovers, but between new found friends and a new found family.