Review: 3.5 stars for plot issues
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 7, 2014
This is not dark erotica - is a dark, fictionalized account about human trafficking. Not much really happens over the course of the book - girl gets stolen, gets raped repeatedly (although not very graphically), gets beaten up repeatedly (more graphically than the rapes), tries to escape, never gives into fate, finally gets out.I feel like the author never committed to whether this book would be gritty or glossy - it needed to come down more firmly to be a more compelling read.  The bad guys know Adeline is being looked for in a highly public way, but they keep her in Des Moines.  Nate, the head bad guy, is supposedly a very smart, well networked man - surely it shouldn't have taken him the many months it did to figure out selling her overseas would make his problems go away.  He also kept talking about the quality product he was pimping - yet he kept them in squalor, and sold them to sleazy people - not the high quality call girl service that would actually have fit his character as described better.  And everyone in the house was beautiful - both the men and women - except for the customers who were always gross.The romance was OK, but it was contrived to spur on the emotional boost that gave Adeline the courage to attempt the final escape more than anything else. Overall, the book was OK, but could have been stronger with an edgier plot.