Review: The premise is very disturbing
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 23, 2012
Just like several other reviewers of this book, I had to walk away from reading it several times before I could get it all down.  (And I have a seriously strong stomach for violence.)  This is rape.  There's no other word for it.  I've recently started reading BDSM books after never having gone beyond so-called "bodice-rippers" in my 63 years.  Flat-out rape is a legitimate plot device, but I find the conversion of the victim into a willing wife to be offensive. She fell into the hands of a predatory stalker, and she got gang-raped by him and his employees.  To have her then succumb to his manly wiles just makes her look stupid, on top of that.  I had thought better of the author.  I read Harlequin novels in 1976 where the "heroine" fell in love with her rapist and married him, but generally, those were written for very stupid women.Apparently times have not progressed much.  I've read a number of BDSM books lately where the characters are interesting and well-written, and where they make rational decisions based upon the actions in the stories.  Once she stopped biting the head rapist here, I stopped believing this story.I also second the mention in another review that the description of the device they built to hold her was inadequate.  Readers are not incapable of visualizing a device, if the description is clear.  In this case, it was appallingly unclear.  The author might as well have just said that they were using magic wands to hold her and move her around.  Additionally, I was greatly concerned with the eventual use to which the pictures of her were to be put.  It is all well and good to say that the five rapists "love her", but the pictures they took and posted on the wall of screens could both be used to destroy her career, and to send them to prison for years, had she chosen to be litigious, as she should have.  It kept distracting me from the story, every time that wall of screens was mentioned.  (What can I say?  I used to work in a law school.)The author is an intelligent woman.  She writes well, and she spells well, and she punctuates well.  Her prose is clear (although not her description of that device).  I gave her an extra star for having paid attention in English class.  And at two stars for content, I was being generous.  Rape is appalling, but understandable.  Falling in love with the rapists, all five of them, is not.  The other reviewers have mentioned the victim's deeply-hidden desire to be loved, and her Daddy issues.  More cliches.  Rape is rape.