Review: 5 star romance - 5 star graphic violence
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 4, 2014
I just don't like when mixing the two. 662 pages of horrific violence, extreme PTSD and love that is infinite. Antoinette 'Toni' Vaughn was a attractive, confident woman, a successful educator, published author, a lifestyle of the country club set, horses and tennis courts, and could have any woman she wanted (and did). Toni was co-owner in a nightclub until she killed a man while protecting the woman he was assaulting. She is convicted of murder and is sent to prison where she is housed in the violent offenders wing. After 4 years of hard time her conviction is overturned. She makes it out a physical and emotional wreck, a terrorized, agoraphobic, bordering on suicide. In the two years since her release her only emotion has been fear. Her only remaining friend, Kris, visits her in the tenement where he lives and Toni eventually secures a position teaching where Laura MacLeod is now director.Laura is the director of education at women's halfway house in London, she educates convicts who have been paroled in hopes they can turn their lives around. Laura has been lucky in life, a steady boyfriend who she loves but knows it isn't a love to last a lifetime. Laura doesn't understand Toni until she sees the passion she has for teaching and is completely smitten, she pushes Toni to get her life back. However Toni has experienced such horrifying abuse, much more than you see in the most angst ridden romances, and much more than I want to read in a romance that I hesitate to call this a romance. It's more an epic journey of one woman's quest to guide another back to a life well loved and another woman's climb out of a pit of despair. Looking for a bit more info? Search 'Author Spotlight: Lyn Gardner' for an interview with the author and her inspiration.