Review: Four Mindbending, Twisted Stars
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 7, 2013
Dude, if you want something seriously twisted and mind-bendingly hot at the same time, give this series a try. Fair warning, it's not for the light hearted. Don't go into expected to feel good. Like...at all.Taylor McAvay was basically doomed the moment she walked in on a highly covert operation in the woods. Pinned by a madman and a gun to her head, she should have known to run and run far when she got the chance. However, the intriguing Sebastian Baas extricates Taylor from his partner's clutches, effectively saving her life. Or not, depending on how you take the series.As it happens Sebastion, leader to a highly trained, extremely deadly team of deadly men known as the SKALS, takes an interest in Taylor that night and begins pursuing her. Taylor, for whatever freaking lunatic reason, agrees.What the hell did one wear to dinner with an uber scary sexy Special Forces type with killer eyes and an even deadlier partner?She was basically screwed from the get-go because once Sebastian sets his sights on her he will have her, no matter what it takes.And he is willing to go to any lengths. Murdering drug dealers that shoot up her apartment. Putting her Uncle and cousin away for setting her up to take the fall for their moonshine operation. He uses conditioning and manipulation to get her to behave a certain way. With his line of work either she does things the way that he says or she could get killed. Not only that, he has a serious temper and it's best just not to rile him. Like at all.Somehow, and I don't know how, she is able to find this domineering, abusive behavior attractive.An apprehensive tremble wormed through her as she touched her lips and wondered what it would be like to experience that kind of supremacy first hand, to be at his mercy, and feel the unyielding lines of his body press against her.In some kind of twisted, messed up way he loves her. And this is what really messes with me effing head. He doesn't hurt her to hurt her. It's more to keep her safe? But does he need to hurt her to do that? Is it the only way he knows how to get her to listen to him? I really don't know how to judge this part because it really messes with my head. I understand logically that he shouldn't hit her. Point, blank, period. But...he really isn't like a normal person so does that excuse his behavior?  Or has he just conditioned me, too? He's kind of crazy, but he's been trained and conditioned himself to be that way.He's definitely the definition of an antihero, that's for sure. And Adriana did a great job of messing with my head because it makes me doubt my own beliefs about abuse. Because he can be sweet as hell sometimes. Others he's a freaking dick. Like, 'have my dinner ready, woman!' I don't know. So confusing.Taylor just seems to go along with whatever he says. She has a few moments of fight in her, but she always agrees to whatever he says, which alternately pisses me off and makes me feel sorry for her. It's mind boggling. I don't get as much a sense of her as I do Sebastian. She's very doormat-y. Which I hate, but understand because he's so goddamn overwhelming.I'm giving it 4 stars because Sebastian is such a well-written, convincing antihero. I can't do 5 because of the things he does to her that I just cannot get on board with. No amount of convincing or danger could make me agree with the way that he treats her. The fact that this wasn't a DNF the first time he hits her is a testament to the ability of the author to convince me that he had a logical reason. Which is so messed up that I'm questioning my sanity. --->Hence the high rating.