This is the second Selena Winters story I’ve read. The first was Carnival Monster. I also picked up Carnival Master, but after reading this one, I’m taking a break. I chose this one because I wanted to see how she handled the concept…and I didn’t like it.

*deep breath* I’m sorry but he kidnaps her, and she is terrified of him. But still attracted to him. But still afraid of him. Period. She tells him “stop” and “no” and that he’s hurting her, and he doesn’t stop. That’s r@pe. Sorry, but it it. (Actually, I’m not sorry for saying it.) It doesn’t matter if she later experiences pleasure and has an O. What matters is that she was terrified and tell him all the things we are taught to say to make it clear we’re not consenting. Again, doesn’t matter if he’s hot or that she ends up feeling pleasure. It is what it is, and it’s very clear what it is.

There’s several things I didn’t like aside from that.

* At the end of the story, Tilly somehow can run really fast. Fast enough to catch a woman who is not injured (Tilly is). This would’ve been believable if it was established that she ran track or something earlier in the story. But for all we know, she’s average at best with running and catches Veronica before the men do? I didn’t buy it.

* They bang each other immediately after catching Veronica. And I don’t mean that they realize they have more important things to do, like transport her somewhere and deal with her. Nope. They bang right there. In front of Ty and Veronica. I get have s*x after an intense situation, but right then and there? I couldn’t her behind that.

* Tilly is suddenly okay with m^rder and watching Phoenix commit m^rder and is no longer afraid of his darkness after being kidnapped away from him (pretty briefly) and cut with a kn!fe all because Veronica, Phoenix’s foster mom, wants to get back at Phoenix. Her having a slow transition to that, if a different tactic to why he kidnaps her (which I lay out below) would’ve made this more believable.

* Phoenix put a microchip to track her under her skin, but we don’t see this, and she never notices the scar he shows her or a fresh cut, no matter how small, or a bandage or feel anything?

* Veronica…she feels like an excuse to add something other than r@pe to the story, something to try to show us why Phoenix is the way he is, and to try to make it make sense when Tilly falls for Phoenix. We should’ve been introduced to memories about her from the very beginning. Phoenix kept telling Tilly that he kidnapped her to protect her. It would’ve been so much better if Phoenix caught Veronica in his system while he was stalking Tilly and realized that Veronica was going to go after Tilly because of him. Then he takes her to protect her. Then it would’ve made sense, and he would’ve been able to prove it to her, get her to trust him, while also having some hot s*x that was not r@pe.

* Tilly feels so guilty that her loved ones believe she’s dead but doesn’t convince Phoenix that she loves him and can tell her loved ones she’s alive. She could’ve lied to her loved ones t and said she ran away from her old life, which is essentially what Phoenix wanted her to do anyway. She’s a pretty shitty loved one.

* This story could’ve been edited again. There is so much repetition with certain words and phrases (‘unease’ and similar wording was used over and over again in the beginning). Their thoughts are also repeated countless times.

* This is a pretty lengthy story for barely anything happening. Because of the content, I ended up skipping half the book to get to the end.

Not for me.