Well hello Ms. Feehan and welcome to the dark side, er Drake side.  I like that she is taking her series to an edgier, more rated R version for her readers.  I  like when authors do this as long as it works for the story,  *ahem- J.R. Ward’s Vicious book, not so much. Now, if I was a reader that hadn’t been exposed to some edgier, erotic romance stories, this book might have shocked me a little more.  I can understand some readers might even be holding their hand to their heart in some scenes, but as long as I don’t need to seek therapy, I like the emotional roller costar a well written book takes me.

 Elle is the youngest 7th Drake sister and the most powerful.  Elle has gone undercover to find out who is    behind   human trafficking assumed to be run by Stavros (Greek ga-gillionaire).  Stavros kidnaps Elle and takes her on a psychically blocked island where she cannot escape the violent torture Starvos inflicts on her.  Folks it gets graphic. Back at Sea Haven Jackson Devaru has been in love with Elle since she saved him from his violent torture at a POW camp, he’s kept from initiating his feelings for Elle due to his past. Jackson is able to psychically connect with Elle and urges her to stay alive (very Last of the Mohicans) no matter what is done to her and he will find her.

*Mini Spolier————————————————————————————————————————–

This book does contain some torture and rape scenes, like I said, rated R.  I do want to place a disclaimer here that although the book contains ‘mature content’, it truly was not the emotional beating that some are portraying it to be. Yes the heroine experiences some traumatic events but it’s not is such gruesome detail that makes it too graphic to read. I was a little shocked how negative a lot of reviews and comments were made regarding Elle’s kidnapping.  
 

Feehan’s previous Drake books were a bit more pg-13 and while I half-heatedly enjoyed them, I couldn’t help but feel they were a tad lack-luster in certain areas. (Very harlequin romance’esque.) This last Drake sister’s book is a more mature read and I was not turned away by the content. I give credit for Ms. Feehan’s chutzpa to start off with a bang and truly step out of her comfort zone. All that aside, I do agree with the criticism that if you are going to have your main heroine overcome such atrocities the likelihood of her wanting to jump into bed with someone does seem a little far-fetched.   My only real critique is that if you are starting your story off with a bang, it’s important to keep the momentum of that energy throughout the rest of the book. The book seemed to become a little stagnate once the heroine was rescued and spent the next 100 pages or so having the same argument over and over again. The dialogue dragged and so did the action,  I hate to say that because I really want to give this author props, but I felt it needed a bit more cohesion.  That being said, I still recommend this book and I like the direction that Christine Feehan is going.  This is not for the faint of heart, but isn’t that why we read paranormal romance…?

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