Author: C.J. Roberts
Series: The Dark Duet #1
Publication date: August 29th, 2011
Pages: 277
ISBN: 9780615429502
Synopsis (according to Goodreads):
Caleb is a man with a singular interest in revenge. Kidnapped as a young boy and sold into slavery by a power-hungry mobster, he has thought of nothing but vengeance. For twelve years he has immersed himself in the world of pleasure slaves searching for the one man he holds ultimately responsible. Finally, the architect of his suffering has emerged with a new identity, but not a new nature. If Caleb is to get close enough to strike, he must become the very thing he abhors and kidnap a beautiful girl to train her to be all that he once was.
Eighteen-year-old Olivia Ruiz has just woken up in a strange place. Blindfolded and bound, there is only a calm male voice to welcome her. His name is Caleb, though he demands to be called Master. Olivia is young, beautiful, naive and willful to a fault. She has a dark sensuality that cannot be hidden or denied, though she tries to accomplish both. Although she is frightened by the strong, sadistic, and arrogant man who holds her prisoner, what keeps Olivia awake in the dark is her unwelcome attraction to him.
WARNING: This book contains very disturbing situations, dubious consent, strong language, and graphic violence.
When you have read as many books as I have you start to wonder what else is out there besides the traditional contemporary love story or Fifty Shades of Grey-esk BDSM novels. So I decided to delve into the depths of Amazon's Unlimited ebooks collection and see what I could find. This was one of those books that gave me pause and intrigued me to the point of adding it to my device.
Caleb is free of his horrendous upbringing now, but the anger and resentment that was placed in his heart has festered enough to warrant action. The man responsible for his torturous childhood is back and ripe for the picking. He just needs the bait essential to get himself close enough to strike. Despite the fact that he is hard-pressed to become the thing he despises the most he still gets an unwanted thrill from stalking his prey. He is slowly becoming the monster he is hunting, but the demand to keep going is too strong. The thirst for revenge is too great. He has to do what he has to do and that drive leads to the kidnap of Olivia from her school bus stop.
Olivia is the a-typical doe-eyed virgin who knows nothing about pleasure or pain nor how close the line between the two feelings is. Olivia does her best to rage against Caleb at every turn. He wants to break her and make her his submissive slave to do whatever he wishes; she will not break out of stubborn pride. However somewhere along the way Olivia's disgust over Caleb and his iron fist turns to desire and want. Olivia, while terrified of Caleb, also finds herself wanting to be closer to him and she suspects Caleb of also having to tamp down his growing protectiveness over Olivia. Will Caleb and Olivia's relationship grow beyond master and slave or will Olivia remain the pawn in Caleb's game of revenge?
I wanted to hate this book. I wanted to jump into it out of morbid curiosity and shut it 10 pages in saying, "nope". But for some very odd reason that makes me question my own sanity, I really enjoyed the read. Watching the characters struggle between what they have to do to survive and what they want to do for their own happiness made little troubles in my own reality a little less pressing.I loved that Olivia didn't just roll over and take everything Caleb threw at her even though she was extremely inexperienced and innocent. Caleb was the perfect amount of evil that left a shred of hope that he could be redeemed.
This book is fairly dark but not to the extent you would imagine. The darkest part is the taboo of Olivia being kidnapped to be trained for sexual slavery, but it wasn't a book that would make you cringe in its depravity.
Captive in the Dark toed the line of a very hard subject in today's society and romanticized it in a surprisingly believable way that made me devour the book in a single sitting.
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