Review: Bound by B. Livingstone

Bound by B. Livingstone

Series: Lost Soul #1

Publication date: June 17th, 2022

Pages: 213

Spice: 🌶️

Synopsis:

Every story has a beginning.

Some just start off bloodier than others.

My story begins with the devil sporting a crooked halo over his horns,

heralding pain and punishment in the name of unjust penance.

Nurturing words turned into sour admonishments.

Loving touches morphed into colorful bruises.

I became his sacrificial lamb.

Offered to his right hand man.

Trained and conditioned.

Bound.

Or so they thought...

When a chance to escape presents itself, I take it, consequences be damned.

With it, a new beginning is forged, one where freedom isn't a commodity given out sparingly.

What could go wrong?

Everything.

A single choice brings about dire consequences.

So what happens when everything around me crumbles... again?

***

Bound is book one in the Lost Soul Series, and not intended to be read as a standalone. This is a slow burn novel that features three possessive, territorial, and psychotic men that will stop at nothing to keep the woman they claimed as their own safe... even if it means protecting her from herself.

Warnings: This novel includes substance abuse, sexual assault, violence, self-harm, parental physical and verbal abuse, swearing, PTSD, and sexual content suitable for +18 audience.

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Review:

Eden has known only pain, neglect, and abuse since the young age of five. Her father, under the misguided teachings of his religion, seems to take 'spare the rod, spoil the child' incredibly serious. Eden has had broken bones, concussions, and even the sexual abuse of one of her father's made men as all she knows for years. But she is finally ready to leave it all behind. In a daring escape after another brutal punishment that almost cost her her life, she runs away to the first bus going anywhere but where she currently was. That turned out to be Vegas. As Eden means a kindly old man on her journey she learns about his three foster sons who all are the apple of their father's eye. When she meets two of them she immediately feels herself drawn to them. But she has to disappear and getting tied to new people could threaten their safety more than she was willing to risk. As she ventures out on her own she finds herself desperately seeking employment and when only one option is available she takes it without thinking about the consequences. Those consequences make what her father put her through child's play and almost makes her long for his cruel punishments all over. But there is hope if she can only hold on to her sanity maybe she can be free, if her father doesn't track her down and find her first.

Poor Eden seems to never catch a break. She goes straight out of the fire and into the frying pan. How she doesn't have her mind crack sooner is beyond me. I would have been searing for the permanent exit immediately after I went from being trapped in one cage to another worst one. She has a fighter's spirit even if it doesn't present itself openly. She is pretty docile and meek but you can feel her determination even when she is lamenting on about how terrible everything is. And it truly is terrible. I kept dying wishing for her to find some peace and it just continued to get worse and worse. I don't know how any of them could stand it. I loved Eden as a character and I am interested to see if she blossoms into a badass in the future books.

I think the only drawback I had with the book was that it was exceedingly heavy. The subject matter was dark and the heroine was hurt over and over and over again. It was not quite in the realm of some of the darkest books I have read but there were times where I had to set the book aside, wipe the tears from my eyes and just shake my head at how hopeless I was feeling for Eden. That is the mark of a good book. It made me feel something and I devoured it in a single day and am already half way through the second. For a new author I have not read before, with a book that appears incredibly indie by the cover, I was pleasantly surprised by the overall appeal of the story and characters.