★☆☆☆☆

Another dark romance! Yay!

I love that genre, so I couldn’t wait to start reading it. I was expecting a ruthless but sexy male MC, a clever and strong female MC, and a storyline that left me breathless and hanging on the edge of my seat.

What I actually got was a laughable pile of digested food.

The story starts with Jade (I think her name was that…) waking up in a cell, surrounded by more cells containing other women. She is confused and she can’t remember how she came to be there. A girl next to her informs her they’ve all been kidnapped by a human trafficking organisation.

“Where am I?” I asked, my voice dry and cracking, my irritation evident.

“Hell,” she said nonchalantly.

Now, the thing with Jade is, she is a bitch. Simple as that. I didn’t care for her once in the whole of the bloody book, even when she was being tortured or whatever. That makes me sound evil, but bloody hell, she was just so hate-able I just didn’t give a shit for her.

First of all, she’s a bitch to the fellow girls:

“So, what have you learned about this place?”

“What do you mean?” she asked me curiously.

I rolled my eyes. God, I hoped she wasn’t useless.

Uhm… alright, chill, not everybody is as clever as you 🙄

Then she starts kicking the metal lock (??) to try to break it (yes, good luck with that), and a girl, obviously, tries to stop her hurting herself:

“Won’t do any good. Most of us have already tried that.”

“Most of you probably don’t know how to kick properly,” I growled.

I mean, that was a bitchy comeback, right? It’s not just me, right? But wait, after she says that, this is her brilliant excuse for snapping like that to the poor girl:

I didn’t mean to insult her, but I was pissed to be in this situation, and rightfully so.

Like, come the fuck on! Those girls have been there longer than you, probably been through tortures you never imagined, and you dare say that you were justified to act like that?! Simply because you were kidnapped? Where’s your bloody empathy and humbleness?!

But God, she gets WORSE! How, you may ask? Well, at that moment in the story, some guards (the bad guys that are ‘staff’ in the compound where the girls are in basically) come inside the room, and some girls whimper at the sight of them. As a Psychology student, I understand that completely. But how does Jade-The-Bitch act seeing that?

All the girls who were awake staggered back into their cages, whimpering and attempting to put as much distance between them and the guards as possible.

Pathetic.

She. Just. Called. Them. Pathetic. For her, victims of human trafficking are pathetic. How in the ever loving God is this girl….?!!! I cannot… I just cannot explain the anger I felt at 3am yesterday night whilst I was reading this book. I swear to God I hate her, I really do. The gall of her to look down on them. She deserves whatever will come at her. And that was the moment I didn’t give a shit about Jade anymore and kept reading the book like I was reading a shopping list.

But as well as being a bitch, she’s also an arrogant bitch. And one of those types that are so insecure and immature that they always rely on violence. Because, ya know, Jade-The-Bitch is above using words like a proper, mature adult 🙄

This is how high she believes she is (and also how much better than other women she is):

No matter what situation I was in, I never showed fear. Never. I was not someone who was easily intimidated. While other girls might cower away in a corner, probably because that’s all they could do, I would stare the threat down, pick it apart piece by piece, analyze its weaknesses, and formulate a strategy to strike.

*YAWN*

And on top of that, we learn she has been driving bikes since she was 10 (???!) because her father made her do so (what kind of father….?) and she’s a martial arts master. Of-fucking-course she is. And oh! On top of that (like we need more) she’s from Law School, graduated in Psychology, had a minor in Political Sciences…. for fuck’s sake, I was dying of boredom on how fucking perfect and clever she was.

Lucky for me, I was big on fitness and worked my body to be strong and dependable, so my confidence was usually pretty fucking fierce.

I had to admit, my four pack was visible from a mile away. My biceps, though small, were rock hard, my shoulders defined, and my legs lean and powerful.

She goes on and on about how good she looks… when is it ending?! Nobody cares about that, this is a dark romance about human trafficking. Where are the emotions? The gloomy metaphors? The dark ambience? The everyday struggles of victims? This book only seems to be a pedestal for Jade-The-Bitch to shine on.

And lets add YET another virtue to her (because she never ceases to be amazing). Stupidness. Yep. Jade is fucking stupid.

Basically, the guards punish you whenever you do something they don’t like, one of them being talking back at them. And guess what Jade does? You guessed correctly! She talks back at them, curses at them, and then she gets all pissy and angry that she gets punished. Uhm… yeah, she’s stupid. Like, shit girl, you don’t really learn, do ya?

Oh, and did I mention already she a violent little bitch? Yeah, just wanted to stress it further:

[…]the very idea of someone thinking I was small made me want to punch them square in the face

You’re short. Big fucking deal. Just get on with life, bloody hell.

She keeps on fucking angering the “Owner” (the male MC) and she also gets pissy with him when she gets punished. She starts singing together with the other girls, and gets pissy for getting punished. She fucking has a chance of running after flooring one of the guards, but stays there to keep on hitting him instead of using that opportunity to escape. Just. Fucking. Stupid.

*ARRRGGGH*

Also, she acts like she’s the only victim, and I have a slight inclination she hates males. Why, you ask?

I didn’t fit the profile, but what the fuck did I know about their slave qualifications? I had tits and a vagina. Good enough.

Can I remind you Jade, that there are male slaves around the world too?

“I swear to God, men were pathetic.”

Oh yeah, because you are so much better as a female 🙄

She describes brown as a masculine colour:

[…]and a dark chocolate brown painted the walls, giving the room a very masculine vibe.

I don’t know in what world she lives, but in my book, brown is a shit colour to paint your walls for both sexes. Pun definitely intended.

“But, Flavia,” you may ask, “what about the storyline? Was that at least to your fancy?”

And I would laugh in your face.

Because. WHAT FUCKING STORYLINE.

It was all about her, her, and more her. Her ranting, her belittling others, her showing off, her doing stupid shit, and her fighting. Yes, more than 10 pages was just her having ONE weird-assed martial arts fight with the Owner. Yes, I did skip that, thanks for asking.

“What about the Owner? Was he as ruthless and dark as you wanted?”

*More laughing in your face.* He sucked. Period.

“…and, the sex? That, at least…!”

Nope, the sex scenes were shit too. Mainly because it was mostly him raping her (*cringe*), but even when she started enjoying it (as you do in dark romances) it was seriously boring.

“But- but, did you even enjoy anything??? Anything at all????”

Why, yes, I did. I really fucking loved it when I reached the end of this sad excuse of a book.

I can’t believe this novel received so many 5 and 4 star reviews. Are we even reading the same thing? So many praises on Jade being strong (*GAG*) clever (*DOUBLE GAG*) and relatable (*UNCONTROLLABLE GAGGING*). To me, she was the only pathetic creature there.

I guess it’s the whole “It’s not you, it’s me” thing…

Well, see you guys on Wednesday for my next blog post, here’s to hoping I’ll read something better, but you can only go higher after this…

Peace and love!