Review

5 ‘HOLY SHIT, WHAT DID I JUST READ?’ STARS

Clearly unprepared, I went into this expecting a kinky sex book. Ummm – NO! This is a shockingly brutal and tragic story that is incredibly disturbing, but beautifully told and ultimately uplifting.

Lilith lives a comfortable life. As a successful artist and the ‘new big thing’, she is self sufficient, and does her own thing, living in a small coastal town in Spain. She’s not your usual heroine – assertive and outspoken, she is a bit of a loner, keeping to herself and avoiding attachment of any kind. I liked her immediately.

Her life takes an unexpected turn when she is blackmailed into painting a portrait of the enigmatic Lady Albermarle, and finds herself a very unwilling guest at Albermarle Hall, a secretive retreat for the ridiculously wealthy. However, Lilith discovers that it is actually a place where sick, twisted perverts come to have their sexual fantasies fulfilled. And the longer she stays, the more she discovers the sickening depths of the depravity.

Soon after her arrival, she meets Finn Strachan. Held captive by Blaine, Finn is subjected to the sadistic whims of Blaine and her ‘guests’. But as disgusted with himself as he is, and as desolate as his situation appears to be, he does his best to remain strong. Sure, he has some pretty extreme coping mechanisms, but his strength of character, and his ability to remain himself despite all that he endures is incredible. My heart broke for him over and over again.

“I shut my eyes and forced everything back behind a wall that was harder to maintain with every second I remained in this room. I didn’t dare speak or move or even breathe for fear of everything crumbling away and leaving me entirely destroyed.”

The things that Finn is subjected to are horrific and degrading. And not just the physical and sexual abuse and debasement, but psychologically as well. Blaine is pure evil – a sick, psycho, sadistic bitch, and the abuse that she inflicts, and the control that she wields is terrifying. Lilith is soon drawn into her games, and her life becomes intertwined with Finn’s as they form a friendship and begin to lean on each other for support.

“In a fortnight Lilith had figured out more about me than anyone had ever cared to know, and I could only hope that she would hold it gently.”

I loved the development of the relationship between Lilith and Finn. They are so open with each other about themselves, and their situation, and even manage to joke and laugh together, and the dialogue between them is fantastic! The see each other at their lowest, yet they never judge or pity, they are there for each other, protect each other (where they can), and mange to find comfort in each other.

“It had been so long since I dared – wanted – to do anything like it that I could barely remember the moves. “Come here,” I urged.
I expected refusal, or at least hesitation. Instead, Lilith immediately buried her head into my chest and entwined her small, perfect hands around my back. The momentary discomfort was nothing at all compared to the realization that she was finding refuge in my flawed embrace.”

There is a bit of romance, yes, and it is really well done. It’s slowly paced, and very realistic given the circumstances, and I like that it developed naturally and didn’t overshadow everything else that was happening in the story. It was just slowly brewing in the background of all of the brutality going on around them.

I need to warn that this story is disturbingly graphic – both sexually and violently (usually the two together). Some of the scenes actually made me feel physically ill, and I wondered whether the author went a bit too far with the explicitness of her scenes. She definitely doesn’t shy away from letting you know ALL that the characters endure, and it drags you right into the hopelessness with them. And the bad guys in this book – damn! Honestly, some of the most sickening, disgusting creatures ever! They’re the kind of evil characters that you want to stab, maim and kill, only to resurrect them just so that you can stab, maim and kill them all over again – seriously fucking sadistic!

But the horrific extent of the brutality is what triggers Lilith into fighting back, for her and for Finn. And I loved that she was the one that carried them through some of the really bad times, giving him strength and making it her mission to save him, while at the same time drawing strength from him as well.

“I can’t do this alone, Finn. I need you beside me.”
Nobody had ever said that to me.”

So it’s not all nasty. There are some bright moments – most notably the bond and banter between Lilith, Finn and Henry as they try to survive their situation, and there are also some other happy surprises in there that brought a smile to my face. And as painful as the story was to read, these little moments and the underlying hope that things HAD to get better were enough to pull me through.

This book is a standalone, and while it ends well, I’m glad that Tabitha McGowan is writing another book, because what we got in the ending was not enough for me. I need to know where the story goes from here.

It’s a hard one to rate, because it’s so disturbing and sad. But the story is addictive and beautifully told (and dual POV too – bonus!), the writing is amazing, and she made me care so much about her characters, I have to give it 5 stars.

The Tied Man duet

The Tied Man (#1)
Buy:  Amazon

The Tied Man:  Unbound (#2)
Buy:  Amazon