Review: Boy Next Door by Emma Clark

HOLY FUCK BATMAN! This is one twisted, sick, disturbing story. It’s a dark read that will leave you reeling from the implications of it all.

Mia met Brandon. Mia accepted a ride from Brandon. Brandon destroyed everything Mia knew.

Mia’s car wouldn’t start after work one night. Brandon happened to be there and offered her a ride home. Mia doesn’t know Brandon, but she gets in the car with him anyway. I mean, he looks like the boy next door, so he should be safe right? WRONG!

Mia ends up being held captive by Brandon and he does every imaginable thing to her. OMG! I was breaking for Mia.

Brandon keeps her there for weeks. He terrorizes her, rapes her. Yet, she falls in love with him. Yep. You heard it. Falls in love with him. Definitely a case of Stockholm Syndrome.

But what happens when she finally gets free? Is she ever really free?

I loved this story. It’s dark and twisty nature made me love it that much more. Be WARNED!!! There is kidnapping, rape, bondage (not role-play) and Stockholm Syndrome. If any of those things offend you, DON’T READ IT! There is nothing consensual in this book, so be prepared.

So, if it was full of nothing consensual, why did I love it? It’s so well written and even though Brandon is a rapist, I actually ended up feeling a bit sorry for him. Not enough to acquit him, but enough. After learning about his family, it made me feel for him. He actually does a few (NOT MANY) redeeming qualities. It was an interesting look into the mind of a psychopath.

Definitely worth the read! Be remember…it’s not pretty, there are no flowers, there is no romance. It’s dark, twisted, sick and disturbing. You have been warned.

Blog Tour & Giveaway: Blind Obsession by Ella Frank

Haunting

Erotic

Passionate

Heart Wrenching

This has to be one of the most haunting books I’ve ever read. From the very first you know it’s going to end badly. You know this. You fell it in your bones, yet you have to read it. You can’t stop. It’s like watching a train wreck. It’s going to hurt to watch it, but you can’t look away. You have to know. YOU. HAVE. TO. KNOW.

As I was reading this story, I was sucked into a world that I’ve only glimpsed before. A world where artists live. One is a musician and one is a painter. They live life full of passion and embrace it as only those who live passionately can. They love. The feel. They obsess. No one can understand them unless they live it. Watching it, talking about, hearing about it is not enough. You have to live it to understand it.

This is what Gemma does. She embraces Chantel’s life and lives the last few months of her life with Phillippe. She does this to learn his story. The world knows Chantel’s story, or at least they think they do. Now Gemma is here to learn the truth. To tell the world the truth. But what is the truth? Who knows the truth?

Gemma comes to France to live for a few months with Phillippe. She comes at his request. He wants to tell his story of Chantel and what happened to her. In order to do this, Gemma lives with Phillippe. She reads Chantel’s diary. She talks with Phillippe.

What Gemma doesn’t expect is to fall in love. What she doesn’t expect is who she falls in love with.

I loved this story. It will stick with me long after I’m done reading it. It’s haunting. It’s tragic. It’s heart wrenching like no other story I’ve read.

As I read this story my heart went out to Phillippe, Gemma and Chantel. But even though I found it heart wrenching, I couldn’t cry for them. And I’m a crier. I’ll boo hoo with the best of them. So, why didn’t I cry as I read this one? I couldn’t. As heart wrenching as this story is, I couldn’t. I knew what was coming. I saw it. I didn’t know exactly how it was going to happen, but I knew it was going to. It haunted me. It made my heart hurt for them. But there were no tears. There can be no tears. It’s hard to explain.

Ella Frank did an amazing job of writing a story that is haunting, eerie, beautiful and passionate all at once. It can have no happy ending. There is no way for this end with a happily ever after. It can’t. For it to end any other way would be a betrayal.

It’s erotic. It’s beautiful. It’s haunting.

Find it on GoodReads!

Ella is giving away an ARC of Blind Obsession to one lucky reader.  Please leave a comment for Ella with your email address so a winner can be chosen. Thank you & good luck!!