Trust in Me by Skye Warren (Dark Erotica #2)
Erotic Contemporary/Erotica
February 14, 2012
Self Published
Reviewed by Mandi
I’m very attracted to books that are dark, disturbing and erotic and my friend Sophia knows this, so when she heard about Trust in Me, I ended up with a gift on my Kindle. The book starts with a note from the author in which she states, “I must warn you that this is a disturbing tale, one that starts dark and gets darker.” She goes on to warn of nonconsensual sex and erotic pain. If either of those are a trigger for you, than this book is not for you.
Mia is a whore, more than that she is a sex slave, not able to escape the daily forced sexual situations she is placed in. Long ago, she ran away from an abusive father, preferring to starve on the streets rather than go back to him. When Carlos finds her in an alley, dirty, starving and close to death, he takes her in. He nurses her back to health, and then basically takes ownership of her. Carlos is a crime lord, who is involved in many nasty things, including the selling of women. Mia becomes his sex slave, and he is very, very cruel to her. He doesn’t just force her into humiliating sexual situations, but he beats her and whips her. As Mia says,
“He didn’t train me to do better, he beat me to do worse, until my nerves manifested in performance that could be punished.”
Two years with Carlos, and Mia is a very broken woman. She knows what she has to do to survive, but it is a daily struggle.
Things change for Mia when she meets Tyler, who was her next door neighbor growing up. In her fantasies as a child, Tyler would rescue her from her father and his abuse, but that never happened in real life. Tyler was an adult to Mia’s twelve year old self, and mistook Mia’s pleas for something sexual, in which Tyler would never act on. Tyler thought he was doing the right thing, sending Mia back to her father, as he had no idea the horror he was sending her back into.
But now they are together again. Tyler recognizes her, and when Mia realizes he is there undercover, they start to work together to get her and the other women free.
Trust in Me is a 100 page novella and a lot is explored in this book. Yes, it is very violent and explicit and some of the scenes are difficult to read. I think this author does a really great job at not just showing Mia as a physical whore, but presenting her mental status as a whore is done so well. Mia is so shamed, and so convinced that no one will love her or trust her. She hates Carlos, yet she doesn’t. He saved her from the streets, and in a weird screwed up way, she feels like she owes him something. As I said, I think Mia’s mentality is really well done in this one.
When Tyler sweeps through Carlos’s compound, Mia sees a slit of light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe she won’t die a whore at Carlos’s command. Maybe she can escape. Tyler brings on many confusing emotions for her. He wants to help her and she knows that, but he also has to act like a disgusting crime lord, so his cover isn’t blown. So when Carlos offers Mia to him, he has to have sex with her, as any other drug lord would do that, even though the last thing Tyler wants to do is to hurt her. Emotions and physical displays of “love” are very confusing and cross many grey boundaries in this book. And I think while we are in the moment, with Carlos lurking and Tyler doing what he can to keep Mia alive, this is played out really well. My disappointment comes in at the end. Mia is obviously a screwed up person, and I did not like how this book ended. It felt way too rushed. All of a sudden Tyler is ready to commit to this woman? And Mia is all – yes, use me as a whore, hey let’s get married? That so didn’t work for me. I would rather them have a hint of a future relationship. Plus there is so much to explore with Mia, who has basically been abused physically and sexually her entire life. The end was a very weak spot for me. Maybe if I had another 100 pages to explore Mia, post-Carlos, things would have made more sense to me.
Otherwise, I think this author does a nice job with a very dark subject. It’s a quick read, but one you are not going to want to put down. It looks like she has another book similar to this coming out next month which I’m very interested in reading.
Rating: B-
Recent Reviews:
The Forbidden Bookshelf
Fictional Candy
Goodreads
All this in 100 pages?
Is there a HEA at least?
There is a HEA of sorts, yes. But it felt rushed. I wish the HEA part had played out longer.
Nice review. I enjoyed being surprised by this book, by the psychologically compelling nature of it, the darkness.
You note: “Emotions and physical displays of “love” are very confusing and cross many grey boundaries in this book.” Too true! I really think that was a lot of it.