Author: Pepper Winters
Series: Tears of Tess #1
Publication: August 28th 2013
Genre: New Adult Dark Contemporary Romance
Format: e-book
Cover Rating: 5/5
Overall Rating: 5/5
A New Adult Dark Contemporary Romance, not suitable for people sensitive to grief, slavery, and nonconsensual sex. A story about finding love in the strangest of places, a will of iron that grows from necessity, and forgiveness that may not be enough.
“My life was complete. Happy, content, everything neat and perfect.
Then it all changed. I was sold.”
Tess Snow has everything she ever wanted: one more semester before a career in property development, a loving boyfriend, and a future dazzling bright with possibility.
For their two year anniversary, Brax surprises Tess with a romantic trip to Mexico. Sandy beaches, delicious cocktails, and soul-connecting sex set the mood for a wonderful holiday. With a full heart, and looking forward to a passion filled week, Tess is on top of the world.
But lusty paradise is shattered.
Kidnapped. Drugged. Stolen. Tess is forced into a world full of darkness and terror.
Captive and alone with no savior, no lover, no faith, no future, Tess evolves from terrified girl to fierce fighter. But no matter her strength, it can’t save her from the horror of being sold.
Can Brax find Tess before she’s broken and ruined, or will Tess’s new owner change her life forever?
~My Thoughts:
I haven't started to write this review three days after I finished the book. And everyday I didn't write it, it seemed harder and harder for me to start but how can I begin to describe my emotions for this complex, dark but totally compelling book?
I kind of knew I was going to love this book right from the moment I heard about it. The description alone had me hooked already and after seeing a few really possitive reviews of it, I bought it. And, oh my god, I loved it so much!
When she's on a vacation in Mexico together with Brax, her boyfriend of two years, Tess Snow gets kidnapped to be sold as a slave. She fights the human traffickers for all she's worth but things just gets worse and worse until eventuelly she's sold to Q Mercer...
“My life was complete. Happy, content, everything neat and perfect.
Then it all changed. I was sold.”
How can I express my feelings my feelings for Tears of Tess? It was dark, it was delicious. I was enarmored, I was absorbed.
I ended up reading it in only two days because right from the moment Tess gets taken, I wasn't able to pull away from my Kindle. I just had to know what was going to happen to her. I loved how she fought the human traffickers and at least made a stand instead of just giving up. And then she arrives in France in the possession of Q.
Tess was a great character to read about. Stubborn, strong, trying to never let anything break her no matter what happened to her and trust me, a lot of awful, disturbing things do happen to her. I loved how in the end she knew exactly what she wanted and who she wanted to be, compared to how her own issues and sexuality frightened her in the beginning.
And then we have Q...
Right from the start it's obvious Q has a lot of issues and dark cravings. But, damn it, I was so intrigued by him. I mean, he was almost everything you expect someone to be who buys or accepts slaves as bribes. Dark, twisted, struggling with demons of his own. And he was all that + downright hot!
I love the take their relationship took. I loved how Tess tried to fight him in every turn and how it disturbed yet arroused Q terribly.
I wanted a new label. One that said: girlfriend who will do anything to be tied, spanked, and fucked all over rather than adored.
This book wasn't perfect, not at all, but even so I can't give it any less than five stars or should I say five sparrows? Birds have great meaning in Tears of Tess. First of all, all the chapter titles were types of birds. That was just pure brilliance on Pepper Winters part in my opinion. Second, Q has a thing with sparrows that Tess really wanted to find out about (and she did). The symbolism for it, the metaphor, god... it was beautiful. It really was.
At times I was a little bit annoyed with Tess when one moment she'd feel a lot for Q (in a possitive way) when in the other moment went back to hating him. Drove me a little nuts but I suppose with a man as Q it's no wonder she felt that way. Also some of her actions were a little questionable which led to terrible things for her. But it's just something minor compared to the the whole amazingess of the book.
I must say though that I wouldn't count this book as a normal new adult. It isn't. This book is so taboo, dark and twisted, erotic and I couldn't get enough of it!
Q was deeper than I gave him credit for. Something lurked, dark and vile, but there was a human, as well as a monster, inside.
The writing in this book was just so enthralling, fascinating and simply addicting. I loved the way Pepper Winters formed sentences and wrote the story. Definitely one of the best written new adult books I have read. Genres like this either grip me or not and this gripped me so freaking much I'm sure I scared my friend with freaking out about it so badly while I was reading it. All I can say is, watch out for Pepper Winters. I absolutely see great books happening in her future and I can't wait to read them!
Two things I wanted most in the world: for Q to die a miserable death, and for him to fuck me.
The prologue was in Q's point of view and it was amazing. He told us about what happened to him to make him be who and what he is and I felt like it was a perfect ending to such an amazing book.
Also I have to say this. I had a little reading fuck where I didn't read for over two weeks and Tears of Tess really pulled me out of it. That's why I read. For books like this that capture and grip my heart and never let me go.
"You may not be mine, but I'm fast becoming yours."
I put away my fear of being reprimanded, and embraced ferocity. I conjured anger like magic, nursing it deep within, building on it like an impenetrable cape.
The truth hurts less than fibs and fakers.
"I'm offering you my pain. My blood. My pleasure. I'm offering you the right to whip and fuck. To debase and harm. I'm offering to fight your needs with my own. I'm willing to join you in the darkness and find pleasure in excruciating pain. I'm willing to be your monster, Q."
"I promise to protect you, ravage you, hunt those who hurt you, and give you the life you deserve. My fortune is yours. My secrets are yours. And I will give you the corpses of the men who hurt you."
Pepper Winters wears many roles. Some of them include writer, reader, sometimes wife. She loves dark, taboo stories that twist with your head. The more tortured the hero, the better, and she constantly thinks up ways to break and fix her characters. Oh, and sex… her books have sex.
She loves to travel and has an amazing, fabulous hubby who puts up with her love affair with her book boyfriends. Her debut book Tears of Tess will be followed with Quintessentially Q. You didn’t think Q could stop so soon, did you? Her other two titles, Last Shadow and Broken Chance will be coming soon.
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This review has also been posted on Bookfever.
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