This is a spoiler-free review! This book contains graphic material - please look up the trigger warnings before reading.
I have not read an undercover crime book in what feels like years, and luckily enough I was downloading books like no tomorrow at the last Stuff Your Kindle Day. Fear and Desire kept popping up in my recommendations based on my past reads, and needing a quick read, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to put it to the test.
This is not a causal read, and certainly not for dark romance beginners -- I would argue it is approaching Haunting Adeline to be quite honest, and I would only suggest this book to readers who are comfortable reading this genre at length. I genuinely think that I have read everything under the sun -- there was nothing in this book that I have not come across before, but the author certainly goes into extensive detail when it comes to dark themes.
Laura is in an incredibly horrifying and insane situation -- her reasoning has gone out the door after she is taken to be sold at an auction. An auction that her best friend Dan has been working undercover for two years to take down traffickers, and with Laura now being used to test his loyalty, they both need to do things neither ever thought they would be forced to do. I did find myself yelling at her a lot -- she has more information regarding the situation she is in compared to the other girls, but I feared that she would ruin everything that Dan has worked towards nearly every other page.
I enjoyed getting multiple perspectives in this book -- seeing more than only Dan and Laura's thoughts definitely added another layer to this heavy situation, and Josh's perspective were somehow adding a lightness in between intense chapters. Claire's chapters really laid into the despair and hopelessness that the girls were experiencing, whereas Laura has so much more knowledge on what is happening around them.
Around two thirds into the story is where the plot really lays into the seriousness of the situation everyone is in, especially regarding making sure Laura and the rest of the women end up safe. There are a lot more people in play compared to the beginning of the story, and with a decent amount of perspective changes, the author is able to give readers a pretty good sense of what is happening on all fronts.
The progression of Laura's state of mind as the story goes on was handled very well, and even in such an extreme situation, she had a shred of hope to hang on to and as much as a support system as she could get from Claire and Dan. Chapters in Dan's perspective really allowed the reader to understand all sides of the story, and to be able to see how Dan was personally handling what Laura had to go through, essentially at his own hands, added to the depth of the book and their character development.
For fans of Shantel Tessier's L.O.R.D.S. series and Debt Inheritance by Pepper Winters, this dark romance stand alone is not for the light-hearted. If you are looking for something dark, gritty, and taboo, this is the book for you.
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