Deliver (Deliver #1)

First off, Ill start by staying that this was not my type of story. I generally dont prefer erotica or BDSMalthough this was neither. BDSM books are consensual; this was not. I prefer romance, and while DELIVER is a love story, its not a particularly good one.

Yes, this is a sex slave story, so obviously vile. So why would I pick it up? It was on special price, and I was drawn in by the writing when I checked the look inside sneak-peek. Which is why I gave the decent number of stars I did. Theres no reason to punish an author for a story that I didnt like, if she told it well. And she did. The writing was excellent.

The reason this wasnt a 5-star read for me was because the author lacks the psychological chops to handle the subject-matter realistically. The relationship between Liv and Van was handled wellthe heroine WOULD be very conflicted about that relationship. But the main relationship between Liv and Josh fell drastically short.

It takes a lot for someone to come back from *years* of abuse as a sex slavea lot more than Godwin put in here. This is also where the hero really fell off for me. If Josh was such a good guy, then he wouldnt have been hounding after Live so much for sex. Sure, he could want her inside his headhow can someone stop natural desires?but when it came to his treatment of her, he should have been the soul of patience. He wasnt, and thumbs down to that.
Case in point: him fingering her in the backseat of the car while his god-fearing parents are driving, and doing this to give Liv the message that nothing is going to change between them. This was so off the mark of what was appropriate (and what the poor girl needed) as to be out in geosynchronous orbit.

Nothing about that scene forwarded the plotdetracted from it, really. In fact, the entire last quarter of the book should have been about a loving, caring healing between Josh and Liv. Instead it was just more sex, and it played terribly. Dont get me wrong, I like graphic sex in my stories, but it has to be right and *mean* something. At the end, the sex was wholly gratuitousso here Goodwin was just throwing in sexual contact to make sure that the book didnt go too many pages without there being sex. What a shame that such a worthy author fell into the unworthy trap of writing gratuitous sex.

Because of this, I was very ready for this book to be done before it was. I was also ready for the brutality of things done to the characters to be done before it was. In short, this book went on too long. The story would have been better told had about 40 pages been cut. It actually took me forever to finish reading it because I had to keep taking breaks.

Ultimately, however, if you like your stories full of dark and twisty subject-matter (hero and heroine sharing a kiss of ejaculated semen, a brutal anal rapewhich Liv got over WAY too quickly, btw), then this should be right up your alley. If you like that kind of stuff, the story is for the most part well-written, so I can recommend it.

Really? Glorifying sex trafficking in this day and age? I really have to wonder about this whole sub-genre of “dark” erotic romance that’s about virgin teens getting violated. This author actually writes well, but I’m confused by the recommendations that lead me to select this book. I was hoping for writing by adults, for adults, about adults. It’s getting so hard to find good books on Amazon that don’t revolve around dysfunctional people doing heinous things in the name of “love” or “erotica” or “romance”. If I wanted this kind of content I would just spend an afternoon watching videos on RedTube.

Josh is 21 years old. He’s a star football player, a devout Christian, and going to school to become a minister. He works hard on his family’s farm and his life is written in stone. Or is it? See, Josh is being watched. He fits the criteria that someone is looking for. He fulfills all the requirements. And life as he knows it disappears along with him.

She was stolen innocence, following the rules of monsters. Somewhere along the way, shed become one.

I’m probably of the minority, but I absolutely hated Liv. HATED HER!! Usually I can hope that an author can redeem a character, but I didn’t want to hope with this one. I didn’t want to like her. For all of her problems and the facts of her circumstances, I felt no sympathy. She’s a monster looking for what? Compassion? Understanding? Eff that!

I figure that she and Josh end up together although she spends a heck of a lot of sexual time with Van (whom I want to know more about), but if dreams really did come true, Josh would use her for survival and freedom and kill her.

Its ugly in there, decayed by lies and shame, endlessly bleeding for all the lives Ive ruined. Youre the eighth reason I dont deserve affection.

I’m glad that Liv and I could agree on something. Josh was everything! I loved how easily he acknowledged his love of pain and how it forged a connection to this captor. I didn’t love how easily he fell for her, but this IS a romance, so what did I really expect? It was a bit different reading a captive/captor story with the captive being male, but I think the author did an incredible job with it. I had the same capacity for compassion for Josh as I would for a female captive.

Gives me chills, Liv. Every damned time. Your beauty isnt just an experience for the eyes. It breathes through the ears and evokes a reaction so consummating it claims the soul.

At 52%, even with all of the revelations about Liv, I had more sympathy for Van than for her. I’m not saying Van is a nice guy or anything, obviously, but I can tell he’s only made the best choices with horrific options. With the amount of information we receive by the end of the book, I’m even more eager to find out more details about this dude. Part of me wishes that he and Liv could have worked things out, but I understand why it’s impossible. It’s just that they’ve both done horrible things and deserve each other. Knowing that Van survived the gun shot wound inflicted by Liv made my day. I need to know how he survived and how he achieves his own happy ending. This broken man needs some redemption!

And then there’s Josh… the man who definitely owned my heart in this story, right from the beginning.

I can feel you. He leaned back, inhaled deeply. Inside me. Everywhere. You own me. You will always own me, and I will walk through hell to keep it that way. Eyes on the road, her breath shivered from her lungs, cracking her voice. You own me, too. I know. He pinned her with those mesmerizing pale eyes.

This man…

I stand here without rope or chains, Liv, tethered to you by my own will. His blood beat with the ferocity of his words. I wont be free until you are.

I have no idea if my hopes and dreams will ever be realized, but I want to see more of these people in the books to come. I know I’ll be getting more Van (WOO HOO!!), but I want everyone together. I want Van to get his forgiveness from Liv, that these two work through everything and settle into some sort of friendship. I’d love to see them with their daughter, in a future of peace. I want, I want, I want. Now let’s see if anything I want is out there.

I’m torn between 3 and 3.5 for this one.
The good: The plot, I liked this change from my normal abducted GIRL story line.
I really liked the twists throughout. I was taken by surprise more than once.

The not so good: Hard to believe this GIANT man was not able to free himself from this TINY girl. I know they “explain” why but, I just didn’t believe it. Also, too much God. Not sure if the author was anti-religion or what but, there was a lot of prayers and putting faith in Him. I have no problem with God but, it just felt forced and out of place.
I also didn’t like the other men in the book, the M lead was okay, he had a good head on his shoulders and was not a hot head but, the rest of them were TERRIBLE. Even once they tried to redeem one of them it was not something I was able to swallow.
Overall, I liked it enough, at some points it was a book I couldn’t put down. There were too many issues to really love it though.

A dark. violent and disturbing read by Pam here, it certainly captured my attention within the first few pages and didn’t let go, can’t wait to read the rest!!

Liv is a Deliverer, she captures, breaks and trains kids to be sex slaves. She’s been doing this for 7 yrs, having been a slave herself, she is now the trainer. She has her sights set on Josh, but he’s different from her usual slaves, he has a family and is the star of the local football team, but she goes after him anyway. She has 10 wks to train him for his new buyer.

Josh may be a virgin and raised a christian by his parents, whom he helps on their farm, but he has some naughty dark and dirty thoughts, which Liv finds out as she tries to train him. The problem being Liv and Josh have this connection, they are attracted to each other, even with the situation Josh is in. But he’s not submissive, he’s assertive, not a rule follower, and likes pain. He sees beneath Liv’s masks at the woman underneath and feels he can help her out of a bad situation.

A very gripping, angsty read, very unusual with a woman domme as the ‘master’ and not a male, with the male victim being subjected to sexual abuse and training from her. Hot, dark, sexy, dirty, a very different read from the norm, and I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to read the rest.

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