Sunday, March 30, 2014

Giveaway & 4 1/2 Stars for Deliver by Pam Godwin




His name was Joshua Carter. Now it's whatever she wants it to be.

She is a Deliverer.

She lures young men and delivers them to be sold. She delivers the strikes that enforce their obedience. She delivers the sexual training that determines their purchase price.

As long as she delivers, the arrangement that protects her family will hold.

Delivering is all she knows.

The one thing she can't deliver is a captive from slavery.

Until him.

And her stubborn slave thinks he can deliver her...from herself.

Romantic Thriller
Stand Alone (no cliff-hanger). The sequel is coming Summer 2014.
Content warning: Graphic sex, violence, and psychological abuse. Age 18+ only.


 


Van’s big body blocked her view, pressing in, violating her comfort zone. She raised her chin and searched the depths of his hood. Shadowed and vacant, his expression mirrored her presence of mind.

The back of his hand made a slow trace of her scar, brushing her hair from its path. When he reached her lips, he coiled several strands around his finger.

She grabbed his wrist, and the tendons in her grip turned to steel, immovable. She closed her eyes and braced.

He yanked, sparking a burn where the follicles gave way.

At the sound of his retreating footsteps, she opened her eyes and watched his broad back move toward the trees. “Someday, we’re going to talk about those fetishes of yours.”

Without acknowledgment, he continued in a slow, dispassionate stride until the shadows between the trees swallowed his silhouette.


What I thought about Deliver


Pam Godwin asks for a lot of trust from her readers with Deliver, because the beginning of this is very dark. It took me to the very edge of my comfort zone on this type of material. Liv abducts Josh, a college football star, imprisoning him for a ten week course in becoming a sex slave. The requirements are specific, and Liv has to make them happen. She needs to break him, and she's got plenty of experience with that because she's been broken.

There isn't a lot of sympathy for Liv in those opening pages, at least until you learn more about her circumstances. I'll be honest, I had a moment when I considered not finishing this. Pam puts some serious intensity into the first 15% of Deliver which is a testament to her writing, and that’s where the trust comes in -- I had to trust that there was another side of this story, that there would be light with all of the darkness. So I kept reading.

Things do get a bit less intense once more is revealed about Liv and her mysterious partner, Van. Van is not only the muscle, he was Liv’s trainer, and there are significant ties between them. He was also a very intriguing secondary character in this story. Pam had me teetering on a fine edge of revulsion and sympathy for Van and I’m still not sure of the final verdict at the conclusion of the book.

It turns out that not all is what it seems with their victim either. He’s not like the others, and he causes changes in the dynamic between the Liv and Van. It’s not just the effects of the abduction and subsequent slave training Josh endures -- there’s the discovery of his own sexual needs and his growing feelings toward Liv. I just loved what Pam did with these characters, how finely drawn and complex they are. It kept me turning the pages of this story.

The pace is very good in Deliver, the action easy to follow and there are some satisfying twists and turns. I liked that about this read. I’m not so sure that I totally buy the time lapse on this though, the romance part happens very quickly, but I could overlook that for the great character development and suspense.

If you like a dark romantic suspense, this might be a book for you.





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1 comment:

Pam Godwin said...

Amazing review, Trader Mare! Thanks so much for reading and participating in the blog tour.

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