Crash

This is the closest I’ve come to finding erotica that actually jives with my kinks. I thought it would be the typical alpha male bullshit with an extra layer of dubcon but it turned out to be something…well still similar, but with a bit less “My captor, my alpha, my god” and a bit more attention to the female lead, which helped it massively.

Plot:
Laney’s plane crashes in the Alaska wilderness and she is saved by a mountain man who refuses to give his name and backstory. He says he’ll bring her into town soon…but after she starts a sexual relationship with her he changes his mind and says she is his prisoner instead, and his submissive. Laney isn’t sure about all this captive business but she does know that this is the most intense relationship she’s ever been in, and she feels like her real self here, feeling more alive than ever before.

Female Lead:
I liked that Laney is a character who has a lot of agency in her situation, both sexually and otherwise. When she first has sex with her captor, for instance, while he might be somewhat pressuring he hasn’t said she’s his captive-it’s a consensual encounter that she initiates because she finds him hot, and it turns out that he’s really really good at sex. Many of their other sexual encounters are coerced (they would be rape in real life, dubcon in fiction) but she does seem to enjoy them, so if that influences you one way or another, that’s a factor.
As for her relationship with the MMC. Hm. I could say there’s some Stockholm Syndrome going on here for sure. I love that shit. I liked that even when she finds out he’s decided it’s a kidnapping she’s kind of like “Hm…I mean that’s bad but also I was going to go marry some loser anyways so who really cares? We’ll see how this goes.” Lols.
I also thought she was complex. The author doesn’t try to make her perfect and she doesn’t feel generic. She admits that she’s often felt like a doll with no volition of her own, but her self loathing feels genuine rather than some attempt to make you feel like her humility is some moral virtue. And throughout the book she changes! In a rather psycho direction actually but that’s one of my favorite directions for character evolution so IT WAS GREAT.

Male Lead:
The Stranger.
Yep, at the end of the story he still has no name! It was kind of disappointing to me that we still don’t know his backstory but also there are two sequels so I guess there’s time.
I guess what I liked most about the male lead was that he liked and respected Laney all the time. Sometimes he was annoyed at her and he did the typical alpha male thing and “punished” her, which pissed me off, but even when he was mad he never blamed her for being herself, degraded or humiliated her. This is one of the major things that often pisses me off with dark erotica or capture fantasies, when the alpha male lead feels the need to humiliate the female lead and set himself above her, which is pretty common! But here he never stops respecting her as a person or her role as submissive, which she is very good at. Despite the scenario, there’s this sense that he sees her as an equal. And he certainly never acts like she’s just any woman to him, or just someone he can use for sex.
There was still the alpha male aspect, of course, and I did cringe at a couple of those descriptions of how woodsy and manly he smelled, how there was nothing feminine about him, how he could provide for her, etc. But they’re less central here, and maybe you’re even into that.
Also, this dude is fucked up! And very unpredictable. He doesn’t even inform Laney until almost halfway through the book that she’s his prisoner, only letting her believe he’ll bring her into town soon. What a ride.

The Steamy Stuff:
I’ll just say it, sex scenes very rarely do anything for me. These ones were better than normal though. They felt exciting and I stayed involved in them rather than skipping ahead to more interesting sections. And they were medium-hot (once again, I rarely get turned on by sex scenes so that may translate to INCREDIBLY HOT for you, idk). For me they were a bit frequent, but not so much that I hated them or felt like they were blurring together. So. That’s probably good.

Overall:
I really liked this book. I liked the ship, I liked the messed up dynamic and scenario, and I loved the author’s writing style. I would definitely recommend to fans of fucked up erotica, and I may well read the sequels.

I am a huge sucker for an unreliable narrator. I loved this book. Seriously, absolutely loved it! But, not because it was hot and steamy sexytimez, and not for the plot, not for the action. It was a whole book introducing the reader to these two individuals. Told in first person, the reader goes through this whole books and finally forms definite opinions about each character and then WHAM! The unreliable narrator tricked you! I knew it was gonna happen, but I didn’t know the what or the how. Genuinely surprised and loved it. Yes, this book has tons of sexytimez, so if that’s all you want out of a book, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere. If you want D/s, an unreliable narrator, a hidden mystery, and Alaska survival tips, read this book. It’s awesome. It’s a sequel, but I’m not going to read the sequel. I think it’s perfect just the way it is

Delicious. Compelling constant story. It was extremely hard not to see yourself as the characters as their relationship developed. It felt like no page was wasted and by the end of the book left you wanting more of the story. I read it in 2.5 days. Purchasing the other two books.immediately.

Holy Hotness. Read the whole series. A little rushed at the very end of the last book but good nonetheless.

This read takes you on a crazy wild ride from beginning to end. I loved it!

Sensual, sexual and a little sick, but a good read.

If you like dark romance, this is the best. In a class by itself. The progression of the relationship between these two is slow and insidious. Anti-hero, anti-romantic, hard to put down and harder to forget.

Well written and very entertaining. I suggest you join N0velStar’s writing competition this April.

Did not like this at all. Its just not my cup of tea.

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