What happens when you wake up one day to discover that you’ve been on autopilot your entire life? My life has always been more downs than ups. Good things rarely knocked on my door. But hard knocks never failed to kick my ass. Nothing good would ever happen to me.Or so I thought.In college I discovered women, and never looked back. But even though I was never alone, I was always lonely. I didn’t … was always lonely.
I didn’t know exactly what I needed. Only that I needed something more.
Until I saw her. Then I knew. She was what I needed. We were perfect. Incendiary! We were going to be what happily ever afters were about!
Or so I thought.
Now I’m ten years older. A hundred years wiser. I have survived so many trials by fire, nothing could penetrate my scarred and jaded armor.
Or so I thought.
This is my story…
**Author’s note: Forged is a dark novel with intense scenes that may trigger some readers. Please read with caution.
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Forged is my first read by author Cole Denton and it won’t be my last! This story follows the torturous sexual, mental, and emotional abuse Ryan suffered through childhood and his struggles to escape a past that keeps trying to drag him back. It details the effects this abuse has on his attempts to find himself and make a future for himself. It’s dark and heart wrenching and I can’t wait to read the next book in this series!
I have been following this writer for a number of months but was reluctant to read his books; their content just seemed too dark and tragic for my liking. The other day, I threw down the gauntlet, and grabbed this book in KU. I read about a third of it and then put it down. It was making me angry to read about how a family could abuse a son in this way and have no remorse. I know this stuff goes on in real life, but I did not want to read about it. I thought about it overnight and the next night picked that book up and this time, could not stop till I finished it at 3 am and then I could not sleep because the scenes kept running through my head.
Ryan Hudson is a young man who is sexually abused by his family, yes, family: father, mother, and brother. Videos are made of him in these abusive situations for the purpose of selling and making money. The father is accused of this brutality, found guilty, and sent to prison for life. But the mother and brother continue to force Ryan to make these videos, all the while blaming him for the father’s incarceration. Even when Ryan moves out to go to university, he is still drawn back to this shady fate. He has issues with women, always choosing girls who are older than him. He cannot seem to break free of his mother and brother and he knows that no matter how often they ask him to come back, he is the one who makes the choice to do so. What makes him do this? Why does he return to this lifestyle?
This book is very well written and as the pages turn, reasons as to why Ryan is the way he is, become evident. I could now understand why he kept returning home for more, although it still angered me. What I like about this author’s writing is that he doesn’t explain Ryan’s inability to cope with these situations. The reasons are right in front of the reader, and we have to read in between the lines to answer these questions for ourselves.
Even though the characters are not graphically described, I was able to clearly visualize them in my mind just from the situation they were in or what they were feeling or how they expressed themselves. Watching Ryan choose his path, and eventually try a way of life that might give him the satisfaction and happiness that he craves, is a lesson to all of us. I am so looking forward to continuing Ryan’s story in Cole Denton’s next book, “Steel”, and to learn if that chosen path is the right one for him.