They were taken.Off the street. From parking lots. Malls. Playgrounds.Snatched from life and thrust into hell.They took Orion Darby on a perfect summer day, while she could still taste her first kiss on her lips.She joined the others with chains on their ankles and scars on their souls.They turned into nothing more than statistics. Cold cases. Lost girls.Years passed and the world forgot.Until … and the world forgot.
Until the day they escaped.
This is not about their captivity.
This is about their struggle to return to a life that’s passed them by.
This was the real world.
But for Orion, this was hell.
You see… freedom isn’t enough.
She needs blood.
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Rating:
Craziest Surprise Ending Ever!
This was an odd duck! I thought for certain it was going to be one type of book and at the last minute it threw me for a loop. I really liked the storyline about this girl, Orion Darby, who was abducted while riding her bike home from her friends house one evening when she was fourteen. Orion had her head in the clouds after being kissed for the first time by her best friends brother. So she didn’t notice the van following her until it was too late.
Orion was raped and put in a basement with two other girls and she didn’t escape until ten years later. She lived through ten years of torture, rape and beatings and came out a different person. The story is about Orion’s struggle to have some sort of existence after living through hell on earth. The police detective that helps her after the ordeal is none other than the boy with whom she had her first kiss before being abducted.
I have read books like this before. One of tells of the struggle to go on after sex trafficking, where the girl even started to have a semblance of a normal life after a lot of therapy and time had passed. I thought this one would be much the same despite the blurb with Orion talking about taking revenge on the men that hurt and used her.
However, this book was a lot different than I expected and takes a much darker turn instead of going for the inspirational ending where everything is just fine. I don’t want to give anything away, but to say that I will give this book 4 stars because though I do like it when a story strays from the predictable, this ending seemed a bit too rushed for me.
I voluntarily read & reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts & opinions are my own.
Wow what a story. This book grabbed me by the throat from the start and I absolutely couldn’t put it down as I had to find out what happened on the next page. The writing between these 2 author’s was so smooth you just wanted them to keep writing. I did feel though that the ending was a tad bit rushed, but it definitely didn’t keep me from loving this story, because I still didn’t want it to end, so I guess I’m a lil bloodthirsty for retribution.
There are triggers all through this book, so be warned this isn’t a rainbow and kittens story it’s brutally raw and gritty, because this kind of thing does happen more often than we’re aware of.
This story is about Orion Darby who was abducted at 13 who was raped and beaten by the vilest of men for 10 years before she was rescued along with 2 other women. Their all thrust back into the living along with a mistrust of everyone and are trying to cope and Orion has plans as she becomes the monster they created, because in order to catch a monster you have to become one.
This story will have you wanting to hold Orion and tell her that with time thing’s will be alright and the other you’ll want to join forces.
This story shook my soul to the core. Orion is now one of my top 5 heroine EVER! She was so complex. My heart was racing throughout her journey. The authors hold back nothing with this story. It is raw and real.
Maddox is not your average knight in shining armor cause Orion does not need anyone to save her. She saves herself. He fought is own demons and stands ready to support Orion in her own battle. The story also incorporated side a character April who is Maddox’s sister and Orion’s childhood BFF. April’s no holds bar support of Orion even when Orion has the wall of China up was inspiring. Anne and BT please give us a little April and Eric please own story.
Holy crap! Talk about a wild and twisted ride!! As soon as I heard about this book I knew I just had to read it and I was right! It was even better than I initially imagined. It was dark, twisted, tragic and heartbreaking…..I loved every messed up second of it.
Such a great book absolutely loved it everyone should read it
This book was amazing. Completely and utterly enthralled me. The story centers around Orions abduction at 14 and imprisonment for a decade in the harshest conditions. Taking a very real fear and asking what becomes of someone that has to suffer those horrors. How does it change you and can you ever really escape it. What happens when the victim becomes the monster.
After escaping her tormenters with the two other women she was held with Orion has to take that journey. Confronted with her past that she never thought she’d see again in the form of Maddox her childhood crush and best friends brother who just happens to be the detective on her case. After escaping Orion is consumed with thoughts of revenge. While this gives her the strength to confront her nightmare’s, the other girls turn to different methods of coping. I loved that each of the girls dealt with the trauma in very real ways and it wasn’t a cliché oh yay were free everything is sunshine and daisies. That’s not how life works and the authors captured that beautifully. It addresses the fact that not only the direct victims suffer because of an event like this. The ones closest to the victims are also irrevocably changed. I loved Maddox’s character and how he was always there no matter what vicious thing Orion said to him. He weathered it and stood by her asking nothing in return. We could all use a Maddox.
This is not definitely not romance centered while there is a romance plot it is much more focused on Orion and her revenge and recovery from the trauma of her ordeal. Highly recommend if you can deal with darker subject matter.
TW: kidnapping, rape, torture, and murder
Orion Darby was 14 years old when she first kissed 16 year old Maddox Novak and she thought this was the best night of her life. Yet on her bike ride home she is taken and thrown in the back of a van where she is kept captive for the next 10 years with other girls.
When the girls finally escape nothing prepares them for their new lives and the freedom that comes with it. Yet there is something else that Orion wants more than anything – revenge.
This was a good, dark book and I enjoyed it.
I understood why Orion was so different and I felt bad that she wanted nothing to do with Maddox or his sister, April, who had been her best friend. Neither Maddox or April had given up on finding her but Orion really kept them both at a distance.
I liked that Maddox had never given up and had actually become a police officer to try and find her. It was obvious he still had feelings for Orion but she almost resented him which I was sad about.
It was sad seeing how Orion and the two other girls rescued, Shelby and Jaclyn, each coped with their freedom and how much each of them had their own difficulties with everything. Shelby had her family but they still treated her as if she was a child and had not been through what she had.
I was not really shocked by what Orion ends up doing as there was so much need for revenge in her. I was surprised at the lengths she went to do what she was doing.
The end of the book actually made me sad as I had really wanted Orion to realize that Maddox was truly there for her and his actions really proved it!
This book is flawlessly written, I love Anne Malcom so I was excited to read this one. A dark read with triggers, this is not a love story but a love lost but one that was definitely enduring. Taken when she was just 14 and held captive, abused for ten years, she not only survives but escapes. A redemption, revenge, survival story that I could not put down. Orion had my heart from the beginning and I only wanted her to to win and get her justice. My heart broke many times for both her and Maddox. A collaboration that is seamless. BT Urruela and Anne Malcom did an amazing job with this book.
** 4 HUSH STARS!! **
How would you feel if, out of the blue, you found yourself locked in a basement with a chain around your ankle? If you were kidnapped, suddenly taken away from your closest loved ones, to be tortured and raped for years?
Orion Darby is only fourteen years old when she receives her first kiss from the boy she has always had a crush on, Maddox Novak, her best friend’s April brother. Thanks to a party right at the Novak’s house, Orion and Maddox exchange this kiss on the porch, on a night that both will remember forever and that will mark their lives. Orion doesn’t understand how Maddox can reciprocate her feelings; she’s just a girl who lives in a camper in the slum area of the city, with two alcoholic, drug addicted and violent parents. The only person Orion has sincere affection for is her younger brother, Adam. Maddox, on the other hand, has a happy family, he and his sister April couldn’t ask for anything better, but Orion is their friend and when she disappears without a trace, the two will not rest and will search far and wide for her.
The party at the Novak house is still in full swing, but Orion has breached the curfew and has to rush home. As she is pedaling back to her trailer, lost in memories of that magnificent kiss with the boy of her dreams, she is pushed off the road by a van and kidnapped. Who are these people and what do they want from her? Orion finds herself in a basement with other girls a little older than her, a seedy place that stinks of vomit and death and which they will rename as “The Cell”. A place where they will suffer the worst torture by wealthy masked men, and where they will be held captive for years. Orion will see girls leave that cell to never return, she will see one of them die before their eyes and from that moment, together with the other two survivors Jaclyn and Shelby, she will plan their escape. The girls manage to rebel against one of the two jailers and kill him, they manage to get out of that cell, but what awaits them will certainly not be a peaceful and happy life.
After spending ten years as a prisoner, Orion will find herself in front of the ghosts of her past; she will find Maddox, the great love of when she was a young girl, who has now become one of the two policemen who have been entrusted with the case of the missing girls. Imagine the surprise of both of them when they’ll find themselves eye to eye again. Maddox can’t believe Orion is right there in front of him. But that girl, now a woman, is no longer the one he knew. She is thirsty for revenge, and will soon become a monster. There is no trace of the girl he had given the first kiss to.
I do not want to reveal more of this novel because it is a story that must be read, which made me think and crawl. I really enjoyed Maddox’s character, a grief-stricken man who felt helpless and responsible for Orion’s disappearance, who wished he could save both her and her brother Adam, who died of an overdose while she was being held captive. A man in love with her despite not having seen her again for ten very long years, and who in the end knows how to demonstrate it in a gesture of love that will leave you speechless. Orion, however, despite having understood her and not daring to imagine how she may have felt, hasn’t 100% stole my heart. Certainly a fragile woman, but reluctant to demonstrate her weaknesses. A woman who will become a monster and a ruthless killer, forever linked to the other girls who have lived through hell with her. Although I felt really bad for her, in some ways she also made me angry with her stubbornness, with her gratuitous meanness towards Maddox, with her cold and calculating way of pouring words on him just for the sake of seeing him suffer. As if the kidnapping was his fault.
A story certainly not easy to read and swallow, do not expect flowers and hearts because you will not find them here. If you love books with a happy ending, with two perfect protagonists that will make you dream and sigh, don’t pick up this book, because Orion and Maddox are none of that. A novel different from the usual, which finally kept me glued to the pages, which made me reflect, angry, feel bad and move. Which made me understand that life is unpredictable and that unfortunately there are realities in this world that maybe at first glance we can’t see, but that are really chilling and could also take place under our eyes.
Certainly a book unsuitable for the faint of heart and stomach but which I, in its crudity, loved.
*ARC received from Wildfire Marketing Solutions in exchange for an honest review*
When I received my copy of this book, I put off reading it for a little while because I wanted to be in the right headspace. I knew this book was going to demand so much from me and I was glad I waited because I knew I wouldn’t have been able to give it the attention it demanded. After finishing, it took me a while to gather my thoughts. My head was all over the place and I couldn’t think straight. I just know I loved this book so much.
Written in the third person, this isn’t my usual read. I tend to avoid all third POV books like the plague, because I never found a book I liked that did it properly and because I love reading first POV. The writing flowed so beautifully, it was hard not to get lost in the words and forget all my doubts. It’s been a while since I’ve read a good dark thriller. Filled with so many different aspects, a touch of romance, a whole bunch of suspense, and a lot of emotion. It poured out of the pages.
This book is dark, extremely violent, definitely uncomfortable and triggering in the best and worst ways. And that is why it works so well because as soon as I finished the second chapter, my mind had been made up. I fell in love with the writing, the storyline, the characters, and all the darkness this book encompasses. I had so many emotions reading this book but my most prominent one was rage, vindication, and the violent need for justice. I reveled in the darkness, I fed off Orion’s monsters and her need for revenge, and she did it looking flawless in designer shoes. I wanted all these things while wanting to reach in through my Kindle and hug the shit out of the girls. Orion had my heart. Reading about her innocence broke my heart. Her insecurities, dreams, and fantasies. The pain she went through. The girls around her and their strength. Bonded by trauma, linked by blood. It’s a beautiful thing. As beautiful as tragedy and trauma can get.
This is my first book by BT, but I loved that I could distinctly tell the different writing styles between the authors. However, because I am so familiar with Anne’s writing style, it was easy to pick them out. Two different writing styles, blended together to create dark magic. It’s so enchanting. This might not be your usual read but it’s a unique book and something that will rip emotion out of you whether you want it to or not.
Pick it up, get your wine or tissues, and be your own vigilante.
Hush by B.T. Urruela & Anne Malcom
5 STARS
Hush is a full stand alone novel by Anne Malcom & B.T. Urruela, it is written in third person and it tells the story of Maddox & Orion.
It was my second read from Anne Malcom and my first from B.T. Urruela. Please keep in mind the warning at the beginning of the book and that this book is dark. It contains some triggers that some of you may find offensive.
If you love dark books, with some thriller, suspense, twist and turns, and some action, this is the right book for you. It is best if you go in it blind.
Every time I read this kind of books, I came to realize that this stuff really exists & happens to many girls & kids. I get so scared..
Orion is just a happy cause, because she escapes after 10 years of hell. 10 years of rape, torture, beating. You just can’t be normal again after all of that.
This book was like nothing I have read before, it was good, unpredictable and unexpected.
This is one of those books you want to take your
time with. I seriously haven’t read a thriller like
this I’m a long while. I didn’t want to rush reading
this, if I had I would have missed the little snippets of
Orion being human. It’s really dark, but well written.
The authors did an amazing job. Everything flowed so
well, especially the world building.
“Hush” is co-written by Anne Malcom and B.T. Urruela, and what a team these two make.
This was such a unique read, filled with twists and turns. Make sure to go in with an opened mind and expect the unexpected. Beware that there is also triggers. This was an emotional journey that shattered me.
Orion Darby, was abducted while riding her bike home from her friends house when she was fourteen, after having her first kiss. Being deliriously happy after the kiss with her crush and best friends brother Maddox, Orion wasn’t aware of the Van that had followed her. After being r**ed, Orion is thrown into a basement with two other girls where she is kept prisoner for ten years. During these ten years, Orion lives through torture, r*pe, beatings, and witnessing other females coming and dying.
This story tells the struggles of the emotional and physical effects of trying to adjust to life after being held for ten years. But with the thirst for justice and revenge on those who caused heartache, pain and years of injustice will have our main female character Orion on a journey to seek just that. After having no control over her life, Orion is going to do whatever it takes to be in control of her own actions and wants for once.
What an amazing but heartbreaking book. Orion had been through so much, more then I could ever imagine. Maddox has been through his own kinda nightmare. They both learn that you can’t always forget the past but you can control your own future.
I believe that an author can reach down into our soul and create a moment when our mind and our heart collide
BT Urruela and Anne Malcom have created such a moment with their first co-authored book, Hush.
We hold our breath throughout this story of abducted women who survive through their own grit just to live.
Each of these authors have a special way of telling a story, but combined? We are transported!
This is not a romance novel. This book is heartbreaking and raw. How three girls survived 10 years of torture and what life if any lay ahead for them once they escaped. How they saw their future. I loved Orion and her strong will to survive. Dealing with abuse especially sexual abuse like these poor girls did can never be erased from their memory. Finding new ways to survive or basically live can be a struggle. This was a great collaboration by these two authors.
This is the first story by this duo of writers I have read and what a killer story to start with!
This story is an edge of my seat thriller. It’s about what the worst of humanity can do to a girl and what happens to her when she is set free.
Orion is such a strong heroine. She is in the worst nightmare imaginable for years! And the person she becomes when she is free is nothing short of miraculous and not at all surprising. She learns instead of fighting with her inner monsters, she learns to embrace them.
This is also the story of the people that were affected by Orion’s disappearance. It’s not just Orion that has lost, but Maddox and April too. To see what happens to the people that have loved and lost Orion and how it molded them to the people they are today!
I was totally immersed in this story and couldn’t put it down until the very end!
I finished this early this morning and I have to say it’s one of the best suspense books I’ve ever read! I would compare it to my all time favorite author, Mary Higgins Clark, the way BT and Anne were able to weave the romance into this epic suspense book was beyond words! I wish I could read it again and again for the first time.
On the night Orion/”Ri” seemed to get everything her 14 year old self ever wanted, it was all ripped away. Sent to share a hell no one should ever suffer, it took 10 years for her to get out, but it wasn’t Ri who got away, it was Orion, someone who will never be weak again. Her old bestie and crush are still around and willing to help, but for Orion the only thing that will help her is the one thing she has to do alone… revenge.
This was a really good story from this writing duo and it dragged me in from page one. It deals with some harrowing stuff although for anyone who needs to know these details, it is not descriptive in any way you just know it has happened. The only thing I wasn’t so keen on was the way it just ended, but that’s only because I wanted more now that certain people knew certain things lol. I enjoyed this and give Hush 4 stars.
A compelling story of how tragic events can change a person and shape the rest of their life. Hush tells the story of Orion, kidnapped and held for 10 years, enduring all types of horror, and how she copes once she is thrust back into the world. The are scenes which could trigger some readers so this is certainly not for the faint hearted.
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It’s not only Orion’s story we see in this book though, we also see how two other girls she was held in captivity with cope on the the outside. Each girl copes completely differently after their ordeals and Hush perfectly shows how there is no one way to cope, no one way to heal, no correct way on how to move on…..or even if you can heal at all. It’s a dark, gritty, painful and haunting story, but one I think many people will want to read, one I think people should read.
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At first I struggled on a few parts where there was paragraphs of description and background building etc., in the middle of dialogue, as I found it distracting, but I soon realise that this is how Orion felt in these moments. Confused and distracted, inside her on head while the world continued moving around her. I would have rated this 4 stars, but I was a little disappointed with the ending. It’s abrupt and sudden, and I feel a little out of character for one person in particular. This of course is just my opinion, and I would love to hear over readers thoughts on the ending….so feel free to message me if you have read or do read this in the future.
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Overall, this was a good read and had me very intrigued throughout.
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