I didn’t know her name… But I took her anyway.She was supposed to belong to another man.Now she’s mine.Her big doe eyes and full, lush lips pleaded with me to take her.I couldn’t just walk away.That monster made her his slave. Hurt and broken, all I wanted to do was save her.I’ll protect her.I’ll show her what love really is.I’ll remind every inch of her body that it can feel so good…I don’t … inch of her body that it can feel so good…
I don’t care if he wants her back.
She belongs to me.
And I’ll fight to show her what she’s truly worth.
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Bijou had gone to bed one night only to wake with someone in her room. Before she could scream she had a wet cloth over her face causing her to lose consciousness. When she awoke, she had no idea where she was, only that she was tied up and blind folded. Over two years she is still in the hands of her captor. Physically, emotionally, and mentally abused every way humanly possible, scars on the inside as well as the outside, she is only allowed to talk when it is demanded of her. She’s gathered from small conversations overheard she was taken as payment owed by her father to Diablo, head of the Mafia that had moved into their town. After all this time, she remembers her name was Bijou. Now, she is nothing and no one … for all intent purposes, Diablo kills her one way or another on a daily basis.
Redd became a thief at the age of sixteen when his drunk father wouldn’t take responsibility for what he and his sister needed. The convenience store only netted a couple hundred dollars but paid the electric bill and put food on the table. He felt bad at first, but with each job it became easier until he received a call asking for help. Now he would make the heist for a client, turn it over, get out and get paid. He promised himself he would retire after the last heist but as luck would have it her overheard two men in a bar discussing a jewel worth $50,000 they would be guarding. The only problem Redd had was he had made himself a rule not to steal from someone’s home. Now the weight of the heist was battling with his self imposed rule. By his reckoning and the conversation, whatever this was didn’t really belong to whoever it was anyway so, his ego convinced him he was doing just one more heist and then this would be over. Or would it?
Leah Holt has once again shown her vast talent at finding a way for her words to take a reader and immerse them into the emotion of her characters. This story is filled with a plethora of them and I was on a rollercoaster with twists and turns not only from the emotional angst but with the plot. Everything just flowed together and pieces fitting together like a master puzzle. Bijou, Redd and even Vicki will make you feel like you’re going through everything with them. What surprised me most, there is a character I had really despised throughout the book until the end when it took another twist and had no choice to admit it was misplaced. That’s when you know an author has exceeded your expectations. Great job!
I liked this book but, I think the Author was a little off when Redd and BiJou hooked up so fast. If she was held captive in a closet and abused, sexually assaulted and starved for two years I have a hard time believing she would trust any man for a long time This book did capture me though because I could not put it down. I wanted to go krill Diego myself
Unfortunately, I was really looking forward to this book. I just couldn’t get into it. I ended up not bothering to finish it.
It was ok. It was kind of boring and extremely predictable.
This is a dark, emotional, powerful read revolving around Bijou and Redd. Bijou is a young woman stolen from her family and home in the middle of the night and held against her will by a very powerful and dangerous mob boss.
Redd is a thief and stumbles across the captive Bijou during a heist. Oh my word the twist and turns of this revolving around her , her family, the captures and Redd’s past are amazing and thrilling! Are Redd and Bijou entitled to a happy ever after or will their pasts catch up!?
I was offered an Arc for an honest review .
~~Michele McMullen ~
“She wouldn’t be here with me if she really wanted to die.”
Provocative, dark and all kinds of hot, Leah Holt pulls you in and spits you out with enough bruises to scar you both inside and out in her latest novel, Redd.
Diablo takes what he wants without a second thought of the carnage he leaves behind. That’s exactly how Bijou ends up in his unforgiving hands. She’s a payment for a debt owed and that means she belongs to him to do whatever he desires. And Diablo loves his toys.
Bijou was snatched from a life she soon realised she had taken for granted. She now belongs to someone else. She doesn’t have a say, she’s just there to do whatever she is told.
I was fascinated by how Leah Holt managed to draw me in from the first page and how she transformed a broken human into a character you end up rooting for with everything you’ve got. She writes real and strong characters and that make everything that much better.
Redd is the mysterious, under the radar character you don’t see coming and at the same time you are not sure if you want him to turn around or keep going forward. He manages to get himself entangled with something he probably shouldn’t. But he doesn’t end up regretting anything and he isn’t exactly hard to stay mad at.
The story is certainly filled with dark and gets you quite angry, sometimes at everyone and sometimes at the situation but everything has a purpose and in the end it all becomes clear.
“Help me, help her. Let’s make this go away for ever.”
Certainly worth five-gripping-stars!
**Review by Angelique, Late Night Reviewer for Up All Night w/ Books**