“Stolen flowers, my darling Callista, have always been my favorite.”After the death of her glamorous mother, the last person young Callista Palmer has in her corner is Ruben Reynolds. He’s her fourth stepfather, as well as the man in charge of her trust fund.And she’s never met him before.Ruben has plans for Callista. Plans that include training her at the House of Flowers, where she will be … House of Flowers, where she will be given a new name, and taught to become an obedient, kneeling toy for the right Master—for the right price.
Callista resists her training with everything she has in her, fighting the budding feelings she’s developed for her own stepfather.
All under Ruben’s watchful eye, and under his firm hand, never knowing the real reason behind his strict discipline, and Ruben’s best kept secret…
Her stepfather was always going to keep Callista for himself.
Stolen Flowers is a 30,000-word novella about forbidden love.
This is the first book in the Stolen series. The book ends with a HEA, there is no cliffhanger.
This story follows Callista and Ruben and is a dark romance.
more
I liked parts of this book and not so much other parts. It felt rushed but was a short story. I enjoyed it and am glad I read it.
This was a quick taboo read.
Callista never got to have a childhood or really her teenage years because she was a boarding school. After her mother’s death she hoped for a change but her step-father Reuben had other plans.
When Callista turns 18 she is taken to the House of Flowers to be groomed for a Master. The only thing is she fights this at any chance she can get. That is until she finds out who is training her.
Reuben has keep his ex-wife’s daughter away as long as he needed. When it was time he sent her to House of Flowers. He had alternative motives in doing this however, he had to keep all this hidden because it was wrong.
Reuben and Callista may have a strained relationship at the beginning but this changes quickly in the book. The relationship between the two is taboo because of the age differences and that fact that it is step-father and step-daughter. However, I think it works because neither of them have actually every meet until Callista is 18 and her mother is dead and was never really faithful.
The concept of this story is very interesting. It is original, written very well and a definite page turner.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The blurb intrigued me, a stunning cover and the opportunity to read a new to me author had me signed up for this arc opportunity.
Stolen Flowers is a well written, erotic, forbidden novella with scope for a series or world of books. I think the author has created an amazing first book and am looking forward to reading more of her work.
Callista is damaged, rebellious and alone, feeling unloved and dismissed by her mother and Ruben as her never been seen stepfather, she has plans for an independent life and the background is created vividly from there. Further in I found in some sections the characters and story seemed to lose some depth. I also struggled with these sections maybe because of Callista’s age and being in the House of Flowers against her consent, but it felt like the story veered somewhat into grooming, which I’m not comfortable with, I think more focus on the characters rather than the training might have avoided that. The ending was intriguing and contains such a beautiful gift but you need to read it to find out what 🙂
If you enjoy feisty younger woman, older man domination and forbidden in your books then definitely read this amazing new author.
I’ll be honest here and say that I am extremely torn over my review of this book. I am a forbidden romance junkie and two of my favorite tropes are age gap and step relationships, so I was so super excited to read this book. To my dismay I found that this book although well written and featuring a interesting plot concept was a big turn-off for me. I want to say this: I am very open minded, I enjoy lots of types of kink, enjoy reading about BDSM and am a firm believer that the more heat the better, but this book just didn’t set right with me personally. I am all in for scorching hot naughty times but this book felt a lot less like that and way more like straight-up “Grooming”. I did not care for the dynamic between Ruben and Callista AT ALL!!! In fact, I found Ruben incredibly creepy and in my opinion simply predatory. That is however, just MY Opinion and I know others will really like this book and to each their own. Unfortunately, for me though that was just the very tip of the iceberg of my discontent with this couple’s “relationship”, how it starts and how it evolves. As it is, I found nothing romantic about this story or couple. I do strongly warn readers that have triggers to seriously consider choosing to read this book. This is my candid, review that I a freely posting.
This was a good read. What I enjoyed most were the dirty sexy parts of the story. I like the taboo storyline. This book could easily have been longer and I might have it enjoyed that even more. I like details and story development when it comes to a great story which often lacks these novellas.
This story has more potential.
A dark romance, but not too bad!
Callista is sent away to a boarding school at fourteen, her mother never loved or wanted her, which Callista found hard. All she ever wanted was to be loved.
When her mother passed away when she was sixteen, she heard from her stepfather, her mothers 4th husband, to be told she would be staying at boarding school until she turned eighteen! She hated him, even though they had never met! She could not get her inheritance until she turned twenty one, so she was stuck relying on him.
A week after her eighteenth birthday her stepfather showed up and took her away, straight to the House of Flowers, a school to teach young ladies how to become the perfect slave, to be sold when she was fully trained.
What will happen to the girl who only wanted to be loved unconditionally!
I enjoyed this novella, it was quite sweet.
Enjoyed these stolen flowers! 4 stars
This is a quick, sexy novella about a forbidden age-gap relationship between Reuben and Callista. It’s close to a total power exchange which I personally could not handle, but it was still sexy to read! We do get some background on Callista, and my heart hurt for her regarding her relationship with her mother. We don’t get much background on Reuben except he has always had plans for Callista! This was my first time reading this author, and the writing flowed with time going by quickly as I was reading. I liked and enjoyed this quick, sexy novella, and I look forward to reading the second standalone in this series!
*I received an advanced copy of this ebook for my honest review.*
I’m new to this author, but not for long!!! I will definitely read more from her after reading Stolen Flowers!!!! I was hooked from the first page!!!! Love, love, loved it!!!!
I received a copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is a quick short read- so temper your expectations appropriately, even the most skilled of authors have a daunting task to fully articulate a complete story arc in a short story format, and when the author is a romance/erotica author, you know what you’re going to get- light on plot or a complete story, light on coherent character development, lots of explicit steam. And, that is exactly what we have here.
I do like the quickies now and then, even if I prefer a more developed story, but this one wasn’t my favorite, despite the premise having a lot of promise. Part of that were the tropes- we’ve got a merging of “master/slave” (which isn’t my fav, and I didn’t love here) with age gap (my cup of tea) and family taboo (here not related- stepfather/daughter, but also like this trope normally)…and we have some light “daddy” vibes (even though the term “daddy” isn’t used) and some sexual kinks. The plot is pretty straight forward- stepfather training his new flower, who happens to be his stepdaughter, and both are drawn to each other despite their intentions. And, thus ensues the master-slave training. On top of this not being my favorite trope, a number of elements were underdeveloped. The characters, particularly our heroine Callista, weren’t consistent, the plot is quick and to the point (which can be expected in short story, although a bit choppy here)- we don’t get to swim much around in this potentially interesting dynamic, and, as much as I hate to say it, the sexy times even felt underdeveloped- lacking much build up, almost rote in nature. They were kinky and provocative, sure, just left me wanting, and not in that good way, haha.
This new author is the pen name supported by an author that I often enjoy (in what way, it is unclear)- she’s known for dark and disturbing antiheroes and deliciously erotic stories that balance both plot with a heavy dose of steamy fun. She’s a gifted writer, and the concept here is really fun- age gap, family taboo and a master-slave academy, but this just didn’t quite do it for me. Clearly others loved it, and it is a fast read. If you are looking for a kinky idea and quick, steamy read (AND the master/slave trope if your jam) then you’d probably think this is pretty solid. For me, I may skip the 2nd half of the the duet but I’ll definitely be following this new pen name- meant to focus on more short, taboo, steamy focused tales-and I see a lot of promise
This is a new author to me, but I did like the book. The taboo of a love between a step-daughter and step-father is something I would have never thought of for a story plot. In this story, the man is older than the woman, which is not uncommon. This doesn’t have “Dark Romance,” but it does have what you’d consider BDSM. If you’re interested in that, give this a read!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Stolen flowers is a quick dark read.
It follows eighteen year old Callista who, a week after her eighteenth is taken from the school where she’s lived for the past few years and taken to the house of flowers by her fourth stepfather Ruben.
Callista was stubborn and tried her best to stick for to herself, and Ruben is very dominating. We have push and pull from our H which is understanding considering her circumstances. There were slight secondary character’s and I see we’ll be seeing Callista’s roommate in the next book.
I won’t give too much away but this isn’t the usual book I’d read, it’s taboo and it has a master/slave relationship. It’s steamy and sometimes it’s hard to read due to some situations , but If that’s your type of book then this is the one for you.
An interesting short novella from this new author to me, the storyline flowed seamlessly, an age gap romance with a twist and a HEA. Calla never thought that following the death of her glamorous mother that her stepfather Ruben whom she had never met would step in and change her life’s destiny. His plans were very special and would involve training and dominance once she became of age. Ruben at first appears cruel and demeaning and Calla was stubborn and defiant but within a short period of time she becomes compliant and submissive definitely a little too quick and a bit strange. However on the whole I did enjoy the book, would definitely recommend it and am interested to see how this author evolves. I received a free copy via Booksprout in exchange for a voluntary honest review which I was happy to provide.