After a party gone wrong and in desperate need of money for the fall semester of college, twenty-year-old Nora Robertson needs to escape her hometown. She accepts a summer long live-in tutoring job for a handsome man and his little sister at a secluded home deep in the mountains.There is no running water.No electricity.No internet or cell service.When her tutoring job ends she’s hit with a brutal … her tutoring job ends she’s hit with a brutal turn of events … she’s not permitted to leave.
After months in captivity, she makes a harrowing escape with her student that ends in a car accident on a desolate road. When Nora comes to, her student is missing. In a desperate attempt to find the girl, Nora will have to recount her time held captive.
The good and the bad.
Can Nora and the authorities work together to find the man who took her? Will they rescue the girl Nora tried to save?
Author’s Note: This is a dark romantic suspense.
Trigger warning: all of them. This will not elicit warm fuzzy feelings
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Lives are a collection of choices.
The choice Nora makes by applying for the job
The choice she made to keep quiet about Anton
The choice she made to not rebel
The choice she made of accepting her fate
The choice she made to adapt to her new environment to survive
EACH choice scarred her . Physically and emotionally.
And now she lives in an Altered State Of Mind. Stuck between What she is and what she wants to be.
I think, too often, young women are lured into emotionally unstable relationships that are toxic. It is very easy to justify behaviors that are wrong when you care for someone.”
But like Carrie Bradshaw once asked, “when two people love each other so completely and they break up. Where does the Love go?
So while Holden is wrong kind of love, it IS still love….at least on Nora’s part. Her feelings are real and tangible. So how does she recover from that ?
I understand. I get it. I know that in real life, Holden is bad. That our love is wrong. That I adapted to cope. But my feelings . . . my emotions are not so rational.
The story is very complex, very captivating.
I had some questions though which needed answers, but weren’t. But that does not take away from the darkness of the underlying emotion.
Still it will effect you very powerfully. Katie is a master of mindfuck stories, this one is no different. Be prepared for a ride into insane world of Nora and Holden…aka The Tutor !
4 Freckled Stars
And the award for most memorable line in the entire book…
Only ever you.
Still have chills from it! Seriously, chills. This book is not a romance. NOT A ROMANCE. For those that may stumble upon it and think dark romance- NOPE, NOT A ROMANCE but what a helluva book!
Fear, tension, and hope coil tightly in your stomach. You will spend the entire book clutching it with white knuckled nerves. I guarantee you will be frustrated, flustered, and desperate. You may even romanticize your thoughts and feelings. I bet you will look for the good in people too.
You will be disappointed. Not all darkness can be penetrated by light. Not all crazy can be fixed. Not all loves are easy.
This book is interesting, intriguing, and suspenseful. You may guess, you may query, and you will still be cautiously optimistic. It’s a flaw and one you will have to live with. But maybe, just maybe that hope will get you through…
I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. My emotions, my wishes, and my faith were all over the place reading this book. But ultimately, I realized I understood Nora more than I ever could. The chaotic way that the POV is constantly switching characters actually makes it more fragmented and adds to the ambiance. I found it weird at first but it really rounds out the story. And what a story!!!!!!
Without giving up more, I can wait for the authors next book!!!!!
reviewed for Sweet Spot Sisterhood
The Tutor will make you contemplative.
Just exactly what will the mind accept in the name of survival?
Nora, a young, bright mind with so much life, until a fateful decision irrevocably shatters her existence. It’s just a summer job, a way to earn enough money to be able to take one more step toward realizing her college ambitions. Don’t worry, Holden seems nice, he only wants to make sure his sister is looked after and educated. A 3 month summer adventure, living off the land and off the grid, until it’s time to go home.
K. Larsen has penned a masterpiece of words and emotions. This story is not for the faint of heart, but 425 pages later, it will leave you changed.
I’m in love with the Creeptastic Brilliance that is this book! It gave me the chills, creeped me out, tugged on my heart strings but most of all it made me think.
This is one of those rare books where the journey is maybe more important than the destination. I love that Katie doesn’t lay it all out. She makes the reader think and deduce for themselves. No passive readers allowed. It’s such a different experience from most things I’ve read that I really had to just let go and let the words lead me and not expect the answers to be spoon fed to me.
This story put thoughts in my head that took root twisting what I thought I believed. Can evil love? Can evil be loved? Just because a love is twisted or unusual, does that mean it’s not love. We all know that love is not always rainbows, hearts and good intentions. But can it exist when it hurts, when it’s taken, when it’s manipulated and just plain wrong? Is this love or just twisted imaginings of a broken mind? Hmmmmm?
This book, these characters, this author………are complex, twisted and delicious!
The Tutor
K. Larsen
*Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC from the author. The following review is my own with no influence from the author*
Here I am a week after having finished this book and I’m still having problems putting words in the correct order to properly give this book, and more importantly the author, the accolades it deserves. OMG this is completely not what I was expecting from this book. It is billed as romantic suspense, that is the closest description, but not entirely accurate. It is so very much more. The writing was phenomenal, there was depth to the characters that is usually lacking in these type of storylines. I was traumatized when I finished it and wanted to immediately read it again. It was fantastic. I am really having a hard time talking about this book without giving too much away, as I think that would ruin the story. You cannot go wrong with this book. It tore me up, chewed on me, and 7 days later I am attempting to put words to paper to convey the talent of the author.
My 1st book by author and cant wait to read more.
Written in many povs, could be hard for some to follow but i loved it, i got to know more about the charcters this way. Writting is descriptive and flows nicely.
I couldn’t put this book down, it gripped me from the start, i was intrigued by Nora and how things were gonna end for her and holden has he really did mess with her mind.
Strong secondary characters that made this book more captivating.
A disturbing dark story that could have triggers for some people.
It has taken me weeks…weeks to write this review. I have been in an absolute book slump since finishing it. I mean, who can replace Holden and Nora’s story? I was reading it, routing for them, and thinking–what the hell is wrong with me? This book had the perfect blend of dark, twisted, love, and affection. It had all the wrong that felt so right. I can’t even write a review that does this book justice. My favorite from K. Larsen yet.
“Not just any woman will do. She has to be the right kind and I am a master at finding them.”
I love dark romance and suspense, so the combination of the two sounded like the perfect book for me. I was glad to see that The Tutor didn’t disappoint! There were so many things that I loved about this book. First of all if you read other reviews, you may have seen that the story is told from 7 different POVs, however the main POV, that of the main character Nora, tells the story. Please don’t let this discourage you of reading this book, because the POVs are very short and it didn’t bother me at all. I think it even added to the story because you get a look from so many different angles, which elevated the story in my opinion.
“We all consume lies when our souls are starved.”
The way the story is told, isn’t what I usually read, but it really worked well for this story. It starts in present time, when Nora escaped captivity, and to save her student she needs to recount her time held captive. It gave a great view into what Nora was dealing with and how she was handling such mixed emotions. Nora has been through some stuff in her past, and goes through some very traumatic events in this book as well. I could totally understand why she fell under HIS spell. I loved the contrast of her fighting and eventually giving up, and just doing what she was told. However, the old Nora was still hidden somewhere inside of her.
“Nora is different. I want to please her, as much as I desire to hurt her.”
As for the bad guy, who is named ‘The Tutor’ by the media, I had some mixed feelings in the beginning. However things became more clear the further I got into the book. He definitely didn’t have an easy past, but that doesn’t excuse the things he did. I did feel somewhat bad for him, but never really fell for him. I think that is the main reason why I didn’t rate this book higher than four stars. For me a Dark Romantic Suspense needs to be about a very twisted and wrong relationship between the main characters, however I also need to fall for the villain. (I usually LOVE villains!) So I had some different expectations in regards to that. BUT I have to say that I loved that it was unpredictable, and that the author dared to take a different direction with this story. The ending was very fitting and I can’t wait to see what happens next. I am very intrigued to see which direction K. Larsen will take us next.
“All this time, I treated him like the cure, when he was the poison.”