Sometimes you reach a point where you just can’t take any more — a breaking point, some call it.
The day I watched my husband murder the woman who was pregnant with his child, my point didn’t just break, it exploded like a full magazine’s worth of hollow points firing through the barrel of a fully-automatic AK-47.
Literally.
I am no longer his American Princess, nor am I his slave.
Now, I’m a murderer in hiding. My name was Bryleigh Carter Oliveira, and that was my story.
Translucent is one woman's story of breaking free, starting over, and learning to trust again through willful submission.
MY REVIEW
Translucent by Erin Noelle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
4 deliciously slow burning STARS
Translucent was not at all what I expected and I liked it even more because of that. It is a dark read as well as a sweet as sugar romance novel and that's just not what I was counting on when I started reading. I sure as hell didn't expect to like such a thing. But there you have it.
“If you can find it in yourself to allot me the tiniest sliver of faith, I will do everything in my power to help you break free from these demons holding you hostage. I want you to willingly turn it all over to me- your pleasure and your pain.”
This book is basically the definition of slow burn and if that doesn't float your boat you might be better off reading something else, but for me strangely enough it was just what I needed.
It's a common story; a naïve seventeen year old girl falls for the wrong man and finds out far too late in how much trouble she is and what kind of fate she has brought upon everyone she loves.
After enduring far too much for her young age Bryleigh breaks and sees only one way out. Kill her husband - the Italian mobster.
Fun times!
Now that is where I thought the book would turn into a bloody revenge story, mixed in with some kink...and it really isn't. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
“Sometimes you reach a point where you just can’t take any more — a breaking point, some call it.”
Bryleigh Carter Oliveira killed her husband and in order to survive the wrath of his family she has to go into hiding and become a different person...namely Blake Martin.
Thank god the bastard was a wanted man and some people in law enforcement wanted him gone or she would have been in even more trouble. Just sayin'.
The story follows 22 year old Blake struggling and adjusting into her new life in witness protection, a new city, a new job, a new man and gives us small glimpses into her past with flashbacks.
Now her new job is interesting. She has no qualifications or experience, but she is hired (with some help from the law I would guess) in a graphic design firm in the marketing department (I wonder why I even study...). Anyway, her first client turned out to be the obligatory love interest.
Oh, I love romance novels.
Madden Decker is the 34 year old CEO of the Decker Enterprises a family firm that trades in security something...or another and they want to expand into video gaming. Yeah, I didn't get that part either. :D
But the important part is that in a pitch meeting for this new endeavour Madden can't keep his eyes off the obviously shy and probably submissive Blake, and right off the bat asks her out. Well, he doesn't so much ask as he tells her that he will take her out for dinner. Gotta love a domineering alpha, right?
”Something tells me I'm biting off more than I can chew with her, that I'm not strong enough to help her through whatever it is that terrorizes her, but for some reason, I can't walk away.”
I have to confess, I love Blake and Madden together. As mentioned above, this book is a slow burner, but when it does catch fire it lights up the whole house.
Madden is sweet and caring man under all the alpha-ness and he has the patience of a saint. Blake has, and this is quite obvious from the beginning, huge issues with her past and has even bigger problems with handling those past nightmares. But Mr. Decker just goes with it. *sighs*
Question is, can he help Blake deal with her issues and what happens if/when her past catches up to them?
Translucent is written in 1st person narrative, from both Blake's and Madden's POV and it helps a lot in understanding both characters and gives the complex relationship a good foundation.
This book is also described as a bdsm novel. Now, if you want to call it that...it's vanilla-bdsm from top to bottom. Yes, there is some 'Sir' calling and even blindfolds, but nowhere near a real kinky situation. I hope it gets a bit more risqué within the next book(s?), but for now, it's not much. But that's not to say this isn't insanely hot.
The flashbacks are why I also put this book on my dark-read shelf and let me tell you, they are dark. Sometimes even overly so. I'm not sure if the story needed such descriptive scenes, but what can you do?
To finish this off, I'm pissed as hell about the cliffy. Damn you, Ms. Noelle. And stopping at 92%...not cool. Is it fall yet?
BR with the Canaries
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