Freeing Lana

Lana Martin had a simple life, uncomplicated by the things that normally plagued her friends. But then terror struck and she found herself the unwilling plaything of a sexual deviant. Under his control, she is forced to endure things that would have crushed most people, but somehow she managed to stay alive long enough to be rescued and return to a normal life.

Only life would never be normal again for Lana, because she came out of the ordeal with an unsettling knowledge that she had never been truly happy before. The deeply terrifying events she had endured had done something she hadn’t expected; they had awakened something dark inside of her, a lust that could only be satisfied under the protection of a black hood. She found that only in that darkness, could she truly be free from her inhibitions.

When Daniel Morrow, the man who had held her captive is released from prison, Lana’s nightmare begins again, and she fears she will never be safe again. Her life, her future now relies on one man, the man she had once dismissed as unable to satisfy her longing, her former boyfriend Sergio Marsilis. Follow along with Lana as the darkness is awakened inside of her, and then as she searches for the one thing that has always eluded her, perfect sexual freedom. 

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Amazon

Review:

Some books drill down into the deepest parts of us and make us examine how we ourselves would react to situations. This book was one of those. Lana Martin was taken, tortured and survived to live another day. Imagine yourself in her place. You have to survive so you learn to do things that would normally disgust you. But what if in the journey to survive, you found out hard truths about yourself that "normal" society called depraved or maladjusted. What if you began to crave the very thing that hurt you and degraded you? That is Lana's journey.

This book comes across in parts and can be a trigger for anyone who has endured domestic violence, kidnapping or abuse/rape. I myself have had experience with the painful reality of sexual violence and the words in this book were in some ways like a fun house mirror. We all have perceptions of ourselves and there is the image we show to the world. This book delves beyond the "nice" and forces your eyes to see.

The characters that surround Lana and the horrifying twist also gave me food for thought. Surviving abuse changes you. It effects how you see the world. Who you trust. Who and how you love. In short-everything. But what about the people who you touch? Does the abuse effect them? This book illustrates just how much it could. Would you learn to become a monster if it meant helping the one you loved? It is a provocative question.

Did I like the characters? Not always. No. The men in particular I wanted to go after with a large baseball bat, but that's just me. Sergio, the man that loves Lana, is an interesting person but like is not a word I would choose to gift him with. Lana I sympathize with and wish I could wrap her in a hug and tell  her its okay to want what you want. We are not the sum of what has happened to us. We are how we climb back on our feet and keep on going, no matter what.

A heartfelt and provocative read.

4.5/5

*triggers
*sexual violence
*bondage
*kidnapping/rape
*betrayal
*survival