Tears Of Tess Review

Synopsis:
 
Tess Snow has everything she ever wanted: one more semester before a career in property development, a loving boyfriend, and a future dazzling bright with possibility.

For their two year anniversary, Brax surprises Tess with a romantic trip to Mexico. Sandy beaches, delicious cocktails, and soul-connecting sex set the mood for a wonderful holiday. With a full heart, and looking forward to a passion filled week, Tess is on top of the world.

But lusty paradise is shattered.

Kidnapped. Drugged. Stolen. Tess is forced into a world full of darkness and terror.

Captive and alone with no savior, no lover, no faith, no future, Tess evolves from terrified girl to fierce fighter. But no matter her strength, it can’t save her from the horror of being sold.

Can Brax find Tess before she’s broken and ruined, or will Tess’s new owner change her life forever?

"My life was complete. Happy, content, everything neat and perfect.
Then it all changed.
I was sold.”

A New Adult Dark Contemporary Romance, not suitable for people sensitive to grief, slavery, and nonconsensual sex. A story about finding love in the strangest of places, a will of iron that grows from necessity, and forgiveness that may not be enough.

My Review:

In the blink of an eye, things change.  Catastrophic events can occur that turn safe, secure lives upside down.  It happened to Tess.  A dream vacation in Mexico with the man she loved turned into her worse nightmare.  She was kidnapped, brutally beaten and sold as a sex slave.  But this story is about so much more than that.  Tears of Tess is a story of survival, discovery, and recognizing & embracing ones destiny.  While happy with her boyfriend, Tess longed for more sexually.  She has thoughts of pain and pleasure - dark desires that she knows her vanilla boyfriend will never embrace.  She tries to subdue them, to keep them locked away but they escape, overwhelming her with emotions she doesn't understand.  Then she is kidnapped.  Her captors are brutal - terrorizing, beating, & starving her.  Their intention is to mentally break her and then sell her.  Tess mourns the loss of her safe, secure world, hanging on to the tattered scraps of her sanity as all hope of rescue slips away.  It's up to her to save herself.  She digs deep and unleashes the darkness that she has tried to keep hidden inside...if she dies, she will die fighting every step of the way.  And then she meets her new owner, Q.

"Monsters find each other in the dark."

 
Tears of Tess, Monsters in the Dark #1, is not for the faint of heart.  Horrific things happen to good people, both in RL and this series.  Tess is one of those people.  Winters delivers a graphic, emotionally charged account of what monsters do to innocent victims.  Tess begins this journey as a victim, a slave, kidnapped by sex traffickers.  She is degraded, branded, mentally & physically abused, and at the end of her rope...all before meeting Q - dark, sexy, dominant...a true alpha male who is not only a mystery to Tess but to readers also.  Who is he?  Her new master for sure.  But is he one of the monsters?  Or her savior?  Why does Tess find herself wanting to call him Sir?   Whose thoughts are these:

I want to hurt you.

I want to own you.

I want to devour you.

I want to make you mine.

I'm already yours.

I won't say more about the plot as it's almost impossible to talk about this book without revealing spoilers.  Tears of Tess is a book that should be experienced as you read it - just know going in that it's graphic...full of angst, pain, darkness.  But if you're brave enough to open the cover and step in, I can promise you a great read that you won't put down until the end.  Winters delivers a Page Burner book  with characters you will both love & hate - that experience both pleasure and pain.  And in all the darkness, there's a ray of hope.  There's always hope if you never give up.  A Must Read!  The series continues with Quintessentially Q

My Rating - 5 Gorgeous ♥♥♥♥♥'s...And that's the truth!

Cross My Heart...xxx
Sandra 

Quotes:

If someone asked me a week ago what I was most afraid of, I'd have said crickets.  Those damn flying grasshopper creatures scared the bejesus out of me.
Now, if someone asked me, I'd say three little words.
Three little words that terrified, stole my breath, and made my life flicker before my eyes.
Three little words.
I was sold. 
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"I'm not something you can tame.  I'm not a man who will sprout poems and treat you nice.  I'm. Not. That. Human."
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Two things I wanted most in the world:  for Q to die a miserable death, and for him to fuck me.  
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 "You are mine.  You are mine.  Repeat that until it gets into your head.  You cannot disobey.  Unless..."  A glint of interest smouldered in his eyes.  "Unless you want to be punished?"