1.5 stars.
- First half of the story -
(WARNING SPOILERS)
I liked the beginning of the story. I got the impression that it will be dark, twisted and maybe emotional. I got the same impression from the book description, too.
I was loving the story the first few chapters. Which were about a woman who is either being kept as a slave or is there willingly as a slave. It was hard to tell. She have been living with her master for 5 years. She kept saying she's there because she wanted to be, needed, but after few conversations between her master and some of his buddies, I though "He really did a number on her". Who would want that? He treated them like they weren't even human, but some disgusting creatures who are good for only one thing. And yes, she didn't like the thing he did, most of the time she was scared out of her mind to make a wrong step, because of the punishment that would fallow. Still, she kept saying she needed this. Everytime he was with her, he made sure to remind her that he helped/saved her, that no one forced her to come to him.
Later, you find out that the reason she is there is because of her parents. Apparently she got tired of never reaching their expectations, never being good enough. She wanted to be free. That should have been the first warning to drop the book, but I still had no clue where the story was heading, so I kept reading.
Her master is one mean MF. His punishment are absolutely brutal. There was a scene where he punished one of the girls for lying to him. I literally wanted to trow up. And the girls reaction afterwards just broke my heart. How can you possibly want that, I thought? And then it came to me. Those girls were so far gone in their heads, that they didn't even realized that line between fun&games and abuse, have been crossed looooong time ago. He have shaped them exactly the way he wanted them to be.
So, while all this abuse going on in his mansion, there is a guy working there. He have been hired to make their sculptures. He sees those girls wondering around, bringing him food and drinks, always half naked. Before he started this job, he got an email from this "master" guy, explaining to him "the slave situation". As he worked there, day in and they out, making sculptures, he developed feelings for one of the girls. He starts thinking about saving her, because he senses that what is going on is not alright. The problem is, the master is not about to let her just walk away, after all this work he put into her. Here, I thought that the story is going to be amazing. I imagined him struggling to find a way to get her out of there, maybe her master finding out about his plans and making his and hers lifes a living hell. Even if they manage to escape, the master won't rest until he hunts them down. That's not what happen at all.
In the book description it says:
"To rescue her, Bryan is more than willing to lay everything on the line. But simply walking away isn't as easy as it seems..."
Sure it is! Ask the very same Bryan!
But before I get to the "easy" part... Master finds out about Bryan's feeling for his butterfly and gets pissed. They make a bet. Bryan offers all his money to him in order to buy her out. He doesn't have a lot, but it's all he has. They both agree that after one week, the butterfly will make decision herself, if she wants to leave or stay. At this point, master-dude feeling full of him self, is sure that she will never leave because he did a brilliant job at mind-screwing her.
One week passes by, decision time. Of course butterfly says she wants to leave. To make it more difficult on them, master takes his girls to the dungeon, ties them to the wall, with the masks covering their faces, lines up his buddies and orders them to start whipping the girls. There is a lot of screaming and crying going on. I got the drama part of it, but I didn't get how it's suppose to be difficult for him to pick her out.
So, he walks by, cups her and asks if she want to leave with him. She says yes and they leave. The master is pissed, threatening him, telling him that he will make sure that Bryan will never be able to get a job, not only in this city, but in the whole state. Sucks, because he is broke as it is.
- Second half of the story -
At this point I thought "Here we go! Let the hunt begin!". But the story took completely different direction and made less and less sense, with every page I turned.
I think it's important to mention that butterfly has a phobia of open spaces, she never goes outside.
They run out, get in to his car and ride into the sunset. Story should have ended here, because what followed, made no f-ing sense.
The rest of the story became about how good she was at cooking and cleaning. Then there was all this big thing about his grandfather dying, his mother being a drag addict. He decides to take a 9h trip back home, to say goodby to his grandfather. Butterfly faints completely into the background. Even though half of the story is still told from hers pov, it's sooo boring. She is cooking for him, cleaning, talking to his dog... On the way to his birthplace there is a lot of talk about his culture, the language they speak, him stressing about her not liking the place, because his ex didn't. It really felt like it took nine hours to read it just about their trip alone.
They get there. The grandfather dies, so there is all this fuss about how sad they are, funeral arrangements and so on. Butterfly is cooking and cleaning again, and babysitting his cousins kids.
"You are doing fine. Cooking and cleaning are important. Besides, you have that rabbit to take care of."
Bryan doing plumbing and work around the house. They go camping (phobia?). He does her ones in the back of the truck and the next time pushed her agains some rock. She is all "Oh, it's so good. Do me like this and do me like that". And he is all "I'll do you like this and I'll do you like that.". I didn't get it. From what I read, I wouldn't have given him the time of day.
In the meanwhile, she's thinking back to how it was with her master. He was rough and brutal and humiliated her in every way he could, she's glad she escaped. But, at the same time she's ashamed that the memory of the things he did to her arouses her. What the freaking fruit????
Then, there is more drama with his momma. She offered some happy pills to her, Bryan gets all pissy.
Oh, and there is a baby rabbit that Bryan's dog dragged in one day, that butterfly is taking care of. The furry thing dies, too. Now Bryan has a dilemma. Where to burry the damn thing that dog won't be able to dig it out and bring it back to Butterfly. OMG!!!
At the end they get married (whatever!).
- Her master never showed up with his army of perverts to kidnap her back (which made me thing that the drama at the beginning of the story was completely unnecessary and misleading).
- Bryan is still poor, no job, no money, no plan for the future.
- No info about the girls left behind in the hands of the abuser.
- Butterfly gets unpinned by cooking, cleaning, babysitting and taking care of the rabbit.
- Out of the blue, on the last page, she calls her mother "Hi mom, It's me.". Grudge forgotten?
The whole story was just a mess.
