Need (Finday Anna #2) by Sherri Hayes

SYNOPSIS

As Brianna comes to terms with the realization that she is no longer a slave, she must figure out what she wants for her life. Forgetting her past isn’t an option. It is an integral part of who she is now, and it will forever shape her view of life. The one thing she knows is that she cannot imagine her life without the man who saved her, but can she be what he needs?

Stephan never imagined falling in love with the woman he rescued, but the thought of her no longer being part of his life is physically painful. The scars from her past continue to haunt her, and he is helpless to stop them. All he can do is try to help her work through the traumas of her past. Can he be everything she needs and help her move on?

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Reviewed by Gitte

4 Stars

Need was a beautiful continuation of the story that began in Slave. I still love the style of writing and the pace in which it is told. I also love that we get the POV change again with some scenes told by both Stephan and Brianna so we know how each was affected.

This instalment sees Stephan’s continuous strength, patience and efforts in helping Brianna on her road to recovery.  He realizes he has fallen in love with her and she is slowly starting to realize she is not his slave and is free to leave him should she wish to. However, Brianna is initially still so broken she is unable to leave the safe haven of his apartment.

Stephan is truly fabulous and patient, and despite being a Dominant, he pushes Brianna to realise her worth and her right to independence as well as showing her she can trust him without ever pushing her beyond her limits.

Brianna needs this kind of control, and through the firm guiding of Stephan and his gentle advances  he begins to be the one person who can retrieve her when she succumbs to flash backs and panic attacks. Brianna’s trust in him has grown and she realizes that Stephan is her constant, her lifeline and her hope, she is actually, despite coming across almost childlike, a very strong person. Stephan wants her as his submissive but is afraid to push this want on Brianna. She knows that Stephan has had submissives before but to begin with is unable to differentiate between this and being a slave.

I thought Stephan came across unwise in the sense of determining what is the best and most appropriate method to adopt to “fix” Brianna. However, I think he feels so responsible for her recovery and extremely protective over her. He perhaps arrogantly thinks he is the only one that won’t hurt her and has her best intentions at heart. To me, he came across a lot older than his years. Sometimes I had a bit of a hard time believing he was only in his early 20’s. I would have added another 10 years. However, with Brianna only being 18, this just wouldn’t have worked. Overall though, I understood him, his attentiveness, his control proved to slowly improve Brianna’s life mentally. This came about through his ability to second guess her and ultimately his love

I have to say that Need raised more answers than it answered. However, how would a young girl come back from a life of being sold, beaten and abused in every manner? And how long would such a process take?

We are left with a cliff-hanger, oh how I hate that!!! The third book is not due until summer 2013, and I for one cannot wait!!!