Slave (Finding Anna #1) by Sherri Hayes

4 STARS

This is quite a distressing story of young Brianna who has been forced to live a life as a slave. That is until Stephan steps in and saves her.

Stephan is a dominant and when he is told about a girl named Brianna who lives as an unwilling slave, being tortured and used not by choice he cannot help but act.  Unfortunately the “Owner” of Brianna will only relinquish his ownership if Stephan buys her off him for a substantial amount of money. Stephan, who is a very wealthy young CEO, recognises that this girl is terrified and understands the current and eventual plight of this poor girl when he sees he bruised and haunted.

“The Thought of buying a woman turned my stomach…..I couldn’t leave her there that was certain, not if she was there against her will.”

Stephan originally thought to set her free once he got her safely out of there. However, he soon finds that Brianna is so emotionally scarred and is unable to function on her own that he sets himself the task of slowly trying to bring her out of herself, helping her reclaim who she is, her own worth and her recovery. First though he needs to gain her trust and make her feel safe. This proves to be a long arduous journey and trust is not something that is easily reached as Brianna believes she has gone from one sadist master to another.

I loved how this story is told in both the hero and the heroines POV. We get to see this horrific situation from both sides which makes it that much more emotional and you get the chance to understand the actions of both characters.

Poor Brianna, she broke my heart. She has been tortured and broken and is understandably scared to death of Stephen. Through her POV some of her past is revealed and I have to say I felt both distressed and sick to my stomach at times reading what she had been through.

Stephan, well he was pretty damn amazing. Here is a young guy who knows exactly who he is and what he wants. He is a strong alpha male but he has compassion, he has decency and he has heart. All he wants to do is help Brianna recover and set her free.

Things don’t go quite to plan when slowly, Stephan realises that he is falling in love with Brianna. This broke my heart when he sadly realises that she may never have the emotional strength or ability to return this love.

In a nutshell this journey is a very deep and emotional read about how a young girl kept in sadistic non-consensual slavery is affected mentally and how our hero takes it upon himself to try to heal her and show her it is okay to trust and love.

Side note: This story does not have BDSM in it other than a few mentions from Brianna’s time as a slave. It also does not have explicit sex.

I can highly recommend this book and I would like to thank Sherri Hayes,TWCS & Netgalley for sending me the ARC.