La Crimson Femme

Trent Evans and Natasha Knight as a mash up is reader's fantasy come true. Both authors write deliciously depraved kinky stories. In Captive, Mine, the kink is good; the characters are bad. Bad in not a good way. Lily Cross is a drug lord's daughter. She is used as collateral to make sure her father will be used against Terrence Randall in court. Lake Freeman is the man who is hired to protect Lily from being used against her father.

The kink in this story is good. Restraining and especially gagging of Lily is great. The dub-con and disciplining of Lily is also great. Lake as an aggressor forcing Lily to behave is all good. So why did this story just rate okay for me? Because Lily is a sniveling annoying twit. She keeps making the wrong choice over and over and rather than take her punishment, she whines and promises she won't do it again. Insert eye rolling. Lily is so annoying I kept wishing she would be strangled to death or killed. The erotic scenes were sabotaged by her incessant shallow musings. Everything about Lily grates on my nerves which is why I didn't enjoy this book as much. If I can't like the main character, I have a hard time enjoying it. What is weird is how she suddenly becomes so competent at the end of the book. Not believable at all.

Lake as a tormented kidnapper just didn't make sense to me. I must have missed why this was such a big deal for him. His back history with his wife is fine, but it didn't pull all together for me to care. There was little chemistry between Lake and Lily. The authors write it as if they are so enthralled with each other, but I didn't feel it. The plot felt muddled and honestly, I really just wanted to read about the erotic dub-con scenes between Lily and Lake. So when Lily kills my arousal with her inane behaviour, it disappointments me. I wanted to jump in and beat some sense into Lily.

This is a darker theme than some of the other books by these two authors. I do wish they would go darker without the guilty angst. Because their descriptions are vivid and the story pace is good. Their dub con scenes can be so erotic too. For those who enjoy a bratty female get taken to task, this is the book for you.

*provided by NetGalley