Review: Wanderlust by Skye Warren (ARC)

Book: Wanderlust

Author: Skye Warren

Dark Erotic Romance
Expected Release Date: April 15, 2013

ACR provided by author in exchange for an honest review.

Blurb:

Can love come from pain?

Evie always dreamed of seeing the world, but her first night at a motel turns into a nightmare. Hunter is a rugged trucker willing to do anything to keep her—including kidnapping. As they cross the country in his rig, Evie plots her escape, but she may find what she’s been looking for right beside her.

Wanderlust is a dark erotic novel which explores dubious consent, captivity, and power play. Please do not read this if you’re uncomfortable with the subject matter or under 18 years of age.

This story was definitely dark, full of conflicting emotions and very seductive. And by 'seductive' I mean it was HOT and I think I need to replace the batteries in my ... am I over-sharing? Okay, I'll stop there. If you enjoy dubious consent fantasies, then this story will get your rocks off. Trust me.  

Evie has led a sheltered life and has finally gathered the courage to venture out into the world and explore. On her very first night of independence she meets Hunter, a tall, dark and mysterious stranger, and gets caught in his trap. Then major hotness ensues, though it's a forbidden type of hotness where you're not sure whether you're a bad person for enjoying it. But it's still hot and maybe that much hotter because you kind of question your sanity while reaching for your vibrator. Really, the sexual chemistry between Hunter and Evie is palpable and the way that Skye Warren uses the written word to paint the picture of an amazingly erotic experience that was also deeply emotional and conflicted is spectacular. It left me somewhat conflicted, hence the questioning of sanity while buzzing away. 

There was also a psychological component to this story that was very engaging. Both Evie and Hunter have major emotional baggage and go through a lot of growth and self discovery as their unconventional relationship develops. We get to witness Evie struggle with the fact that she enjoys her predicament with Hunter, that she's coming to care for him, and her knowledge that what he is doing to her is wrong. And we get to see into Hunter's personal pain and inner conflict, though it is filtered through Evie's perception and speculation since the book is narrated by Evie. He's definitely not your regular one-dimentional character... he has his own rules of ethics that he follows that are a somewhat of a contradiction to his disregard of the law and the way he takes Evie. And there are dark things in his past that make us question whether he's the bad guy or the victim who now has some screws loose in his head. And that makes him even scarier in some ways and sexier in others.

There's a lot that happens in between, but I'm not going to tell you because I don't want to give anything away. You have to read the book to find out!

Skye Warren tells the story of two broken people who come together under questionable circumstances and help heal each other. There is lots of pain and conflict and the journey they take together is far from romantic, yet very emotional. It's an engaging story with layers that add depth and mystery and takes us on a whirlpool of emotional highs and very low lows. Whenever I started to think that things were going to turn out one way something would happen to thwart my assumptions. I loved the story; I loved that it made me feel, that it turned me on, turned me off, made me pause and think, twisted my stomach into knots, and, at times, believe it or not gave me some warm fuzzies that were well balanced by the realism of the protagonists' struggles and my empathy for them. Also, a detail that I really enjoyed was that Skye included some myths and side stories that tied into the main story perfectly and drew some well placed parallels. I love details like that. They just make me happy.

Beware that this is not a light book, the emotional baggage is heavy and can be hard to deal with for some people. It's not for the faint of heart. But if you enjoy well-written dark fantasies and conflict and depth to your stories then I would definitely recommend Wanderlust. And excuse me while I go lose myself in another Skye Warren story.

As an aside - this was an ARC review, which means that some edits were still in progress and so I did not mention any minor issues I came across, because they are most likely not going to exist when you will be reading this book.

Purchase Link

amazon