She Asked for It, Willow Winters

There's so much heartbreak in the beginning that you find yourself yearning, hoping for something to give, something to shine light into their minds to give them the determination to fight for life instead of giving in to the immense pressure surrounding them from both deep within and all around.  The MC's are both lost.  They need something and while Dean isn't sure what his future will look like, Allison is set on a course that may prove her ultimate downfall.  She wasn't counting on Dean.  She didn't expect love.  She couldn't give in to what he was offering.

The intensity runs deep and never lets up throughout the entire story.  I quite liked Dean despite his anger issues.  His counseling sessions and focus was honest, inspiring, and admirable.  The chemistry and interplay between Allison and Dean was on the dark side of nice.  Their passion for one another was palpable.  With a hopeful and healing ending I could accept all the harshness of the story as a whole.

With a leading synopsis like this book has you're expecting something different than what you actually get.  Same with the author's note at the end of the story about the stigma attached to those four condemning words, "She asked for it...".  By the end I was wondering why the thought was even put in there.  I can see where she might have wanted to go with the dark themes in the story but the flow of the story didn't actually support that.  Instead what we get is hints about kinks that the world would shame women for, a past secret that could hurt new love, and angst city between Dean's anger and Allison's hiding/running/secret agenda.

The secret agenda thing took foooorrreeeeeevvvvvverrrrrrrrrr to get to.  It dragged and instead of increasing my interest and anxious anticipation it left me feeling flat and wishing I could skim to get to the point.  And the reveal was pretty lackluster as well.  I honestly have no issue with the theme or the kink or the intent of the story at all, it was more the execution of everything together.

The family stuff was kind of open-ended and dramatic without resolution, the relationship by the end was hopeful, and Allison was on the way to healing.  I might feel better about the story if the synopsis weren't so leading or if the story actually conformed to the bold message confronting shaming opinions contained in the synopsis and the author's note.  Combined, however, the disconnect was frustrating and left me unsatisfied.

*$3.19 on Amazon!

As the prequel to She Asked for It, it's the prologue and first five chapters of the full novel.  It gives an excellent start to letting you into the darkness surrounding the souls of both Dean and Allison.  There's something buried within their hearts that has the potential to bring them together or to tear them apart.  While Dean is in control of their encounters it's Allison who has ultimate control over their fate.   With her secrets, her past, her damage, she could bring hell down on them both merely because she couldn't deny the intense pull toward Dean.  A great prequel to whet your appetite for all that the full novel will provide.  3 stars.