Monday, May 4, 2015

The Sect ~ Courtney Lane

SYNOPSIS
WARNING: This book contains pretty much every dark theme there is. Not recommended for those with any triggers or sensitivities to violence, dubious and/or absent consent, and deviant sexual acts.*****This is NOT a romance and it is not a story of "true love".
Keaton Mara ran away from a life that had become a nightmare to live on the streets. While the location she now calls home is a dangerous place, she is protected by an unlikely friendship.
The streets provided her with the education she could've never earned from the prestigious university she attended. Regrettably, the term 'educated fool' becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Due to meeting a man with whom she shares a captivating chemistry with, her judgment is clouded, resulting in a fateful decision.
The consequence of trusting the prepossessing stranger results in her being stolen away to a place unknown. Her deceptive new surroundings are just as beautiful as the people who reside there. She discovers that it's a place where the culture of sex without limits or morals is their religion.
Keaton quickly begins to realize that the beautiful scenery serves to hide a very dark truth. The seductive and enigmatic man--who lured her there--desires to save her soul. His intentions are sinister, because saving her soul is synonymous with breaking her.
Because Keaton believes her soul was brutally stolen from her many years ago, she thinks he can't save (or destroy) something she no longer has.
She...was...wrong.

4.5 loved it but.... corsets
"You confess your sin to me-only one needs to be said. One sin breeds one act of contrition. The nature of the act you will perform is solely at my discretion. Divulge your crimes and I'll show you the path to deliverance." ~ Reven


Born into a world of wealth and luxury, Keaton Mara never expected to be living on the streets without a dollar to her name. All she has is a homeless friend named Jeff; Jeff watches over her and advises her to hide all traces of her femininity to avoid being attacked. An unlikely match, but the two survive day to day until one day Keaton is taken.

Keaton awakes to find herself trapped in a religious compound lead by a delusional man who believes he is the revenant. Sex, violence, and true carnal nature are the ruling tenets in this cult. A man determined to break her, Noah, is also her saving grace but she can never grasp the true man behind the mask.

"You think you can see through me? You can't. I can see right through you, Reven. You know why? I looked into the eyes of the devil, and he was much scarier than you." ~Keaton

The first few chapters of this book were phenomenal. I ate up every word greedily and couldn’t hide my excitement for an edge I’ve been waiting to read in dark erotica. My favorite type of movies are those that mix psychology, religion, and suspense all into one and it was refreshing to find a book that matched my movie tastes. This book is heavy with foreshadowing, neatly placed hints, and pretty much all background information is revealed to us as the heroine discovers it.

Although the premise was everything I’ve ever wanted in a book, the book didn’t quite live up to my expectations. There were a few large aspects that didn’t work for me which took away from my reading experience.

What worked for me...

The cult aspect. The religion weaved into suspense and the original tenets of a highly deluded following. This aspect alone greatly appealed to me.
The violence- this one was heavy with violence and there were no fade to black scenes- no we were right there with the heroine during her darkest times.

What didn’t work for me…

The ending.
Flat out- it didn’t connect the dots in my opinion. Nothing matched up and I didn’t understand it. If the ending is how it was supposed to be then all of the characters except Keaton were a Jekyll & Hyde- none of them were true to character as they were presented throughout the book. Remember watching a Paranormal Activity and seeing the ending thinking “WTF where did that twist come from?!” That’s how I felt here.

1 comments:

  1. Gorgeous site! Thank you so much for taking the time to read and review The Sect.

    ReplyDelete