Prisoned by Marni Mann Published by Self-Published on August 22nd 2016
Pages: 282
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When I opened my eyes, I was in a cell, my body covered in bruises.
Not a jail.
I’d been kidnapped and imprisoned.
I wasn’t alone. I shared the cell with Garin Woods, the man I’d loved since I was a kid.
The man I couldn’t be with because of the secret. A man who would kill me if he found out what that secret was.
Someone wanted to torture me.
Torture us.
One of us deserved it.
It wasn’t Garin.
*WARNING* Prisoned is an extremely dark novel. There are strong sexual themes, drug usage, physical abuse and torture that could trigger and/or cause emotional suffering. You have been warned.
Kudos to Marni Mann for daring to delve into the area of dark erotica. It’s a risk that takes her well outside the boundaries of her previous novels, and while the premise is intriguing, unfortunately Prisoned just didn’t resonate with me.
The story is gritty and suspenseful, with all the nail-biting elements you’d expect from a dark romance: mystery, extreme violence, uncomfortable situations, and raw sexual content. The beginning of the book is strong, but it slides downhill, and I lost my connection to the characters.
I prefer my heroines with a lot of backbone and a little chutzpah, but Kyle isn’t particularly clever or smart. She’s gullible and apparently has a very weak stomach. She throws up when she’s scared or grossed out—which occurs often in this twisted and sometimes gross story. It was difficult for me to sympathize with her. There were many other ways she could have handled the “big secret” she’s keeping, so the conflict seemed unnecessary.
I wanted to root for Kyle and Garin due to their history as teens, but I just wasn’t feeling the chemistry between them as adults. He is a dominant dirty-talker, and their mutual attraction results in lots of steamy sex—LOTS—which Marni has a knack for writing, but it occurs abruptly and at the most inopportune times. Let’s call a spade a spade. Garin is a jerk. He’s shifty, very misogynistic, and shows virtually zero character growth. I guess I’m just not a fan of irredeemable alphas.
The book did keep me on my toes throughout. I loved that I could never anticipate what would happen next. However, the ending leaves key elements of this standalone story unresolved. The unanswered questions and unlikeable characters left me extremely frustrated.
Even though Prisoned ultimately didn’t appeal to me, I’m still a fan of Marni Mann, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
**ARC received in exchange for an honest review.**
About Marni Mann
USA Today best-selling author Marni Mann knew she was going to be a writer since middle school. While other girls her age were daydreaming about teenage pop stars, Marni was fantasizing about penning her first novel. She crafts unique stories that weave together her love of darkness, mystery, passion, and human emotions. A New Englander at heart, she now lives in Sarasota, Florida, with her husband and their yellow Lab. When she’s not nose deep in her laptop, working on her next novel, she’s scouring for chocolate, sipping wine, traveling, or devouring fabulous books.
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