Laura’s Review of Madeleine Abducted (The Estate, #1) by M.S. Willis

If you loved Captive in the Dark (The Dark Duet, #1) by C.J. Roberts, Consequences (Consequences, #1) by Aleatha Romig, and Crow’s Row (Crow’s Row, #1) by Julie Hockley then you will LOVE this book!!!!

Basic Summary

She was meant to be his destruction

A pawn played in a perilous game between father and son…

Yet, her strength was more than either man could imagine.

As Maddy learns to save herself…

She becomes the one thing that could set the son free.

            Madeleine Clark was raised to become a concert cellist.  Sheltered and naïve, she remains behind her music, a protection from the world around her.  On the night of her first solo performance, Maddy accepts the admiration of a stranger and finds herself captive in a cruel and twisted power struggle between a sadistic father and his son, Aaron.

            Seemingly dangerous and uncaring, Aaron manages the business operations of his father’s estate.  Wanting nothing to do with slaves kept at the Estate, Aaron refuses to take park in the deeper depravities of his father.  Despite his resistance, Aaron’s father ‘gifts’ him with a petite, brunette woman he can’t refuse.

            A bond forged in conspiracy and deceit, Aaron struggles to save Maddy by teaching her to survive in the world in which he’d been raised.  An unlikely union, Aaron learns that great strengths can exist within small packages, while Madeleine learns that love and light can exist in the darkest of places. 

What I Love About This Book

                I think I had a mild panic attack when Madeleine first woke up after she was kidnapped.  The way the author wrote this scene the enormity of being taken and having to mentally accept your circumstances had my heart beating out of my chest.  The total loss of anything familiar then being thrown into this dark underworld as forcefully as she was is almost too hard to wrap your head around.  The sheer terror that Madeleine feels is written so amazingly that you can almost taste her fear while you’re reading this book. 

            The details and the description of The Estate are just amazing.  I can picture in detail the opulence of the ball room and the richness of Aaron’s apartment so clearly.  I loved that there were so many details of The Estate it made it so easy to imagine what this place must look like to Madeleine, and because of that it made her emotions and fear when she first sees everything that much more clear.  In way it magnified her emotions by the description of the environment around her in so many scenes.  She’s such a little person compared to this huge and overpowering mansion that she is a captive in and the description of the place brings this home, and shows just how out of her element she is. 

           

             The Estate totally reminds of a medieval feudal system everyone is under Aaron’s father  Joseph's control, no matter how crazy he is.  Aaron and his guards right below him as far as hierarchy goes then below them are more men that are considered security when needed and then the maintenance workers that keep The Estate in order.  I almost felt like I was reading something about The Tudors or some medieval family in the middle ages, which was pretty cool.  I feel like this place exists in a bubble almost like the reality that exists within The Estate is not the same realities that exist in the outside world.  The Estate seems so dark to me and magnifies the depravities of men and it’s always a battle of survival there, as I was reading I had to remind myself that it was a present day and that there is an outside world that Maddy came from.  Anytime I would think about Maddy’s past or her world before being kidnapped it would just hit me again how much she’s lost and how different her world is now and it just would suck me more into this story. 

“Dream of me, Maddy.  See me as I want to be; not the nightmare who torments you, but the devoted and mystified man who worships at your feet.”

Cons

                I kind of wish I got to see more of the outside world in this book.  For The Estate to be as successful as it is in the drug industry and other underworld aspects it has to have massive interactions with outside world on a daily basis.  After Maddy is abducted it’s rarely mentioned and doesn’t seem to play apart when there are decisions to be made at the end of the book.  Also I wish I knew more about the network that The Estate is a part of, maybe it’s mentioned more in Joseph Fallen (The Estate, #0.5) going back to Joseph’s past.  I’m also hoping it comes up more in the second book Hope Restrained (The Estate, #2) since that deals with another crime family so maybe I will get more outside interactions that I am looking for. 

            Also and this isn’t a huge con for me but a warning to other readers, if you don’t like blood and gore than this isn’t the book for you!  If you can’t stand shows like Dexter, or True Blood then please don’t read this book.  There is a lot of violence in this story and you have to be okay with that to enjoy this story.

“She is light while I am darkness, she is raw beauty and so blessedly pure while I am nothing more than a poison to humanity.  She deserves her life far more than I deserve mine.”

Overall

                This is such a dark story told in a kind of romantic way, and I think that’s why I love this so much.  I really love dark stories or characters with violent and jaded pasts and Aaron Carmichael fits that perfectly.  The story isn’t realistic but you can’t really write a fictional romance that begins with sex slavery and it be realistic.  The character development in the book was great, and the pace was a little slow at times but towards the end really picked up and didn’t stop.  The details in this book were right on, I could picture Madeleine and The Estate perfectly and they just added to the overwhelming feelings that take hold while you’re reading.  Like I said before if you aren’t okay with blood and violence than this definitely isn’t the book for you.  But you if you love dark tales filled with violent and disturbed people like I do, then this is the book for you!