Reviewed by Tammy
TITLE: Penal Station 05 
SERIES: With This Mark, #1
AUTHOR: Valentina Heart
PUBLISHER: Loose ID
LENGTH: 197 Pages
RELEASE DATE: February 3rd, 2016
BLURB:
Jared, a guard on one of the many penal space stations, is good at his job, but painfully naïve. Getting convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and being sentenced to a life in prison did not feature in his vision of the future. When he gets rescued–then promptly claimed as property by Sar, the most dangerous and biggest man on the penal station–he’s just about ready to faint…gracefully, of course. But Sar is a genius with a hidden face and big expectations. Sar expects Jared to learn to fight, to serve his sexual needs, and to socialize with Sar’s friends. So while Jared works on his stances and, surprisingly, can’t get enough of sex, he still has trouble cheerfully conversing with the same men who would rather kill him or claim him for their own. All of that changes with new arrivals, a kidnapping, and secret agendas. Will Jared survive torture–and is Sar bad and mad enough to rescue him–or are they more likely to perish when the clock ticks down and the station blinks out with the sound of an explosion?
REVIEW:
Sar has lived in Penal Station 05 all his life. His mother was a guard who survived a riot and almost complete breakdown of the prison. She was used as a toy for several of the prisoners that survived but they weren’t able to survive Sar’s mother!
Jared worked as a guard in another prison when he was accused and convicted of facilitating a riot. From what Jared remembers there was absolutely no evidence against him but he was still sent to Penal Station 05 for his “crimes”.
Once a month the inmates of Penal Station 05 get a crate delivered and in this crate is enough food, medical supplies and whatever else is needed to survive in a prison that has no guards. There is never enough of anything to thrive just to survive so the moment the crate is lowered into the station it’s very much survival of the fittest, first in, first served. Sar was gathering what he needed when he heard a scream from one of the new inmates. What he heard made him decide to save him but it was when he got a look at him that he decided to keep him. Jared has never been so scared in his life, when he screamed at the prisoners that he was a guard it sent them ballistic and a huge guy came to “rescue” him.
It takes Sar a few days to get Jared used to him and his ways. Sar has never really been interested in having a pet. From everything he’s observed they tend to be more trouble than they’re worth. But, the more he learns about Jared the more he becomes attached to him, something he vowed he would never do! Jared can’t help but feel calm and centred whenever Sar talks to him, which admittedly isn’t that often! The more attached they both become the more everyone around them notices. Sar is falling in love for the first time ever and he really doesn’t know if he likes the feeling or not.
The tension starts to mount between the prisoners on the station as there is something that just feels off. When there is a group of new “prisoners” delivered to the prison things begin to simmer out of control. This is when both Jared and Sar learn the reason behind Jared’s imprisonment and that is when the fight to survive really begins.
Penal Station 05 ended up being an incredibly sweet love story that has exactly the right amount of angst, darkness and pure sweet love between two men who have never known love. I can’t wait for the second instalment in the, With This Mark series!
RATING: 
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