Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: Unshackled 
AUTHOR: Rachael Stewart
PUBLISHER: Deep Desires Press
LENGTH: 190 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2018
BLURB:
A rich girl sick of doing her stepdad’s bidding. A young woman submitting to the same man for financial security. Can they escape his sadistic clutches and finally find true love?
22-year-old Abi Taylor is sick of being used as a puppet by her overbearing, money-hungry stepfather. Wealthy life or not, she wants out—the only question is how? But then her stepfather’s latest fiancée Emma shows up and Abi’s life is turned on its head.
She is inexplicably drawn to Emma. Their fierce attraction leaves her confused and vulnerable, but she soon realizes it’s the least of her problems as she is pulled into her stepfather’s corrupt and sadistic world where betrayal is rife, family means nothing, and sex is everything. Abi knows she needs to escape the man who controls her every move, but can she break free and keep it all—the money, her freedom and the girl?
REVIEW:
There were parts of this book that had me rooting for a great revenge fantasy involving two women escaping a violent man, but every time the narrative started focusing on them and their freedom, the plot was completely taken over by upsetting scenes of violence and sexual assault. This book offers a bare hint of romantic revenge, but in the end, it just isn’t a story that left me feeling excited, happy, or at all romantic.
The chemistry between Abi and Emma is apparent right away, and I definitely felt the sparks flying between them. There’s a ton of tension, of course, because Emma is Abi’s step-father’s fiancée and completely off-limits. The story could’ve been excellent if we got a mystery-type thriller about Abi and Emma plotting together to leave an abusive man. But before we can even get to a plot like that, there are so many issues that get in the way. There are several uncomfortable corporal punishment scenes that feel too close to titillating, even though Abi and Emma are being humiliated, and over half of the actual detailed sex scenes are M/F, which is always unfortunate in a book marketed as F/F romance.
So much of their “revenge” either involved them totally failing or, even worse, concocting porn-like sex games with gross older men as a means to an end. This is not a story that I can see female readers enjoying, especially readers expecting an F/F-centric romance. I already didn’t enjoy Abi as a character because her only reason for sticking around with her step-father was for money and luxury, which doesn’t make her a very sympathetic character, especially when she sees how her step-father treats his wives. Neither woman was very intelligent, and half the book was spent with me wondering what the hell they were thinking.
I would never criticize a story for including plots about rape or sexual violence, since those are real issues that people face every day. But when those acts are used like explicit fantasies (such as Robert Sawyer spanking Abi and Emma in front of each other or Dr. Tate raping Abi while she is drugged and vulnerable), it makes me incredibly uncomfortable.
I’d equate this book to male-centric pornography about lesbians rather than an LGBT work that gay people would enjoy. The undercurrent of sadism and humiliation just wasn’t what I expected, and even though Abi and Emma made a good match, they were never given the chance to blossom as characters or romantic partners. There might be an audience for this story somewhere, but it wasn’t me.
RATING: 
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