Reviewed by Jess

TITLE: Wrong Way Home

SERIES: Criminal Delights: Taken

AUTHOR: K.A. Merikan

PUBLISHER: Self-published

LENGTH: 264 pages

RELEASE DATE:  April 15, 2019

BLURB:

— One wrong turn. One right man. —

Colin. Rule-follower. Future doctor. Witness to murder. Captive.

Taron. Survivalist. Mute. Murderer. Captor.

Like every other weekend, Colin is on his way home from university, but he’s taunted by the notion that he never takes risks in life and always follows the beaten path. On impulse, he decides to take a different route. Just this one time. What he doesn’t realize is that it’s the last time he has a choice.

He ends up taking a detour into the darkest pit of horror, abducted by a silent, imposing man with a blood-stained axe. But what seems like his worst nightmare might just prove to be a path to the kind of freedom Colin never knew existed.

Taron has lived alone for years. His land, his rules. He’d given up on company long ago. After all, attachment is a liability. He deals with his problems on his own, but the night he needs to dispose of an enemy, he ends up with a witness to his crime.

The last thing Taron needs is a nuisance of a captive. Colin doesn’t deserve death for setting foot on Taron’s land, but keeping him isn’t optimal either. It’s only when he finds out the city boy is gay that an altogether different option arises. One that isn’t right, yet tempts him every time Colin’s pretty eyes glare at him from the cage.

REVIEW:

If you’ve read any of my reviews here on Love Bytes before, you know that 2019 is my year of taking more readings risks. I want to explore different characters, plots, tropes, and kinks that may have turned me off years before. It hasn’t yielded perfect results so far, but once in a while, something clicks, opening a new world of romance reading for me. And while this story has its flaws, it gripped me from page one with thrills, steam, and plenty of complex characterization.

The story starts with Colin, an introverted pre-med student who decides to branch out a little bit and take a new route back home to visit his judgmental parents for the weekend. But this new route takes him deep into the forest where he witnesses a gruesome crime before being kidnapped by Taron, a hulking bear of a man who locks Colin in a cage in his basement. Colin, of course, thinks he’s going to be raped and killed—but instead, his stoic captor feeds him, brings him books, and allows him to snuggle his many pet cats. He’s gentle, confusing, and worst of all, totally attractive to Colin. But in the end, Colin is a prisoner, and even as the two give into their sexual tension, Colin knows their peaceful, isolated oasis cannot last.

Of course, I was hesitant to read about the consent issues in this story, especially the whole “locked in a cage” thing (there’s also a shock collar—yikes). But throughout the story, no matter if he thinks he’s falling in love with Taron, Colin tries to stay logical and think in the long term. He feels loyalty to the man who loves his cats, whispers endearments through damaged vocal cords, and gives him a garden to plant, but he fears the man who collars him and ignores his pleas to be let go. Colin is much like Belle in Beauty and the Beast—he may be falling in love, but he knows he’s a prisoner. I don’t want to spoil the ending, because it keeps you guessing as to their fate, but Colin and Taron become something very different than they were at the beginning, and no matter how fucked up it may be, it feels totally earned.

I tagged this review as “dubious consent” rather than “non-consensual” because there’s obviously something appealing about the situation to Colin. While on paper it would seem that he is a humiliated captive, torn from his normal college life and thrust into wild solitude with a brutish man, he actually sees it quite differently. He may be held captive, but for Colin, he can treat it as a vacation. Taron is self-sufficient and smart, taking care of Colin’s needs as they arise. Taron is responsible on every level for Colin, so finally, Colin can just let go and be instead of teeming with anxiety, stress, and the fear of not being good enough. He’s also able to give into sex in a way he never has before, seeing it as something deep, instinctive, and primal rather than carefully planned. It tickles the most id-soaked parts of our reading brains—a level of bondage and submission that can only be reached in an extreme form. It’s dark, dangerous, and dubious—but hot damn if it doesn’t keep you invested.

I really like this book. I would’ve made different story choices, especially towards the end, and my romance-reading brain couldn’t quite accept the parts that included physical altercations between Colin and Taron, but I was immediately engrossed in their tangled, toxic dynamic that slowly becomes something more. This book won’t work for everyone, but if you heed the warnings and strap in for the ride, it’ll surprise you. And it is also part of a multi-author series that revolves around all sorts of darker romance themes, so lets see what else I can discover!

RATING:

BUY LINK: 

Amazon