Prisoner by Annika Martin

 

PRISONER is an excellent dark romance. There's an almost Hannibal Lecter x Clarice vibe to it, and I love that cat and mouse dynamic. Grayson is in prison for being a cop killer. Abigail teaches creative writing to the prisoners as a graduate student. Grayson is attracted to Abby right away but he also sees her as a means to an end: by being in his program, there's a way for him to escape and get back to his men.

This is a book about two damaged souls finding each other in the most dire of circumstances. I think there are a lot of triggers in here for potential readers because one of the characters was a victim of CSA and there's also somnophilia and non-con. PRISONER handled these subjects really well, though, and didn't languish on the details, which I really appreciated. 

The first half of the book moved faster than the second, which dragged just a tiny bit. I also agree with other reviewers that the bad guy should have got more of a comeuppance and the ending felt abrupt. But apart from that, this was a well crafted, highly emotional story and I'll be thinking about it for a while. One of the best captivity romances I've read in ages, with an FMC that I liked just as much as the MMC.

4 out of 5 stars