THE LOVE HATE RELATIONSHIP….. WITH FICTIONAL MEN…

I’m new to the Indie game. Pretty much an unknown and hey that’s totally okay. With time, five people might know who I am. Huzzah! There are still a lot of well-known Indie Authors out there I’ve never even heard of. When I’m talking to a fellow book junkie and they ask if I’ve read something by someone not on my radar… My eyes are bugging out of my head with excitement.  


​Some of these authors have hit USA Today, and The New York Times Best Seller lists and I’m still like, who? It has nothing to do with them or their work and everything to with the fact I live under a rock, what can I say?

That was how I came across the next author and her total mind fuck of a masterpiece I want to shout about, with my big fat mouth. Last year, I found out about a signing in Cincinnati and went completely bonkers I hadn’t heard anything about it. How dare someone not tell me right? Hah. I didn’t really run in any book club circles and what I knew about signings was limited at best. All of the tickets to the event were completely sold out and my soul was crushed into a million pieces.

So, I contacted the promoter about the following year, wanting to know what the skinny was on everything. She told me they had an available spot for me for the upcoming event if I wanted it.
After I was done running around like a pre-pubescent girl who’d just won concert tickets on the radio to One Direction, I scrambled to get things in order for my first signing. Heartless had just released a couple weeks before hand and I was one giant ball of nerves. (There’s a point I promise, I’m getting to it.) At the signing, I was submerged into greatness. There were so many household names there that I *did* actually recognize and whose books I loved, but I was too scared to actually talk to them. As far as I was concerned, in no way was I on their level or considered a peer.

No. Just, no.

There was an author to my left who had a line a mile long with readers who couldn’t wait to talk to her or get her Jane Hancock in their paperbacks. At the time, I had no idea I was sitting next to a freaking Mastermind! No wonder these chicks were eating all the candy off my table with their sights set on only one person…. The one and only, New York Times and USA Today Best Selling Author, Aleatha Romig.

​Consequences is the first book in Aleatha’s Consequences Series and it falls into the Suspense/Romantic Suspense categories. At the time, I was on a strict romance kick and wasn’t really looking to deviate from the genre. Total dumbass right?

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Don’t be stupid and only stick to one genre. By doing that, you’re shutting yourself off to an entire realm of incredible books out there that will completely blow your damn mind.
If you’re wondering what finally made me pick it up, I couldn’t tell you because frankly I don’t remember. All I know is I could kick myself for not doing it sooner.
Let’s flash forward to when I was finally introduced to Mr. Anthony (Tony) Rawlings and Ms. Claire Nichols. Holy mother of God this book is messed up. Girl meets a tall, good-looking, mysterious stranger, and the next thing we know she’s been abducted. Dun, Dun, Dun!!!!
I mean here is the opening line of the book. If this isn’t a hook, I don’t know what is.

​“The fade into consciousness happened slowly, like the melting of ice. The water was still present. It just changed form.”


You’re afraid for Claire as this monster emerges from the shadows and she has no idea what to expect. Her entire world has shifted upside down and she’s forced to rely on her captor and his staff. The things he does to her are completely deplorable and you LOATHE Tony.
The way Aleatha crafts this story and weaves it together has you all… 
And then at some point something shifted for me. I’m not sure if the expert mind games in which Tony played worked on me the way they were supposed to work on Claire…Or if I’m just a total freak with some kind of readers Stockholm Syndrome myself. But I kind of started to have a love-hate relationship with Mr. Rawlings.


This story is not for the feign of heart. There were heavy themes of kidnapping, rape, domestic abuse and mental warfare. But if you’re able to separate yourself from the realities of the situations and look at the story for what it truly is…fiction…then you may find you’re a sadistic little twit that enjoys the darker side like me. This was my introduction to suspense, thrillers, and romantic suspense. I have to say I became a junkie because of how twisted and brilliant this story is.


Maybe I say this a lot, but it’s how I feel. If a story can evoke so much emotion from me I don’t know whether I’m coming or going, or if I should love or hate a character then they’re a mastermind. That is talent and that’s the kind of stuff I want to read.
So, this is a challenge to all readers out there. Take a chance on something new. I know I am thrilled I did. I found a new author I can’t get enough of. There’s now an entirely new genre for me to explore because of her. Thanks, Aleatha, you are my gateway drug to a new sadistic paradise.
READ THIS BOOK! It will leave you reeling and then you’ll scramble for the next one because you’re dying to know what happens. You won’t be sorry.

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