5 Smooches!
Synopsis
In my world, there is no such thing as love. It is just a lie we whisper into our client’s ear. Love is foreign and hazardous. What I did not expect was to bare my soul to a man who is as egotistical as he is dangerous.
His name is Landon. Despite his blackened soul, he tried to save me, but what he didn’t expect was my torturous fate to catch up with me.
To your father, I’m the escort.
To your mother, I’m the whore.
To the legal system, I’m the prostitute.
In the end, I’m just the other woman.
I have no idea if I will continue to survive, if I will ever find my path aside from the gritty streets I know so well. There is a good chance I will wind up in the ditch like most women in my position. Surrendering to my fate is the only choice I have. I must relinquish it all.
Review
This was one of those books that left me intrigued at the beginning, discombobulated and unsure throughout and reeling between happiness and uncertainty at the end. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the protagonists or the storyline, it was like trying a new wine, I had to swish it about in my mind for a while and take the time to see how I felt about the whole experience. It was gritty and a helluva lot more edgy than my sunshine and rainbows romance that I usually gravitate towards. It’s a story about a young vulnerable yet resilient girl Charlie who by a set of unfortunate circumstances and as she will tell you- life- sets her on a course you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy, escaping the indifferent and often abusive foster system and embarking on a fresh beginning that takes her into the underbelly and socially deprived area of Vegas. It’s in this seedy, degrading and unfathomably realistic back drop that Charlie meets Landon, a man who is incredibly beautiful to look at, aggressive and unused to hearing the word no, but he will ultimately hold Charlie’s life in the palm of his hands as well as answers to the questions that has plagued her all of her young life.
‘“All in? What is that, like a gambling term?” I question with a half-laugh. Landon smirks, his eyes squinted as he looks me over.
“It means you’re in it one-hundred percent. You bet everything you have on it. There’s no going back, no regrets. You’re all in.”
Charlie just needs to be loved. Right from the very start she has herself shrouded in a cocoon of sarcasm and snark that seems to highlight how lonely and sad she is, rather than combat it. Landon is an enigma; hot and cold, beautiful, but has his ugly moments, flirty and fun one minute but deadly serious and stoic the next, it’s like he is constantly at war with himself and even he’s unsure of how to act or who he is deep down but the one person that seems to bring the inner good and reason to the surface is Charlie, the one girl he shouldn’t fall in love with. Relinquish is without a doubt the most unorthodox and impressively taboo romance I’ve ever encountered but thanks to M.N Forgy’s distinguished writing skills and her remarkable ability to make her protagonists both infuriating and combative and at the same time showing their vulnerability and depth and range of emotion, Relinquish is elevated to a stunning if somewhat unconventional Pretty Woman for a new generation type of love story but it’s more raw, dramatic and clever. It will be a book you either love or hate but there will be no middle ground. As an avid reader (*ahem* addict) I avoid dark stories like the plague but Relinquish manages to straddle that fine line between desolation and hope, and I think this brave and eccentric story has that in spades, it’s about redemption, strength, acceptance and ultimately love just told a little differently. There is plenty of scorchingly hot sex scenes, some that might make you uncomfortable and some that may just open your eyes to a whole new level of raunchy but again it is a story that will make you think, have you hopefully a little less quick to judge and hopefully help you to look beneath the surface. It was truly amazing and gut-wrenching and confusing and utterly perfect if you’re looking for something completely different,a little darker and a little explicit.
~Nicole
