Trading Prisons : Choose your prison...

by Alicia Dawn, Stuart Budgen (Editor)

Everyone is in a prison—whether it’s built by choices, circumstances, or the expectations of others. But what defines you isn’t the walls that surround you; it’s your role within them. Are you the warden, enforcing control? The guard, silently upholding the rules? Or the inmate, trapped by forces beyond your power to escape? For Jessie, life has been a relentless journey from one prison to another. A childhood under her mother’s brutal reign taught her how to survive; a young adulthood spent in the seductive chaos of the club hardened her resolve. Each new chapter brought a different warden, a different set of rules, and the unshakable feeling that freedom was just out of reach. When she meets Colt Bradlee, a man who promises stability and salvation, Jessie dares to hope for something more. But Colt has his own scars, his own prison shaped by a childhood under a demanding mother and an unyielding need to control. His role as warden feels justified, even loving— until it isn’t. As their lives collide in a turbulent storm of love, manipulation, and desperation, Jessie begins to question the prisons they’ve both created. Colt, consumed by his own insecurities, is determined to hold the keys to their shared cell. And Kieran, Jessie’s daughter, becomes the unwitting pawn in a battle between freedom and control, caught between walls she never built. In this powerful exploration, Trading Prisons asks the ultimate If everyone is imprisoned by something, how do you choose whether to escape, enforce, or endure? Trading Prisons is a raw, emotionally devastating domestic violence novel that follows a mother trapped in a brutal cycle of abuse, addiction, and systemic betrayal. With gripping realism, it explores the terrifying control of a physically and psychologically abusive relationship, the failures of the court system, and the unraveling of a woman pushed to her breaking point. Perfect for readers drawn to tragic women’s fiction, trauma survival stories, and gritty, no-filter depictions of motherhood, mental illness, and justice gone wrong. All proceeds from Trading Prisons are donated to the National Domestic Violence Hotline — the very people who once answered my call. Now I write so someone else can be heard.

284 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 4, 2025

Reviews

[May Pelham · Rating 4 out of 5]

OKAY
for some reason i went into this thinking it was a dark romance, DO NOT DO THAT
this is a harrowing tragic story of DV.
The fmc Jessie is in a extremely abusive relationship with her husband Colt, HE IS A AWFUL MAN.

i was traumatised, as much as this book did traumatise me, i still read it and gave it a 3.5 star... WHY? because this was so so real and this does happen to women and men all over the world.

the beautiful author Alicia does also put all contributions from trading prisons into a domestic violence charity, and i cant love her enough for that.

[Seirra Rain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took me longer than normal to read this not because the first half was triggering being a DV survivor myself. However, this book is a great read and had an ending I didn't expect myself. It was a great read and would definitely recommend

[Andrea Mathes · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is such a beautifully heartbreaking book. I sobbed through majority of it. check the triggers but PICK THIS BOOK UP asap