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Trapped: Book One of Three in the I Will Possess Your Heart Trilogy
This is not a love story.
This is conditioning, costumed to pass as love.
Liam Barnette is a lot of charming, powerful, careful.
He may even be the kind of man people warn you about.
For me, he is the man who rearranges my life so quietly that, if you are not paying attention, it looks like generosity.
At Holbrook University, Liam has influence, patience, and an unnerving instinct for where to apply pressure. He does not chase. He does not court. He hunts—and knowing you’re prey is worse.
What happens between us is not love as it is supposed to be. Liam does not love. He observes, refines, and conquers until the girl standing in front of him no longer resembles the one who arrived at Holbrook.
By the time I understand what I have lost, he is the only one who knows how to hold what remains. There is no redemption, no rescue. Liam is not a hero, but he never pretends to be one, either.
Trapped is a psychological dark romance featuring a morally black male lead, emotional manipulation, and an unsettling version of a happy ending.
This book contains explicit themes and is intended for adult readers only. Please review trigger warnings before reading.
This is conditioning, costumed to pass as love.
Liam Barnette is a lot of charming, powerful, careful.
He may even be the kind of man people warn you about.
For me, he is the man who rearranges my life so quietly that, if you are not paying attention, it looks like generosity.
At Holbrook University, Liam has influence, patience, and an unnerving instinct for where to apply pressure. He does not chase. He does not court. He hunts—and knowing you’re prey is worse.
What happens between us is not love as it is supposed to be. Liam does not love. He observes, refines, and conquers until the girl standing in front of him no longer resembles the one who arrived at Holbrook.
By the time I understand what I have lost, he is the only one who knows how to hold what remains. There is no redemption, no rescue. Liam is not a hero, but he never pretends to be one, either.
Trapped is a psychological dark romance featuring a morally black male lead, emotional manipulation, and an unsettling version of a happy ending.
This book contains explicit themes and is intended for adult readers only. Please review trigger warnings before reading.
570 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 28, 2026
4 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 22, 2026
I'm a little disappointed after all the rave reviews at how meh I feel about this book, but I made it all the way through, so I guess that's something. This book was like finding a messy DYI furniture project at a flea market, it has good bones, but it would take a lot of time and energy to strip most of it away and then add a lot to it for it to actually make it worthwhile... 500+ pages AT LEAST needed to be cut out, it's hard to believe this was edited at all when there are parts of it that repeat the EXACT SAME LINES multiple times in a chapter. It's so unnecessarily long and SO repetitive, the repetition nearly killed me. The amount of stuff I just skimmed because it had already been hashed out over and over again was staggering and yet, somehow so much that *needed* to be in it never came to be.
It felt like it was trying really hard to be the next "If I can't have you", but fell horribly short. It attempted to have the "slice of life" style that IICHY had by just having no pacing whatsoever. Instead, this made it feel like a collection of journal entries or random short stories that only loosely held an overarching plot because the overall development of the characters was so underdone. Plot points were just left dangling or never really led any where or had no overall purpose to the story. Having Liam being on the hockey team especially seemed superfluous. The sex scenes weren't even hot because there never felt to be any build up or tension, they all felt just dropped in.
The biggest tragedy was all the TELLING and never showing. Neither main character was ever very consistent, so it made feeling attached to them difficult. We're TOLD that Liam is a calculating mastermind, but he rarely shows it. There's no great aHA! Moments like you feel like you're suddenly in on his next level thinking. Beyond that, he was hard to like and not for the reasons you'd initially assume. With a mastermind villain-hero in a dark romance, part of what makes you accept the horrible things he does is the idea that every move he makes is calculated with multiple contingency plans already in place for every move he makes and that they all lead to the overall completion of his plan which will ultimately be for the good of the heroine and himself, even if it wouldn't have been her first choice. Liam felt a lot more like arrogance and a lot less like competence. The part of the story where this became most apparent is when he's introducing her into the society he's been so carefully molding her to fit into for the first time and just...leaves her....to mingle with important people she doesn't know...as an 18 year old... after 5 months of being together and 2 months of her even starting to accept him. That was unbelievably stupid, out of character and worst of all ,was how he couldn't apologize afterwards when he knew he was wrong. Part of what makes these villains likeable even if they're irredeemable is that when it MATTERS and when it counts, they are the man the h needs them to be and yet with Liam, only half the time was this true. Caroline may have had faith in him, but as a reader, I certainly didn't have any faith in his ability to keep them afloat or catch her when she fell. There was a lot of oscillation as far as his motive or master plans for her anyways, he wanted her to be a trophy wife sometimes, a strong partner sometimes, then basically a pretty possession. His entire character profile, motivations and mannerisms needed to be firmed up in a much more real way, it felt like the author was just writing what came to mind and never thinking about making sure it was consistent throughout.
Caroline...you'd hink I'd somehow feel sorry for her, but more times than not, it was hard to care for her since when she SHOULD be defiant and stand up for herself, she never did and yet somehow, when Liam was actually doing something to really help her out, she had an attitude and was never grateful in the ways she should be. We're TOLD she's intelligent, but never shown that she is, she claimed to pick her battles and yet chose poorly EVERY TIME. I guess it was for the sake of drama, but I can't help but feel like there were so many better ways to accomplish that without sacrificing logic and character building. Other than the blackmail, it was really hard to say what Caroline was even fighting against all the time and it's hard to believe how quickly she adapted timeline-wise and yet how long it actually took her to adapt book page-wise.
I'm not really sure if I'd read this author again. I appreciate them touching on tropes that are so rarely done any more, so for that I might try again, but I feel they'd need to have a serious reworking of the way they structure and organize their characters and stories.
It felt like it was trying really hard to be the next "If I can't have you", but fell horribly short. It attempted to have the "slice of life" style that IICHY had by just having no pacing whatsoever. Instead, this made it feel like a collection of journal entries or random short stories that only loosely held an overarching plot because the overall development of the characters was so underdone. Plot points were just left dangling or never really led any where or had no overall purpose to the story. Having Liam being on the hockey team especially seemed superfluous. The sex scenes weren't even hot because there never felt to be any build up or tension, they all felt just dropped in.
The biggest tragedy was all the TELLING and never showing. Neither main character was ever very consistent, so it made feeling attached to them difficult. We're TOLD that Liam is a calculating mastermind, but he rarely shows it. There's no great aHA! Moments like you feel like you're suddenly in on his next level thinking. Beyond that, he was hard to like and not for the reasons you'd initially assume. With a mastermind villain-hero in a dark romance, part of what makes you accept the horrible things he does is the idea that every move he makes is calculated with multiple contingency plans already in place for every move he makes and that they all lead to the overall completion of his plan which will ultimately be for the good of the heroine and himself, even if it wouldn't have been her first choice. Liam felt a lot more like arrogance and a lot less like competence. The part of the story where this became most apparent is when he's introducing her into the society he's been so carefully molding her to fit into for the first time and just...leaves her....to mingle with important people she doesn't know...as an 18 year old... after 5 months of being together and 2 months of her even starting to accept him. That was unbelievably stupid, out of character and worst of all ,was how he couldn't apologize afterwards when he knew he was wrong. Part of what makes these villains likeable even if they're irredeemable is that when it MATTERS and when it counts, they are the man the h needs them to be and yet with Liam, only half the time was this true. Caroline may have had faith in him, but as a reader, I certainly didn't have any faith in his ability to keep them afloat or catch her when she fell. There was a lot of oscillation as far as his motive or master plans for her anyways, he wanted her to be a trophy wife sometimes, a strong partner sometimes, then basically a pretty possession. His entire character profile, motivations and mannerisms needed to be firmed up in a much more real way, it felt like the author was just writing what came to mind and never thinking about making sure it was consistent throughout.
Caroline...you'd hink I'd somehow feel sorry for her, but more times than not, it was hard to care for her since when she SHOULD be defiant and stand up for herself, she never did and yet somehow, when Liam was actually doing something to really help her out, she had an attitude and was never grateful in the ways she should be. We're TOLD she's intelligent, but never shown that she is, she claimed to pick her battles and yet chose poorly EVERY TIME. I guess it was for the sake of drama, but I can't help but feel like there were so many better ways to accomplish that without sacrificing logic and character building. Other than the blackmail, it was really hard to say what Caroline was even fighting against all the time and it's hard to believe how quickly she adapted timeline-wise and yet how long it actually took her to adapt book page-wise.
I'm not really sure if I'd read this author again. I appreciate them touching on tropes that are so rarely done any more, so for that I might try again, but I feel they'd need to have a serious reworking of the way they structure and organize their characters and stories.
March 30, 2026
wow this was intense. soooo intense
i couldnt stop reading it omg
the author wrote it so well
i loved how she started right after she woke up and basically met him. because i was reading and reading and i was like 'who is she. who was she before this. how much has she changed' and even by the end when she's more herself or not l'll never know. so should I be happy she's figured out a way to be okay with it. or has she completely changed. and like ending that longass, super intense, resolution chapter from his pov was genius too because agaim is she actually okay???
i think she is. and she isnt
he was crazy intense and abusive and controlling. and wanted her to be his perfect version. and in the end he got it. but again is she herself and adapted a bit and accepted it or has she actually completely changed
idk haha maybe i'm being too deep
anyway i loved her! and i want her to be happy. and o guess to be a badass power couple but will he actually stop being crazy evil and let her
i actually hated her friends so much. read the room. her face. her body language. her actions. i was going crazy. he was bad enough. but chloe laughing about it and seeing it as a happy thing was making me scream. what a bad friend
and ethan was so damn scary. i can't imagine if he everyhad a book. i'd be so scared to read it if he's gonna be even worse than liam
im excited for the next book. feel like i didn't take a breath this whole book. i wanted her to be free so i could actually see who she was before all this. but i think she's also changed too much forever
SO INTENSE
he was creepy because he took over everything and no one else could really see it or save her :/
anyway i want the next book to still be about them and see them together some more and just succeed and just be an obsessed power couple. with zero long breakups. i hate break ups so much
i couldnt stop reading it omg
the author wrote it so well
i loved how she started right after she woke up and basically met him. because i was reading and reading and i was like 'who is she. who was she before this. how much has she changed' and even by the end when she's more herself or not l'll never know. so should I be happy she's figured out a way to be okay with it. or has she completely changed. and like ending that longass, super intense, resolution chapter from his pov was genius too because agaim is she actually okay???
i think she is. and she isnt
he was crazy intense and abusive and controlling. and wanted her to be his perfect version. and in the end he got it. but again is she herself and adapted a bit and accepted it or has she actually completely changed
idk haha maybe i'm being too deep
anyway i loved her! and i want her to be happy. and o guess to be a badass power couple but will he actually stop being crazy evil and let her
i actually hated her friends so much. read the room. her face. her body language. her actions. i was going crazy. he was bad enough. but chloe laughing about it and seeing it as a happy thing was making me scream. what a bad friend
and ethan was so damn scary. i can't imagine if he everyhad a book. i'd be so scared to read it if he's gonna be even worse than liam
im excited for the next book. feel like i didn't take a breath this whole book. i wanted her to be free so i could actually see who she was before all this. but i think she's also changed too much forever
SO INTENSE
he was creepy because he took over everything and no one else could really see it or save her :/
anyway i want the next book to still be about them and see them together some more and just succeed and just be an obsessed power couple. with zero long breakups. i hate break ups so much
March 5, 2026
Honestly this book should have wayyyy more 5 star reviews and be recognized because it’s sooo good. I binged it so fast when I saw it came out!!!
This book was originally on a a website for free and had way more available parts- before it was taken down right when I was getting to the best parts lmao. so I was shocked and so sad to see it pulled off the site. Seeing this book published I now realized why.
All I can say is if your into toxic relationships and great spicy scenes. READ this book!! I really hope book 2 comes out soon because I’m dying to read what happens next.
The MMC is 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵. So dominant and in control of the relationship and I freaking love it. I just loved how the FMC submitted to him. Some moments I’m like okay that’s messed up but I love dark romance so I was all for it. I wanted more!!
Definitely one of those stay up until 4 am reads.
Get this book!!!
February 28, 2026
While not my regular genre this is such a great read if you’re looking for a great psychological fiction.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews