"A story that is going to consumes you entirely"
I was provided with an advanced ARC copy by Enticing Journey for exchange of my honest review.
In the name of love you do unbelievable things; acts which coming from deep inside your soul, with the necessity only to provide, happiness. Unfortunately, there is the other side of the same coin that, these same acts have an opposite, unwelcomed effect, hate. In the name of freedom, however, you don't act instinctively, each move you take is planned to precise, leaving nothing to chance. It's you or your life in a...forever prison.
"The presence of a man in my world generally meant trouble in one way or the other, so I generally avoided them as much as possible" - Tatum
The storyline For the Love or Freedom has is one of the most unexpected, captivated, gripping ones I had the chance to read. Love and hate; happiness and pain; self-confidence and depression; be free or be trapped; the future or the past; are feelings and situations which were all tangled together into the story creating, inside me, a hurricane of mixed emotions everytime I red the next chapter.
Following the journey of a young mother, Tatum, and her daughter's Tulsie wasn't an easy task. I met them at a river side, in Texas, both playing together into the water away from their family. It was cleared from the beginning that the relationship between Tatum and her in-laws wasn't being in a pleasant level. In the middle of this unpleasant atmosphere, Tatum felt an unexpected connection with a man who screamed bad news from afar yet she let him crawled into her thoughts, helping her to get away from her reality which was so cruel to her lately. Tatum and her daughter were both abducted in the middle of the night, the same day after Tatum met this man. They were treated inhumanly. The scenes that took place felt so real, the cruelty of the situation was top palpable. What in the world a young woman with her five years old daughter would do at these moments? The same Tatum did for the sake of her daughter's life and hers. Stay strong! The kidnappers took them away, far deep into the jungle of Mexico and into a huge property surrounded with high walls and a gun guards. The property was a beautiful paradise for Tulsie but for Tatum was a golden cage.
Tatum was a strong, independent woman, married to a marine who was killed in a mission, when Tulsie was almost one year old. She wasn't lucky in her life. Losing her most precious people in her life too soon, her hasbund included, made her value the gift God gave her, not letting her lose her way; her daughter Tulsie. She was her anchor, her life vest, the air, the whole world. Keeping Tulsie safe and unharmed was her first priority. Tulsie's happiness was her daily mission despite the circumstances because only then Tatum knew that she's a good mother to her, a person her daughter will always turn to. However, the abduction and the place they both had to live in had different effects on both of them. The property was a huge playground in the eyes of Tulsie, with a variety of plants and animals ready to be discovered. The people who lived in the property was welcomed and kind to both of them; despite the way and the why Tatum and Tulsie came, everyone was happy to have them there.
But Tatum wasn't happy. The weeks and months she was there was living hell. The life she had, her home, her job everything started to seem that weren't going to given back again. Her daily routine was to keep happy and pleased Tulsie; nothing else mattered for her. She couldn't let herself connect with anyone in the house. However, everything switched after a terrible accident. Then, the pieces of the puzzle, about their abduction, started to connect and clear off the reasons she and her daughter were there. Not in her wildest dreams she would expect her savior in her dreams would be transformed into the kindnapper in her reality. After that revealation, Tatum's world shooke inside out. The inner fight between her mind and her body's reactions about that man was extinguished. His deep love declarations meant nothing to her. Not when his acts shown a dangerous, arrogant man who had torn her and her daughter from the world they lived. However, nothing seems to be what it really looked like. In the end it was only a choose for Tatum. A choice for love or for freedom.
Breathtaking and riveting, For Love or Freedom, is a story that deserves everyone to read it, even only for one time. The turmoil, the anxiety, the grief, the lose, the depression Tatum felt throughout the story were captured perfectly, the reality of them palpable in every single page. She was fighting hard an unknown enemy, like any mother would do for her child's life rescue, yet when her own child turned their back on her was an other war to try to win. The narration was only from Tatum's perspective. However it was clear to the reader, that her decisions weren't always right. How they would be right after all, when she had to endure these situations alone having priority her child's safety? Tatum's thoughts and words easily put me in her place; she made me cry oh-so-much; she made me laugh having happy tears in my eyes yet so easily. I was connected with her being a mother myself. These mixed feelings were a challenge to keep reading and not be willing to let go until I finish the book. It was beautifully narrated, attached Tatum's past when was necessary giving the proper messages about her character and who she really was. I found incredible talented the writing style of the author! It was fluent and impressive, developing with an inderscribable easiness a situation like an abduction compined with something forbidden, like love. Yes, I had read books in the past, that illustated the love the abducted felt for their kindnapper but this book provides things a bit more, a bit more intensed. Hope I intrigued your imagination and made you grab the book yourselves and find out what's happening.
Until next time, enjoy your free time reading great books with unforgettable stories.
Vivi