Choices

by T.A. Caldwell

On the most exciting night of my life, I dressed like a princess, went to the ball on the arm of my prince. I had no idea in less than forty-eight hours I’d be on my knees, begging for his life.
When I sacrificed myself to save my boyfriend, I had no idea what I bargained for.
Dominique Testa fascinated me the evening I met him. He devastated me the night he took me, and he’s the man responsible for the hell I can’t escape.
He’s wrong for the way he’s dominated me. I’m right to deny the way he makes me feel. But the more I understand, I’m learning my perception of right may have been wrong all along.

344 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 25, 2022

About the author

Tracey Caldwell has been conjuring stories in her imagination since childhood and began to devour books at a young age. Tracey enjoyed writing short stories and poetry, but it wasn’t until 2018 that she attempted to write her first novel. After being forced into early retirement in 2020, she focused on becoming an author with her debut book, Sanshain, released in December 2021.
With the support of her amazing husband, Tracey is living the dream in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. She enjoys her horses, two dogs, and a good book.
Writing under the name T. A. Caldwell, she leans toward romance, but you shouldn’t expect the same trope in every story. She just can’t stick to one flavor, but you can always expect some action and plenty of spice in all her books.

Reviews

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first novel by this author and I am very glad I chose to read and review it. I give it a definite 5 star rating. Analise and Dominique are two very complex characters and their personalities are developed quite well throughout the story. I particularly enjoyed the conflicting feelings and emotions that Analise had towards Dom. I hope the author expands on their relationship in future novels. This book will appeal to those who tastes include dark romance, suspense with a bit of mafia thrown in. Great read!!.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Arabella Auberon · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s very difficult to like Dom. He is gaslighting Analise from the get go. He says she agreed to it, but she even internally states that coercion is not agreement. So, I can’t, and won’t, get over the way this all played out. There are some situations where I don’t mind dub/con… this isn’t one of them. This is not even really dub/con, it’s clearly non/con. If she’s crying while you brutally take her against her will, that’s not dubious.

This could have been done in a way that illustrates his dominance without him being a horrible person about it. For all his claims about hating liars, he is a huge liar.

The details about her surroundings, and everything in her life really, are so lacking, we’re not even told what color she’s wearing, which could be an important detail and give the reader a clue as to what’s coming, but instead all we get is repetitive internal dialogue and further abuse from everyone around her. It comes off as a pick and choose, sometimes we’re given necessary information and sometimes we’re not.

I’m not saying Thomas was a good guy, but this book isn’t really about him.
I think my biggest complaint is that Analise is such a doormat. I like stories with strong female characters and so far she’s not even close. This just comes across as some weak, innocent girl being tortured for no reason, and we’re supposed to… what, feel sorry for her? Are we supposed to start to like her out of pity? Even if she becomes stronger, she’s still a pathetic character.

She’s a nurse for crying out loud, this story could have gone so many different ways, and instead it turned into Stockholm Syndrome, it’s like authors can’t tell the difference between that and showing actual respectful and caring partnerships.

Unfortunately, I have a very self explanatory rating system, see below, and based on the first half of the book, I can’t maintain the value of my rating system if I don’t rate this correctly.

There is no coming back from gaslighting, abuse, rape, and manipulation of the MFC by the MMC. It doesn’t matter how many women the MMC saves from auctions, or how many bad people he kills, what matters is how the MMC treats the MFC, and that has been established to be in the negative.


5 ⭐️s= Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors, loved this story so much I’d buy it.

4 ⭐️s= Great story, highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Believable actions and reactions, realistic dialogue, a book I would consider buying.

3 ⭐️s= Good but not great story, noticeable discrepancies, grammatical and or spelling errors, undeveloped characters or unbelievable behaviors but still readable. Nothing majorly wrong with the story, just not interesting enough for me to continue. Would not buy the book.

2 ⭐️s= Not offended by the story, but not interested enough to finish. Unbelievable characters, poor writing, many mistakes, big holes or discrepancies, many spelling or grammatical errors, characters not believable, unlikeable or TSTL.

1 ⭐️= Offensive, extremely poor writing, horrible characters, victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. Would never buy this book, and do not recommend it to anyone.

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[A. Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is called Choices and man if it isn't full of them. The book starts out with Analise attending a benefit with her live in wealthy boyfriend and his family. While there Ana meets a stranger, Dom, who clearly wasn't invited. Ana finds out her boyfriend knows this handsome stranger and all is not well. Days after the charity event Ana wakes up to find that she and her boyfriend Thomas have been kidnapped. This is where the first of Ana's choices must be made. She can save Thomas but she must willingly give herself to Dom. If she knew what all that involved I'm not so sure she would've made the same choice again. Ana soon finds out what kind of man Dom is. Dom is the most controlling and manipulative man. Dom always tells Ana she has a choice when in reality Ana really has very few choices. Dom rules over her whole life. Dom is the head of his family. He refuses to be in an arranged marriage and married Ana rather quickly and whether she wants to or not. Dom promises his brother instead. Ana's boyfriend refuses to move on and leave her with Dom. Dom and Ana must contend with his choices as well. It feels like Ana is constantly paying for the decisions of everyone around her. Dom just wants her to love him and pick him but he never quite goes about it in the right way. Dom is always worried about being betrayed and is distrustful and unfortunately he takes it out on Ana. Did I mention that there is also a live in prostitute that Dom , his brother, and the men working there share? I can see the lead in to the next book. I can't wait to read it. It will be about Dom's brother and his wife who get married in this book. They had met before in Las Vegas. Something happened between the 2 of them then that made them hate each other but we don't find out what in this book.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Amber Keehn · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a relatively new author, TA Caldwell sure knew how to pack a punch in this dark, mafia inspired romantic suspense. The blurb for this book came up in my Facebook feed and I brushed off most of my other backlog in favor Choices. #noregrets This story was so well written, I literally felt all of the emotions from both Analise and Dom even though it was exclusively from her POV. At first I was little put off by her as a character, but she was very relatable as I thought more about it - she obviously was alone having lost her whole family and completely vulnerable first to Thomas (who was not a good guy) and then to Dom (who was also not a good guy, but in a morally grey antihero that we love kind of way). This book would not be for everyone- there are some pretty triggering scenes and some definite non/dub con situations that would make even the most prolific dark romance reader cringe. That said, these are fairly sparse and not an overall theme of the book like you see in some pitch black novels. This book was not total smut, while there’s a plethora of spicy scenes there’s an intense depth to not only the characters but the novel as a whole that makes me a huge new fan of this author! There’s some side characters in the book- Darian and Talia, as well as Joe, Terrance and even Krista that I am hoping to see get their own spin offs! I believe Dariana and Talia are getting their story in Book 2 as a matter of fact and this reader is here for it!.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Meme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Analise is living with her boyfriend and they end up attending an event hosted by his family. At this even she meets Dom who she finds a little scary but good looking. Fast forward a little and she is taken along with her boyfriend because of something her boyfriend did. Analise ends up living with Dom and I really was not impressed with Dom for a majority of the book. He seemed a selfish guy who blamed others for his temper tantrums and only thought about what he wanted to do. Analise went through a lot. I thought she caved into what Dom wanted to quickly but she did stand up for herself and by the end she was not going to put up with much and voiced her opinions. As I read what I've just written I realize it may seem like I didn't like the story, but that is not true, I really DID enjoy this story. There is a ton of violence and action and some gore in the story. There is some humor even though it's a darker read. There really isn't any intrigue, we know who the bad guy is. As I read I got drawn onto their story and my heart went out to Analise several times. While reading you got to experience both of them grow as people and in a relationship. There are a couple twists to the story that added even more to the story. I thought it was well written, but if you don't like a darker read this is not for you.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book in the A Dark Romance series buckle up this is a wild ride, dangerous men, alpha personified, possessive, oh, so gorgeous, brooding all the makings of a deliciously dark story 😊. I will say get comfortable this is my first by this author and liked the insert but once you start this series you will continue to want more, and you won’t stop till the last page is turned. Analise has had a lot to deal with still missing the family she lost broken a little frustrating to start out by quickly learning what she has been trough your heart hurts for her with a man who really isn’t a good man, but neither is her kidnapper, but he is the lesser of the two evils. Dom sexy as all get out broken man you can’t help but love, hate all at the same time he has a lot of issues that he pushes on her or better use as an excuse to being who he which borderline mean, does and say hurtful things to break her down but with everything she has already been through it is unnecessary along with the violence it can be a little gory but in his defense he doesn’t really know wany other way to be but he does learn Analise learns to stand up for herself and start speaking her mind, standing up to him but where does it all lead, will she really ever understand why or that he doesn’t know how to love, and where are they headed maybe happiness?.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no clue how I feel about this book. The story seemed rushed and somewhat hard to follow initially, but it eventually leveled out a bit. It was full of entirely unlikeable characters. This is especially true for Dom, who seemed unredeemable to his core yet needed constant validation. I felt like Analise is weak-willed even after showing strength in the beginning. I hated that it took until chapter 27 (of 35) for her to stand up for herself. While things seemed to turn around, it was too late; the book had ended.

That said, I could not put it down. I have no idea how to explain why. I struggled yet felt that I absolutely had to finish this story. Something about it made me invested. It could’ve been that I wanted to see if Dom was indeed as terrible as he seemed it if he could perhaps, atone for his awfulness. Whatever it is, I have downloaded the next book in KU to read how it all ends, and again, I have no clue why.

Voluntarily reviewed after receiving a free copy courtesy of BookSprout and the author, TA Caldwell

[Tami · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was absolutely frustrating, but so good and I will definitely be reading it again. Ana goes through way too much in a short period of time.. She doesn't start to stand up for herself until much later, but she's scared (with good reasons). Dom is mean and harsh, because he doesn't understand another way to show affection. He feels so much for her, so he thinks he is showing love and protection. He never fully redeems himself, but they work through life. The ending has a HEA.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first time I’ve read this author so I went in blindly without any expectations. I was intrigued by the blurb and really enjoyed this story. It was definitely dark . The story kept me hooked from the first first page until the very end. Would definitely be checking out more books by this author.

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the most exciting night of my life, I dressed like a princess, went to the ball on the arm of my prince. I had no idea in less than forty-eight hours I’d be on my knees, begging for his life.
When I sacrificed myself to save my boyfriend, I had no idea what I bargained for. I enjoyed Dominique & Analise's book. It was an intriguing read. And am voluntarily leaving my review.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel from the first page until the very last.

It was a quick read, while at the same time, it was an extremely satisfying read. I must admit that I was captivated by these characters and their amazing love story instantaneously.