Caged

by E.L. Beth

Mariyah Hayworth is always getting in some sort of trouble. A simple visit to see her brother in prison turns out to be the beginning of nightmare for Mariyah. Zak Michaels, the top dog at the maximum security prison sees her and wants her. He was one not to be messed with, he could make anybody's life a living hell. Turns out Zak wanted Mariyah to visit him once a week, if she refused he would hurt her brother. To Mariyah's dismay it was not your ordinary visit. Zak had visitation privileges, where he had access to a room for an hour a week and this is where Mariyah was to meet him. Mariyah was quick to discover what his intentions were, but could she refuse him and her brother at risk? This is a adults only book, it contains material of sex and submission and violence. It is recommended for readers 18 years and over.

Genres: Dark Romance, Abuse, Erotica, Romance, Dark, Crime, Enemies To Lovers

441 pages, Paperback

First published March 4, 2015

About the author

I began writing dark erotica in 2014. I found that it really irritated me how authors bring down their male leads and make love stories sappy. I continually began to feel unfulfilled with reading. So I wrote a book how I like to read it. I find that although my stories are full on and seem a bit much, so many of my readers have connected to them. I try to tone it down ever so often in my books, but I find I write better the harder the material I write about.

Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/ELBeth76

Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/...

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/author/el-...

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/E.Lbethbooks

Reviews

[Athena Que Será, Será]

This is E.L. Beth's work... please watch out for TWs. DO NOT READ THIS if you are sensitive to domestic violence, cheating and sexual assault.
Tags: abuse, age-gaaap, betrayal, bully, catches-him-in-the-act, caveman, cheating-hero, cheating-mafia-romance, cheating-on-ow, cruel-cruel-hero, dark-romance, doormat_heroine, editing-needed, enemies-to-lovers, forced-seduction-dubcon-noncon, hero-did-prison-time, hero-hurts-heroine, hero-rapist, heroine-is-ow, heroine-leaves, mafia-cartel-romance, manwhore-philanderer, mean-mean-girls-women, no-grovelling, obsession, older-hero-younger-heroine, over-the-years, ow-drama, poor-heroine, possessive-mine-mine-mine, prison-penitentiary-romance, psychos-in-love, rape-survivor, read, revenge, rich-hero, rich-hero-poor-heroine, thriller-stockholm-creepy, unlikable-hero, unlikable-heroine, weak-heroine

[CharlieB · Rating 4 out of 5]

WTF did I just read? My mind is boggled. This is like a modern day bodice ripper.
To be fair...I was warned about E.L. Beth's Books. That her hero's were mean SOB's without redemption. This book was like a horrible accident that I just couldn't look away from. Triggers galore people!!
The hero was horrible/mean/prick....the heroine was TSTL and yet I continued to read it. I have reading issues. :(

['Q' aka CoCo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mariyah is an idiot. There's no getting around that. She's immature and even has she has the thought I should really shut up, she continues saying stupid things that make her situation worse. Her brother, Caleb, has looked out for her their entire lives, yet she ignores his advice which makes their situation worse. Once Zak enters the picture, he's upfront with how things are between the two of them, but she invents a relationship in her head, and still acts like an immature idiot.
The saving grace here? Zak.
He's a complete jerk, but I loved him. I love him because he wasn't the kind of guy to pretend, blindsiding the girl with his infidelity or abuse. No, he told her if she kept talking he'd smack her. He told her she was nothing special and of course he had other women. And he followed through.
He humiliates her repeatedly, and she doesn't understand why she's aroused by it. I thought it was sexy as hell too so no judgment here. What I will judge is how stupid she is and the complete lack of editing in this book. So, three and half stars.

[Lidia's Romance · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

I started this book about mid December and finally finished it. Mostly because I'm on a reading slump, but also, this book wasn't very good (and not only because of the editing issues).

What did I think?
The Bastard's Bride was executed much better. The main male character is almost a replica of Bastard's. I'm assuming all of this author's MMCs will be the same--sociopathic. The lack of redemption doesn't bother me, but the lack of grovel definitely does. The MFC is subjected to lots of abuse, and for the most part, she's dense, lead by her UNFORTUNATE Body Betraying Syndrome and her undying love for the MMC. I don't even know what she loves about him. This goes beyond Stockholm Syndrome. And I doubt what he feels is love. It's a sick obsession. Anyway, I got what I needed from this book.

Note: She has a miscarriage because of him and they never once discuss it; they just continue on as if it never happened. She didn't want to talk about it and he goes on abusing her. Tragic.

Warning: These books are not for everyone most.

[blueberry · Rating 2 out of 5]

1,5 ⭐

This book was the definition of a train wreck. You can't help to watch even if you don't want to.

Plot, writing, pacing: all over the place

This book had everything :

🟥 non con/ straight up r*pe
🟥 Cheating Hero who beats up the h constantly
🟥 Miscarriage
🟥 Doormat/dumb heroine

Safety readers: avoid it at all costs.

+0,5 ⭐ only because some part of me wanted to finish it, maybe call it morbid curiosity.

[Jena]

Cheater H

[Book Nook Kitten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Argh, it's awful, really badly written, with 'he' instead of 'she', 'her' instead of 'he', very basic problems littering every page that should have been so easy to fix but the author didn't care, was completely unprofessional. As for the story, it's a cheating domestic abuser for a H and a stupid immature selfish idiot for a h. Some actions and dialogue were so bad they made me cringe.

There's much of the plot just not believeable even for fiction. I felt sorry for Caleb, the heroine's brother, she gets him sent to prison, then beaten by a prison guard, then beaten badly by Zak, the prisoner who forces her into visiting him at the prison once a week for sex, or he'll hurt her brother, and because she's so stupid, immature and selfish she keeps mouthing off to men she knows can hurt her brother and do hurt him because of her continuing to be so stupid, immature and selfish.

Caleb needed to run and leave her to Zak. She was horrible. The author has her falling in love with Zak after just 4 weeks, 4 visits to him, two of them he hurts her physically and sexually. And she still falls for him even after he beat the shit out of her innocent brother for her being stupid yet again. It's awful stuff. She was seriously annoying to read about. The author even has her masterbating to thoughts of him immeduately after the first violent sex scene, when it says, 'it feels like he caused her insides to tear'.

Then, oh yeah, she gets her brother into more trouble and beaten again because she's so lazy and selfish and whining while he has to work himself to exhaustion and gets himself involved with yet another dangerous situation because of her. Only the first around 20% of the book is set in the prison then the next huge chunk of 15% is all just the heroine's poor woe me self pity crying to her brother and her trainer, had to skip that, it's painfully boring.

I have to admit I did like that she went toe to toe with Zak, and how frustrated she made the big baddie. So I did read Skyes Heart, Fallen, Jake's story, forgot the title of his books, the Blacks Brothers, and the bastards bride after this. But while they had enjoyable premises at first, the author turns them all into exactly the same story repeated, same characters doing and saying the same exact things, same OTT drama, same abuse, all repeated in the same boring billionaire setting, with the H keeping the h locked up in his mansion by the ocean. Yawn.

You really do end up just reading the same story and characters over and over again in this author's books. It's awful and exhausting. So I haven't read anything else by the author. If you've read one of El Beth's books then you've read them all unfortunately. Its a pity because the premises start out as having such good potential. The author's books are also expensive at £5 per ebook but even if they were free on KU I don't want to read what is just the is same story again and again.

Just a note, I do like a good prioner based book, I read any I can find, even prison planet scifi. My favourites of those as recommendations are Hold by Claire Kent and Guardian Prison Planet by Emmy Chandler. With real-life based stories there aren't many options for male prisoners to access women, a sister/ wife/ex wife visiting another inmate, or a female working at the prison. The author herself has a second book were the heroine is the lawyer of the inmate, Aquitted.

Outside of that understandable similar premise though the heroine here is identical to Jamie Begley's heroine in Predators Riot, published a year before this book, also part set in a prison, who got her brother landed in prison after attacking a guy she had flirted with etc. The prison and billionaire elements also reminded me of books by Annika Martin, particularly her Prisoner, again published a year before this. Amazon deleted my reviews so leaving them here, first read this book Caged in 2018.

[Summer · Rating 3 out of 5]

WTF? Why am I such a book whore that I can't say no?

[Nicole BHam · Rating 4 out of 5]

well

It’s definitely not for the faint hearted. If you don’t like cheating or physical violence. Skip this one. I hate cheating and never read it but for some reason I was intrigued with this even after reading all the reviews. I gave it a try and while I didn’t like. It fit the story and the couple. I read so many reviews talking about how they hate h. She was so weak and stupid and never kept her mouth shut. But while at times she should have at the same time I found her stronger for going toe to toe w him. I think that is what’s he fell for somewhat. I didn’t find her weak. Stupid at times yes. But u could call that immaturity. A lot of people raved about the H and he did horrible things. But the poor h was stupid. Go figure.

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 stars for this unedited book, Zak who meets Mariyah while visiting her brother in prison makes her come to visit him every month if she wants to keep her brother safe. Blackmailed. He is one hell of an abusive Alpha, it's his way all the way, he gets rough with the heroine and is not sorry. Mariyah loves him, beast and all, he is with other women(but no detail's are told) This book was so out there, I'm surprized I did not hate the M/C , he has a cruel side which was scary. This is a dark read and the Hero is not so nice, but it kept me turning the pages and looking for other works of this author:))

[Tia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ngl I've read most of her stories out of boredom in the corona lockdown and they all sound exactly the same. No plot, just same old thing over and over again. With petty arguments, unnessary drama and out of the way logic that beats common sense and a emotionally and physically abusive dude with a timid sometime faisty heroine. Repetitive to the point u would think ur reading the same story 100 times with different character names.

[theFictionfreak]

DNF

The writing was all over the place. Nothing made any sense.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

CAGED BY E.L Beth
Rating: 2 stars
Burn: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Darkness:🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤
Heat: 🔥🥵
Range of Emotions: Many emotions, around why I read this, from shaking my head at some stupid MFC, the abuse she had suffered at his hands. The idiot nickname “Kid.” Cheating asshole!
Ending: end period, no room for a sequel or epilogue.
POV: Female lead

🗂 Genre: Should be Dark Romance, but I found it just to be stupid

✨ Tropes:
💋 Kinks: Belt whipping, spanking, control over the female

⚠️ Warning: The story contains themes of rape and non-consensual situations, as well as abuse directed towards the female lead—this includes physical, emotional, sexual, and mental abuse by the main male character. At one point, the male lead engages in non-consensual acts while in prison, sometimes without condoms. This leads to a miscarriage following an incident of rape. Additionally, there is a discussion of semi-cheating while in prison, and after his release, the male lead cheats on the female lead with his fiancée.

🚩 Safety Squad: Nothing is safe!

📣 Type: Adult


The characters in this story really frustrated me! The female lead was incredibly annoying; her decisions often seemed mind-bogglingly foolish, leaving me wondering how anyone could be so naive and oblivious. And the male lead? I found myself wishing he would just disappear entirely. His actions were infuriating and showed a complete lack of depth or consideration, making it hard to root for him at all. Overall, I felt a deep sense of dissatisfaction with both of their portrayals.

[Farheen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Typical EL Beth book

Her books have this theme.

Unethical MMC, physically and mentally abusive, rapist, who beats the FMC, causes miscarriage and doesn’t have to do much groveling. Fucks the other woman in front of the FMC or at least gets a blowjob. Enjoys humiliating the FMC.

Thankfully I expected all that so I wasn’t shocked or heartbroken reading it.

I liked how they met in prison so was curious to know how it ends.

It’s a Typical EL Beth book.

[Charlotte Bostoen · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. There was something about the writing style that didn’t sit well with me. That, and how the story evolved. I’m sure it’s to someone’s liking, just not mine.
The storytelling was off, the characters were off, the writing was questionable.

I’m sure the novel would improve significantly with some rewriting and rereading, but that probably won’t change my mind to finally read it.

It was disappointing because I had high hopes after so many people recommended it.

[Ejemen Ojobo · Rating 1 out of 5]

dont bother reading.

Waste of time. Book made no sense. Repeated abuse till the end. What was the point of all the abuse towards h. Beaten to the point of miscarriage and she is more concerned about H possibly getting married to someone else. Finished the book hoping there would be some redemption but never happened.

[Neisha † The Poet † · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mariyah + Zak

Well these books seem to be my dirty pleasure. My only problem was Mariyah getting mad and calling Olivia a Latino bitch, and opened her “Latino mouth” . It bothered me because you’re calling her a bitch which I get but putting the Latino in front as though it’s an insult... cringe

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

what did I just read 🤣

3 stars for the effort. But this is not romance. Lmao. I don’t know what is this but it isn’t it. 1 star for the idea of the story, 1 star for the writing and 1 last star for the guts to published it 🤣😂🤣

[James Kovacs · Rating 2 out of 5]

needs editing

Needs editing and spelling corrected . Plot was all over the place . It had a really great premise but no follow through . Very disappointed in this book.

[Stephanie Furlan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Get a friggin editor!!

This book has everything I want in a dark romance except the terrible grammar, punctuation errors and typos. I refuse to give anything away because if I did you wouldn't buy it. Please be FOREWARNED about TRIGGERS. There is a lot of physical abuse and domestic violence in this book.

Mariyah (yup the author stuck an unnecessary "Y" in there) is your sassy mouthed heroine. She gets in trouble with Zak (who is the H) constantly.

Zak doesn't hesitate to kick Mariyah's ass which is pretty much every day in front of whoever is present.

The storyline is great. The pace is great. But the author needs to get a professional editor. They're, there and their are not interchangeable. Should have and should've mean the same thing but "should of" shows a lack of education. Same goes for "would of."

Needless to say I have been won over and will read more of her books. But for the love of your fans Ms Beth, please at least pay someone with more than a 9th grade education to at least proofread.