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Eximius
Kidnapped OR Rescued
Opportunity OR Trap
Lies OR Truth
Love OR Lust
Stay OR Go
Victoria’s captives refused to talk face to face and only communicated with a grey notebook passed through the wall. She was treated better than she had been her entire life, and Victoria needed that more than anyone could know. Would she be able to trust enough to take this opportunity and continue this lavish life or chose to leave it all behind, keeping her sanity and self-worth intact?
Fighting melancholy, Sabastian needed something new and becoming a part-owner of the lucrative company that is Eximius, was his way out of his stupor.
However, the ethereal creature that was Victoria, completely stumped him as she continues to break his unwavering self-control. If he cannot get through this simple task, he would lose everything, but that may be a sacrifice he is willing to make, to be able to keep Victoria for himself. Sabastian finds himself falling in love, in a place where love is forbidden. Will she be the key to a better life or would she be the cause of Sabastian’s downfall? Or will the decision be taken away from him indefinitely?
Opportunity OR Trap
Lies OR Truth
Love OR Lust
Stay OR Go
Victoria’s captives refused to talk face to face and only communicated with a grey notebook passed through the wall. She was treated better than she had been her entire life, and Victoria needed that more than anyone could know. Would she be able to trust enough to take this opportunity and continue this lavish life or chose to leave it all behind, keeping her sanity and self-worth intact?
Fighting melancholy, Sabastian needed something new and becoming a part-owner of the lucrative company that is Eximius, was his way out of his stupor.
However, the ethereal creature that was Victoria, completely stumped him as she continues to break his unwavering self-control. If he cannot get through this simple task, he would lose everything, but that may be a sacrifice he is willing to make, to be able to keep Victoria for himself. Sabastian finds himself falling in love, in a place where love is forbidden. Will she be the key to a better life or would she be the cause of Sabastian’s downfall? Or will the decision be taken away from him indefinitely?
398 pages, Hardcover
Published February 3, 2023
1 person is currently reading
13 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 18, 2024
Take Dollhouse and combine it with the flashbacks in John Wick. Add a naive streetwise girl and a brooding boy who suddenly catches feelings. You've got a good sense of what this book is. I highly recommend it to people who can handle a rough ending as long as there are enough sexy and cute scenes.
The world-building is delightfully over the top. It makes me think of John Wick or Black Widow. The plot largely focuses on the enigmatic company, which is wealthy from catering to the elite. Everyone is beautiful and everything is luxurious. Many scenes discuss Victoria regaining weight after a long period of not eating much. The scenes are described in detail, and the details don't line up with the real world at all, but it blended in with the rest of the world when it would have stood out as poor research in a more realistic book.
The main couple are Victoria and Sabastian. Victoria is a scrawny, scrappy, sweet, streetwise woman who leaves a dangerous environment. Sabastian is the man sent to kidnap her for the company training program. He'll get a major promotion if he can successfully train her and make her an employee. Initially, they don't like each other. Sabastian has never been in a relationship and has trouble dealing with it. Victoria is new to relationships and sex. Sabastian has a sweet and artsy side. Victoria has a dark and ruthless side. These characters feel so much grander than the archetypes they're based on. I genuinely enjoyed reading about their relationship.
It appears something went wrong in the copy-editing process. If typos and grammar issues will destroy your reading experience, you may struggle with this book. The most frequent issues are typos or sound-alike terms, missing commas, and comma splices. The copy editor seemed to have an order to always split compound words and remove hyphens between words, resulting in phrasing like “nick name,” “hazel nut,” or “silk like” which feel unusual. There are also instances where information appears to be repeated by mistake, like a character being described as stone-faced (actually “stoned faced”), stoic, and rarely emoting in the same paragraph. Most readers will be able to brush these issues off. I work in publishing, so I have higher standards. Hopefully, a second edition can fix these problems. The book deserves so much better!
Much of the tension in the early chapters comes from purposefully omitting information. This can be effective, but at points, the omission goes too far. For example, in the first chapter, Sabastian thinks about the last bit of the instructions his boss gave him for this job, as it will be difficult to execute. Readers are not told what the job is or what might make following the instructions difficult. Because there's no context, there's no impact. In fact, I still have no idea what he was supposed to be worried about.
As the book goes on, the tension comes from the interaction between the characters. This is more interesting. The slow burn pace allows us to discover the world as Victoria does. Seeing Sabastian worry about his conflicted feelings for Victoria is fun. Victoria gaining more confidence is also fun. Once the book settled into a rhythm I found myself eager to know what would happen next.
The ending angered me. Both what happens and how it is handled felt like a betrayal. Near the end of the book, At the end of that scene, there were only six pages left.
But let's end this review with some positives. I enjoyed the side characters, especially Maxwell. The sex scenes were steamy and the romantic moments were adorable. I'm curious about how this world works, and interested in reading about similar ones. The author created an incredible story.
And I hope the author doesn't take this review personally. Some of these criticisms are the editors' fault. None of this is an attack on her as a person. Writing and publishing this novel took time and effort, and loads of readers love it. If the ending had been different, I might have loved it too.
The world-building is delightfully over the top. It makes me think of John Wick or Black Widow. The plot largely focuses on the enigmatic company, which is wealthy from catering to the elite. Everyone is beautiful and everything is luxurious. Many scenes discuss Victoria regaining weight after a long period of not eating much. The scenes are described in detail, and the details don't line up with the real world at all, but it blended in with the rest of the world when it would have stood out as poor research in a more realistic book.
The main couple are Victoria and Sabastian. Victoria is a scrawny, scrappy, sweet, streetwise woman who leaves a dangerous environment. Sabastian is the man sent to kidnap her for the company training program. He'll get a major promotion if he can successfully train her and make her an employee. Initially, they don't like each other. Sabastian has never been in a relationship and has trouble dealing with it. Victoria is new to relationships and sex. Sabastian has a sweet and artsy side. Victoria has a dark and ruthless side. These characters feel so much grander than the archetypes they're based on. I genuinely enjoyed reading about their relationship.
It appears something went wrong in the copy-editing process. If typos and grammar issues will destroy your reading experience, you may struggle with this book. The most frequent issues are typos or sound-alike terms, missing commas, and comma splices. The copy editor seemed to have an order to always split compound words and remove hyphens between words, resulting in phrasing like “nick name,” “hazel nut,” or “silk like” which feel unusual. There are also instances where information appears to be repeated by mistake, like a character being described as stone-faced (actually “stoned faced”), stoic, and rarely emoting in the same paragraph. Most readers will be able to brush these issues off. I work in publishing, so I have higher standards. Hopefully, a second edition can fix these problems. The book deserves so much better!
Much of the tension in the early chapters comes from purposefully omitting information. This can be effective, but at points, the omission goes too far. For example, in the first chapter, Sabastian thinks about the last bit of the instructions his boss gave him for this job, as it will be difficult to execute. Readers are not told what the job is or what might make following the instructions difficult. Because there's no context, there's no impact. In fact, I still have no idea what he was supposed to be worried about.
As the book goes on, the tension comes from the interaction between the characters. This is more interesting. The slow burn pace allows us to discover the world as Victoria does. Seeing Sabastian worry about his conflicted feelings for Victoria is fun. Victoria gaining more confidence is also fun. Once the book settled into a rhythm I found myself eager to know what would happen next.
The ending angered me. Both what happens and how it is handled felt like a betrayal. Near the end of the book, At the end of that scene, there were only six pages left.
But let's end this review with some positives. I enjoyed the side characters, especially Maxwell. The sex scenes were steamy and the romantic moments were adorable. I'm curious about how this world works, and interested in reading about similar ones. The author created an incredible story.
And I hope the author doesn't take this review personally. Some of these criticisms are the editors' fault. None of this is an attack on her as a person. Writing and publishing this novel took time and effort, and loads of readers love it. If the ending had been different, I might have loved it too.
July 8, 2023
If you’re a 50 Shades Of Gray Fan check this out!
January 10, 2024
Really enjoyed the book. It had some surprises and was easy to keep my attention. The beginning of the book really had a slow burn going on, which is different than some I have read recently. I loved the ending, the bantering, and how the relationship between the two main characters developed. It had a really interesting concept and things that I haven't read in other books, so that was a nice surprise. The two main characters and their previous lives were well thought out and explained. I would really enjoy more books for this story to see how it all plays out because I was left wanting more answers to Victoria and Sebastians' story. There were also some supporting characters. I would like to know what happens with them and where their story goes for sure. I believe this book needs more attention than I think it has gotten, and I hope more people pick it up and read and spread the news!
January 8, 2025
VERY SPICY! However idk how to feel about it… there was a ton of spelling and grammar mistakes and it left on such a cliff hanger and dragged for so long that I don’t know if it’s worth waiting for a second book. It totally could’ve been finished in one book..
March 26, 2025
I enjoyed the storyline of this book. It's similar to fifty shades of grey. There are a lot of spelling or grammatical errors, but if you can look beyond that it is a good read! Can't wait for the next book to be published!!! Hopefully it's soon as I'm not very patient.
January 25, 2023
Very Saucy book loved every minute of it, kept me very warm at night ;) The build up was so intense, I could not wait to turn the next page and surprise ending wow. I really hope she writes another!!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews