Review: Stay by Emily Goodwin

“I felt like I was walking to the end of a plank precariously hanging over shark-infested water. When I jumped, sharp teeth would rip into me and the cold water would steal my breath away. The monsters would take everything from me, leaving me shivering and naked in the water. The only difference was that tonight I would be pulled from the icy darkness and forced to do it again. There would be no release from death, only pain.”

Home after her first year of college, Adeline Miller is looking forward to a stress free summer filled with reading, working on her blog, and spending time with friends. But all that changes in an instant when she is witness to something terrible, something she wasn't supposed to see.

Beaten, drugged, kidnapped.
Adeline Miller is ripped from her innocent and carefree life and thrust into darkness, into a world full of pain and horror. As a sex slave, she is forced to do horrible things, and have horrible things done to her. One of her captors has a past as dark as the world she is now living in. Will getting close to him mean freedom? Or will he pull her deeper into the shadows?

I got approved to read this via NetGalley but I didn't download it in time so I decided to buy the book because not only did it sound good just by reading the blurb but it was for a good price.

This story is raw, and it makes you think about human trafficking and what actually happens behind close doors. The only 2 problems I had with the book is one being I think the author could have put in the back of the book a list of numbers that people could call for counseling or what not. The other problem was we never got to know what was being done to find Adeline from a different point of view such as her parents or friends. 

The point of view we are getting in this story is Adeline's. She gets kidnapped and that is when her hell beings. Now this story makes you get a feel for what happens to Adeline while being captured but at the same time the author seemed to dull down the actual true experiences of being a sex slave. Adeline gets beat a lot because she does not give up which I thought was great of her to do. And the beating scenes were a lot more graphic I felt than the sex scenes that were done. 

I liked how the romance between two of the main characters develop though I didn't quite expect Adeline and Jackson to get together. I figured more of Adeline and Zane getting together even though Zane was pure freaking evil. I also expected Zane to test the merchandise so to speak, but he didn't which kind of surprised me. 

Some scenes were repetitive but nothing that would probably deter you away from reading the book. Now the ending was good for the story I was glad to read a happy ending in a way after reading about all that Adeline and Jackson went through. 

 This is a great book, but for those that are squeamish to read about sex slaves, people getting beaten then know that you should beware.

Emily Goodwin is the international best-selling author of the stand-alone novel STAY, The Guardian Legacies Series: UNBOUND, REAPER, MOONLIGHT (releasing 2014), The Beyond the Sea Series: BEYOND THE SEA, RED SKIES AT NIGHT (releasing 2015) and The Contagium Series: CONTAGIOUS, DEATHLY CONTAGIOUS, CONTAGIOUS CHAOS, THE TRUTH IS CONTAGIOUS (Permuted Press).


Emily lives with her husband, daughter and German Shepherd named Vader. She has degrees in psychology and nursing. Along with writing, Emily enjoys riding her horse, designing and making costumes and Cosplay.

Find Emily on Facebook! www.facebook.com/emilygoodwinbooks.com