Beneath the Burn - Pam Godwin

"You’re my here, my now, if I’m lucky, my hereafter.” - jay

“If you throw me down and f**k me, I’ll be your hereunder.” - charlee

Told in alternating view of Jay and Charlee. This book is about abuse, slavery, survival and vindication. It also gives us a little bit of insight on BDSM, how it functions, how it helps some people and how it is abused.

I found the story hard to read because of the heavy subject matter and the pacing is also a bit slow at first which eventually picked up. The book is a bit long though but it completely captured the essence of what the book is about.

It is definitely not for the faint of heart. It can make you gag from the first scene of abuse to the last. The abuse is very graphic and detailed. From the scene of the first kidnap, I had to stop reading for a while to regulate the gag that's coming off of me.

There is no stockholm syndrome nor will you feel humanity in the abuser. Roy is a really sick animal who gets off on physical, emotional and verbal abuse. I can't help but also feel pity for him because he is also a very broken man. I wanted to know what drove him to become what he is, we didn't get to read about this though as it was not part of the storyline. I also wanted to know what happened to his empire and his people but the book was silent.

The heroin, Charlee became a broken girl because of Roy. I felt her pain, humiliation, guilt and hatred towards herself. I loved Charlee, her disposition, temperament, strength and willpower. I wanted to hug her and help her chase away her demons. She is both fragile and strong but can still be adorable despite everything that happened to her. I also felt happy that she always had Nathan supporting her.

In terms of Charlee and Jay's relationship I couldn't really feel their initial connection. It was too fast, too strong considering they don't know each other that well. And when they met again, I still felt disconnected. Eventually when they both started fixing each other unintentionally and unknowingly, that's when I felt something. The emotion was to slow building for me. However I loved Jay. He's done everything he could to keep her safe. He also tried his best to satisfy her. It was actually funny and frustrating their first time. I liked their banters and interactions and made me love them.

There were also scenes that are hard to imagine and rather impossible for me. There were tools used that made me cringe. The love scenes were detailed and both sexy and loving. All this factors made the book different and unique and original that compelled me want to finish the book. The author had a way of making cringe worthy acceptable. This is recommended for those who love dark romance.