BOOK REVIEW: Enslaved by R C Murphy

BOOK REVIEW of Enslaved by R C Murphy

This was a book I picked up on a free day after it being recommended by a friend and following the author on twitter.

 

I had no expectations, even though I’d read its reviews and some of the author’s other works. I had mixed feelings about it, to say the least.
 

The gods are flawed . . . and they make awful parents.
 

Deryck knows first-hand the cruelty of the gods. Three thousand years after his birth, he is still trapped, forced to service humans as an Incubus—unable to choose whom he sleeps with, and living a life completely devoid of love. There is no out for him. No hope. Or so he thought.
 

Shayla McIntire spent five years getting her life back on track after the accident claiming her husband’s life. She is content to a nice, boring, subdued life free of the abuse she suffered before. Her friends are worried. They want her to find the man of her dreams and move on.
 

Little do they know, the Powers That Be have decided the man of Shayla’s dreams for her. There’s just one hitch, he’s enslaved to the gods and it will take power she doesn’t know she has to free him. Deryck isn’t the only one hoping Shayla will free him, though.
 

So, my mixed feelings.

I have to say that the writing is good. Descriptive, humorous, eloquent. Apart from a few spelling mistakes -how I would have loved to know how a ‘fist date’ went- and inconsistencies -the heroine’s eyes went from blue, to grey, to green on numerous occasions- there was nothing in regards to the writing that detracted from the story. I would say that with tighter editing and a better, human (as opposed to Word) spell checker, it would be solid.

 

The world is easy to follow, a fun play on the myths of many pantheons and the ultimate servitude of their half breed offspring, the incubi. It’s a take on it I haven’t seen before. The sex slave and incubus angle has been done but the author brings a new element to it.

 

Onto the lovebirds. This is where I really had trouble deciding how to rate this.

The heroine is a food fetishist, I’m sure, she’s constantly eating, and then complaining that her ass is fat or her friends look better than her. I wanted to shake her so many times. She gets herself stuck in this vicious cycle of self-loathing and low confidence that circles around her past and how she has been treated and how she sees herself. But she’s real. We all have these problems, flaws. It’s the whining that makes her a little less likeable. Her humour and snark saved her from being completely irritating and I was rooting for her to get with the guy because she deserved something good. That one person that makes you feel like you’re the most beautiful thing in the world. What woman doesn’t want that?

So, does the hero sweep her off her feet?

Kind of.

He isn’t the traditional alpha male. Oh, he’s hot, he’s got the bod for it. Just not the inner ‘Grrrr’ I like in my men. He was a demi-god outside and an awkward, gangly teenage boy on the inside. You’d never think he’d been having sex with millions of women his entire life. He’s adorable though. He falls in insta-love with her and tries everything human to woo her. He’s a perfect gentleman and I really admired his sweetness.

There isn’t so much sex, not until the very end. Then it’s sweet and slightly awkward. It lacked the passion one expects in a romance. His solo scene did more for me than their sex together.

 

All in all, a cute chick-flicky type easy-going read. Something to pass the time in the bath or on a journey.

 

Worth the read if you want to get lost in a world for a quick minute.  

 

I awarded it 3.5 Throbbing Hearts and a heat rating of Saintly Sweet.

 

 

Disclaimer: Author bought Amazon copy

 

Available at Amazon