Review: Stealing Innocents by Cari Waites
Note: This ARC was provided by Riptide Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
There are books that try to push your boundaries. Some are more difficult to get through than others. When it comes to the Cari Waites-penned M/M anthology, Stealing Innocents, all four stories made me pause every so often, but yes, I did push through and finished it in one sitting. Two of the five stories involve non-consensual sex acts, one has revenge sex, and the last one involves slavery. Each one of them is about power struggle and has the more dominant male in the equation exerting his will over the more submissive one, even if it requires taking what he wants without clear consent. There's a warning of sorts at the beginning stating that the stories have no happy ending. So, if you're considering reading this provocative title, you've been forewarned that there are possible triggers and it's not for the faint of heart.
The first story is the longest in the anthology, Gamble Everything, and is about an eighteen-year-old young man who offers his own body to pay the debts of his gambling addicted father only to learn that he's got himself a new "Daddy", one who's had his eye on him for two years. Book two is Crazy and has a patient in a mental institution being sexually assaulted while heavily drugged by someone who he should be able to trust. The third story is entitled First and Only, a tale of a jilted husband who decides that the best kind of revenge against his new wife is served through the seduction her barely legal son. The last one has a young man who is forced into sexual servitude and has his will and spirit broken beyond any sort of hope for repair. Three of the younger partners in the stories are eighteen while one is a nineteen-year-old.
Without a doubt, the writing in this anthology is tight and on point. Lisa Henry, who uses the pen name of Cari Waites here, makes no apologies for the stories she's written and shared. The younger main characters are mindfucked, and in the process, the reader ends up mindfucked with each page turn. You can't help but feel uncomfortable while reading each violation is bared for all to witness. Your heart breaks for them because by the time each story ends, you can tell that they'll never be the way they once were before the older main characters entered their lives--save for the last one, which already had the younger man abused and broken even before the older man came along. I'm recommending Stealing Innocents, but that recommendation comes with the reminder that this is not a feel-good book. 4.5 stars. ♥
Date Read: 12 January 2016
Learn more about Cari Waites aka Lisa Henry.
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