Sometimes you reach a point where you just can’t take any more – a breaking point some call it. The day I watched my husband murder the woman who was pregnant with his child, my point didn’t just break, it exploded like a magazine firing through the barrel of a fully-automatic AK-47. Literally. I am no longer his American Princess, nor am I his slave. Now, I’m a murderer in hiding. My name was Bryleigh Carter Oliveira and that was my story.
Translucent is one woman's story of breaking free, starting over, and learning to trust again through willful submission.
I am completely blown away with this book. Erin has stepped outside of her comfort zone and wrote her best book yet. I don’t mean this in a bad way, this book just shows how her writing has evolved and it has evolved to great things. The first page pulled me in and I could not stop reading.
I loved everything about this book. The build up that Erin brought us to, the clues that she placed in the book. I just held on tight. Be warned that this book is a dark read.
Blake is living a different life, she is hiding from her past. Starting a new life and job she getting by day by day. She is not really living at all. Her past is dark and very disturbing. The pain that she lived through broke my heart. I am shocked that she is not crazy. Her story is so heartbreaking and every time I learn a little more about her past I am shocked knowing that “it can alway get worse.” But it does. Some of the situations that she was put through were so surprising that I could not stop reading. Erin is a flipping genius for this. She pushed the envelope with this book, and fucking nailed it.
Madden is a rich business man that meets Blake in a board meeting and is instantly attracted to her. Madden goes beyond your typical Alpha male in this book. He knows that Blake is very damaged and everything he has seen from her, I am not surprised he is not running for the hills or another country. He wants to help her, understand her and try to get her to be better. The issue is that I don't know how anyone can recover from the hell that Blake lived through.
Building trust is a hard thing and that is all that Madden wants to do with Blake. Get her to trust him. Is he trust worthy? Hell yes. This man has earned it. Blake suffers from terrible dreams and Madden is there to see what happens when she has these dreams.
“But I’m a mess, Madden. You've seen it for yourself. Why not find some girl who isn't a mental-basket case that self mutilates herself? You can have any girl you want want.”
Blake has to learn to live. Yes she is hiding, yes she has some serious things to work out, Madden wants to be right there with her to help her move forward with her life. There are a few hints of what will bring her past and present together and I look forward to seeing if I am right and how things will wrap up in the next book.
Anyways, like I said before this book was perfect. There is another book in this series and it will be here really soon. So yes there is a cliffhanger but I am fine with it. The small wait is worth it.
Meet Bryleigh Carter…
Picking me up off the bed, Ish threw me over his shoulder and marched out of the hotel room, into the pitch-black night. Scared speechless, I didn’t make a peep as he strode into the small motel office and dropped me on the floor. The male front desk attendant that had rented me the room had eyes as big as saucers, obviously fearful of Ish and the scene unfolding in front of him.
“Did you give her a room to stay in?” he demanded.
The older man nodded, taking a small step backwards.
“Don’t you fucking move, Gramps, and answer me when I ask you a goddamn question.”
“Y-yes, I gave her a room,” he admitted in a cracked voice.
“Did she pay you with money, or did she fuck you for it?”
“She paid me with money, sir. I don’t run that kind of business.” The man looked down at me huddled in a corner on the floor, and then back up at Ish. “She never even offered that kind of thing.”
Ish stomped around to the back of the counter and held his hand out, palm up. “She wants a refund. She’s not staying here tonight.”
Trembling, the man opened the cash register and pulled out some cash, setting it in Ish’s hand. As he did, Ish grabbed hold of his wrist and twisted it behind his back.
“Please…please don’t hurt me,” the man begged. “I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong.”
“No, you probably didn’t, but she did,” Ish spat, his fiery eyes darting over to me. “Princesa, did you know you were doing something wrong?”
The growing sob that had built in the back of my throat escaped as I nodded and said, “Yes, I did.”
“Well, someone needs to be punished for your bad behavior to remind you not to do something like this again.”
“Punish me, Ish,” I cried. “That poor man has nothing to do with this. Please, let him go.”
He glanced over at the man he held in a tight hold, and then back at me before releasing an evil laugh that echoed loudly throughout the small room. “Sorry, Princesa, but I need you to be pretty for our upcoming wedding.” Then, without warning, he pulled a long-bladed knife from the leg of his pants and chopped the man’s hand clear off in one swing. I’m not sure who screamed louder, me or the man, but within seconds, it was only my high-pitched voice shrieking, because Ish took the knife and slit the man’s throat, killing him instantaneously. Dropping the bloody body, he stalked towards me, bent down to my level, and clamped his hand on top of my mouth.
“Quiet now, Bryleigh, before you alert anyone else and I do the same thing to them. You don’t want to be the reason anyone else dies tonight, do you?” he whispered in my ear.
Immediately, I stop screaming, knowing damn well he would do exactly what he promised. “Now, that’s my good Princesa,” he said, stroking my hair. “We should get out of here. I’m going to carry you to the car, and I expect you to be well-behaved.”
Lifting me from the dirty tile floor, he carried me like a baby out to his car and placed me on the passenger seat. Petrified of what was going to happen next, I sat as still as a statue as he got into the car and drove north, back towards Chicago. He said nothing the entire drive home, but once we were both inside the apartment, he threw me on the bed and stripped me naked. Turning me over so that I was face-down on the mattress, he yanked forcefully on my hips, raising them in the air. He held tightly onto my hipbones as he viciously thrust himself into my virgin ass—no warning…no lube…nothing. I shouted out at the intense pain, and tears immediately began to stream down my face, but he didn’t stop thrusting until he was buried completely inside of me.
Leaning over, with his chest pressed to my back, he said in low, spine-chilling voice, “Anytime you fuck up, Princesa, someone will pay the price, and I will make you watch as I administer the punishment. You need to see the consequences of your actions, so don’t fuck up again if you don’t want any more blood on your conscience.”
He then fiercely fucked me until he came deep inside my asshole. He pulled out, not saying another word, then showered and left. I cried until I couldn’t see, and passed out with exhaustion.
That was the only time I ever tried to run away, but sadly, not the only bloodstains on my hands. It was only the beginning.
Erin Noelle is a Texas native, where she lives with her husband and two young daughters. While earning her degree in History at the University of Houston, she rediscovered her love for reading that was first instilled by her grandmother when she was a young child. A lover of happily-ever-afters, both historical and current, Erin is an avid reader of all romance novels. In 2013, she published the Book Boyfriend Series, which included books Metamorphosis, Ambrosia, Euphoria, and Timeless, and recently published When the Sun Goes Down, a contemporary romance novel. Her books have been a part of the USA Today Bestselling list and the Amazon and Barnes & Noble overall Top 100.
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