Mat and Dougie Carmichael are brothers who have been captured by four large unknown men for a reason they don’t understand. Mat, a bouncer and MMA cage fighter, does all he can to protect Dougie, a PhD student, but he can’t protect him from the brutality that is rained down upon them.

This story is vicious, unbearably violent, horrifying, heartbreaking and yet so damn compelling that I had to keep reading. How do they keep going after what they have been through? How have they not given up? Dougie has complied rather than fight, but Mat can only keep fighting. His strength of will is mind-boggling and the only thing that checks him is Dougie’s pleas to stop. The sexual torture, debasement and humiliation are hard to read yet read I must in order to see what happens to them. Just when I think it might get a tiny bit better, something else comes along to smash that hope.

Well-written with a fast pace the alternating POVs were a tad confusing at times, but the characters jump off the page and you just want to do something, anything, to help them escape, find out why they were captured and wreak vengeance upon all involved.

I’m left wondering how I would have faired had that happened to me. Would I continue to fight while plotting and planning a way to escape or would I have finally given up hope and found a way to end my life? I have no way of knowing and I sure as hell hope I am never faced with those choices.

*Book source ~ Many thanks to NetGalley and Riptide Publishing for providing a review copy. Please see disclaimer page on my blog. ( )