Book Review: Robin’s impression of Serenity by Skye Bailey
The latest I Love Romance Blog review selection is Serenity by Skye Bailey. Take it away, Robin!
Thanks!
Serenity: A Dark Romance by Skye Bailey
I received this book for free. This does not impact my review in any shape or form.
Serenity: A Dark Romance, by Skye Bailey, is a romance thriller about a woman who, after being forced into sex slavery, finds herself again in the midst of the pain. The book introduces Serenity, a disgruntled housewife who gets abducted by a mysterious man. After being given the name, “Donna”, Serenity is forced to endure the brutalities of sex slavery before being rescued by Chris. As she falls in love, Serenity is forced to choose between the life she made with Chris, and her old one with her family, all the while learning about herself again.
This book had so much potential. Serenity’s storyline was rife with tragedy and pain, as well as hope and encouragement. Meanwhile, Jack’s taking Serenity for granted and Chris’s subsequent lack of it would’ve made an interesting dichotomy between the two. I felt horrified at the things that man put Serenity through, and was all the more glad that Bailey didn’t put a name to the perpetrator; it would’ve put the focus on that man rather than Serenity, and it would’ve derailed the story completely. The kids were cute, of course.
That being said, I couldn’t help but be just a little disappointed. Both Serenity’s, Jack’s, and Chris’s POVs could’ve been fleshed out more. The way it is now, it felt like Bailey was telling me what was going on rather than show me. The romance between the two love interests definitely felt rushed. In regards to what Serenity experienced, it didn’t make sense for Serenity to slowly lose her memories, but still keep her name as “Serenity”. If anything, Bailey should’ve changed it to “Donna” since that was what she introduced herself to Chris as. As for what constitutes as a dark romance, I didn’t see anything immoral between Chris or Jack. I appreciate the fact that they were both supportive of her, but regardless, there was no dark romance to be found. Unless Bailey meant for Ray to be another contender, which I highly doubt she, or the readers, want. There were mistakes littered throughout the book, punctuation that needed to be corrected and words that I figured were more typos than anything.
Again, this book has a lot of potential. But the pacing needs to slow down, and the POVs need to be fleshed out for me to be more immersed in the story. As such, I’ll be giving this book a rating of 2 stars out of 5 stars.
Book Info:
This is a story of a young woman who is abducted and thrust into a world of cruelty, abuse, and torture. But just when she gives up hope of ever being free, a savior comes to her rescue. This is a story about abuse, brokenness, healing, love, and hope.
Serenity has married her high school sweetheart and started a family, but even though she found love, she soon realizes it doesn’t bring a happily ever after. Tragedy strikes in a most unexpected way as she makes one fatal mistake that will change the course of her life forever. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Will she be able to get out alive and put the pieces of her life back together?
**Trigger Warning: This book deals with the subjects of kidnapping, rape, abuse, and torture. Reader discretion advised. 18+
Goodreads links: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43682718-serenity-a-dark-romance
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46148264-serenity
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53816308-serenity
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53304473-serenity
Here’s a teaser from one of her other books, Ask Me Something Easy…
Jake was anxious. Today was his first day as an assistant instructor for Professor Hume and he hoped he would make a good impression. This was his second-year teaching as an assistant professor at the university, but he was still a little nervous. He adjusted his tie one more time and grabbed his briefcase as he headed out the door.
Jake took in a deep breath and opened the door to the classroom as held his breath and walked in and saw the sea of faces in front of him. There must be over 200 students in this class, Jake thought to himself. He smiled as he walked up, spotted Professor Hume and walked toward him. Professor Hume was in his early 60s and had a stern look about him. He looked like the kind of person who expected much and was hard to please. They talked for a few minutes, then Professor Hume proceeded to begin his class lecture.
Jake knew he could handle Professor Hume’s difficult personality. He was a tenured professor who was mainly concerned with research and publication for the university. Teaching was not really his passion, so Jake would be doing teaching most of the time. Jake was glad about that. He was very comfortable in front of a classroom and had a way of connecting with students. He handed out the syllabus while Professor Hume made the introductions. Then sat down to the side. He could still see most of the students’ faces. Some of them looked bored while others looked anxious. He tuned out the professor’s voice and was glad his years as an undergrad were over. He had gotten his Masters, but still had a few years to go before he got his Ph.D.
As Jake was looking at the students’ faces, his eyes stopped when he noticed a cute auburn-haired girl sitting toward the front. From where he was sitting, he had a good view of her. Redheads usually weren’t his type, but there was something about her that caught his attention. Maybe it was just chemistry, maybe it was simply that she had a beautiful face. She seemed comfortable in class and exuded confidence, but not cockiness.
The more he stared at her the more he saw she had a natural beauty about her. Suddenly, the girl turned toward him. Their eyes met for a split second, and she smiled at him. Jake thought she had the most intense honey-colored eyes he had ever seen. In that instant, his stomach did a flip when she smiled at him. She had one of the most amazing smiles he had ever seen. Her intense gaze made him feel like a teenager who was looking at a gorgeous model. It was like she could pierce his soul with her eyes. She could light up a whole room with that smile, he thought.
Jake wasn’t one to get embarrassed easily, but there was something about her that made him feel self-conscious. He had never felt like that before. He was captivated by her. All through the lecture, Jake kept looking back at the auburn-haired girl with honey-colored eyes with a look that could pierce his soul and bring him to his knees, hoping they would make eye contact again. But she never looked back at him.
Jake had to find out who she was. He couldn’t stop looking over at her. He was trying to be inconspicuous about it and wished he could just go over to her and ask her name. He was never much for being patient, but he also didn’t want to appear so smitten by her. He could always look at the roster but how would he know which name belonged to which face? For a second, Jake considered breaking into the school’s computer files and looking up every girl in his class but that was going overboard. He needed to calm down and think of a much safer and causal way of asking for her name. He would simply walk up to her after class and introduce himself as the assistant professor, and casually let her know that if she had any questions about anything, she should not hesitate to ask him. Then when he offered her his number, it wouldn’t be so obvious that he was trying to get hers.
As soon as the lecture was over he sprang up and began to walk towards the auburn-haired girl but just at that moment, he heard someone calling his name.
“Mr. Wilder?” Professor Hume called out to him. “Can you give me a few minutes of your time? I wanted to go over some things with you.”
Jake turned to look at Professor Hume intending to let him know he’d be back in a minute. But Professor Hume had one of those looks on his face that meant he wasn’t going to stand around waiting for Jake. Reluctantly, Jake walked over to the professor as he turned to see the auburn-haired girl walk out the classroom door.
Professor Hume talked to Jake about assignments and next week’s lecture. Jake was barely listening. Couldn’t this have waited? he thought to himself. As soon as he was finished talking to him, Jake sprinted out the door. He stopped outside the classroom and looked in all directions to see if he could spot the auburn-haired girl anywhere. Where had she gone? Jake couldn’t see her anywhere. Frustrated, he started to turn and walk hastily back when he suddenly bumped into someone.
****
Gloria was just walking out of the ladies’ room when someone suddenly ran into her. She hadn’t brought her backpack with her so she was carrying her books and notebooks and folders and trying to balance them as she walked. She was trying to hold on to everything but lost her balance and fell down on the hard concrete, twisting her ankle badly.
“I’m so sorry,” the guy who bumped her said. He began to help her up, but she winced in pain.
“Ouch, my ankle,” Gloria cried out. Then she realized who the guy was. He was the cute assistant professor from her class. Gloria was so embarrassed! But looking into his soft eyes, she saw he was even more embarrassed than her.
“Let me help you up,” Jake said with concern. He grabbed hold of Gloria’s waist and lifted her up gently. Then he guided her toward a nearby bench and helped her carefully sit down. He went back to pick up her things that had scattered all over the place when she fell.
Jake couldn’t believe that he had bumped into the auburn-haired girl. What luck! But he felt terrible that she had gotten injured. He felt bad because it looked like she was in a lot of pain.
“I’m so sorry,” Jake said walking back and setting her things down next to her.
“You said that already,” Gloria said, looking at her ankle.
“I know. I just feel really bad about you injuring your ankle. How is it?” he asked, looking down at it.
“It’s been better,” Gloria replied, trying to smile.
“I’m Jake,” he said as he knelt down to look at her ankle.
“I know. I saw you in class. I’m Gloria.”
“I feel like such a klutz,” Jake said sheepishly. “Your ankle looks pretty bad. I think I better help you to the health center.”
Gloria hesitated. She thought about shrugging him off, but she was in pain and could use his help. “Um, all right,” she said, letting out a deep breath.
Carefully Jake helped her up and put his arm around her as they slowly made their way to the health center. He made a mental note of coming back for her things later. It was a good thing the health center wasn’t that far away, Jake thought. He could see that Gloria was really struggling to get there. He could carry her all the way to the health center. She was so petite, she probably only weighed like 100 pounds, but he decided against asking her. She already looked embarrassed and uncomfortable as it was, and didn’t want to add to it.
Jake was enjoying having his arm around Gloria and being so close to her. Her hair smelled like strawberries and she felt so petite in his arms. Being 6’5”, he towered over her. She was on the shorter side. He guessed 5’3” or 5’4”. He was relishing in the fact that he had his arm around her and was so close to her physically. At that moment, he felt like he never wanted to let her go. Jake decided right then that he wanted to go out with her and get to know her more.
They made it to the health center in about ten minutes. While Gloria was being seen, he waited for her in the waiting room.
Jake had been waiting for 45 minutes when he heard his phone buzz. He looked at the text message. His stomach flipped but in a bad way. It was Giselle. He had almost forgotten about her. In fact, he wanted to forget about her because he couldn’t stand her. They had formally separated six months ago. He’d finally moved out and found a new apartment and wanted to proceed with the divorce. But Giselle was dragging her feet.
I need to talk to you, the text read.
Jake ignored the message and put his phone away. He didn’t want to think about Giselle. Just getting a text from her made him angry. Just then, he saw Gloria come out in crutches.
“It’s not broken,” she said with a smile. She had a splint on her foot and was trying to balance on the crutches. Jake sprang up to help steady her.
“They gave me something for the pain and doc said I need to keep my weight off my foot and come back in a few weeks. Other than that, I’m good,” she said, trying to keep her balance and smiling. She was holding on to Jake’s arm as she was trying to balance on her good foot and hold the crutches at the same time. She looked up and gave him a shy smile.
Jake looked at her face and radiant smile. He loved her smile. He noticed she had a dimple on one side when she smiled that looked adorable.
“Can I take you home?” Jake asked. He was in no way ready to part with her. “Do you live on campus?”
“Yeah, at the village,” she said trying to walk to the door. She was having a hard time with the crutches.
“Wait here and I’ll get my car and help you out,” he said, smiling.
Gloria was grateful. She sat down and waited for Jake to come back for her. She didn’t have her own car yet. She couldn’t afford one. Not that she needed one that much living on campus. Her parents picked her up on some weekends to take her back home. During the weekdays, she stayed on campus. She was a bookworm and not into the party scene. Thankfully, both her jobs were on campus so she didn’t have to commute anywhere.
Jake was gone all of five minutes when he returned.
“That was fast. Did you run to your car?” Gloria asked jokingly.
Jake laughed. “I also grabbed your things. They’re in my car.”
“Wow,” she said. She liked the deep sound of his laugh. She liked the feeling of Jake’s arm around her. She could tell that he was in very good shape physically. His body was well-muscled and well-toned. He was dressed more formally than everybody else, but she liked that look on him. He was wearing jeans with a dress shirt and tie and looked incredibly handsome. She could see how all the girls in the office were gawking at him. Yet, he was with her. Gloria couldn’t help but smile at the thought.
AUTHOR: Skye Bailey
https://www.authorsden.com/visit/mytitles.asp?AuthorID=210268
TITLE: Serenity
GENRE: Dark Romance, Psychological Thriller, Crime Drama, Second Chances
RELEASE DATE: January 7, 2019
PUBLISHER: Indie
ISBN/ASIN: 978–1793330949
OUR RATING: ♥♥ 2 stars
REVIEWED BY: Robin G.
Guest Blogger/Reviewer Bio:
My pen name is Robin Goodfellow. I fell in love with reading after I picked up Fallen by Lauren Kate. I am currently a licensed substance abuse counselor and LPC-A (although I hope to be an LPC soon). I was also a former math and special education teacher. Although I tried going to medical school, it didn’t work out. On the bright side, I’ve got more time for reading and writing! Mental health is a personal passion of mine, as is crochet, and annoying my husband.
This book looks interesting! ♥ We’ll check it out…
Thanks for reading our latest book review on ILRB! ♥ Have a great week, everyone!
Originally published at http://iloveromanceblog.wordpress.com on July 19, 2023.
