Precious Consequences

Consequences is a very dark, painful, and complex story. It is not a romance. It's a psychological thriller with lots of twists that will leave you reeling. Sensitive topics such as rape, physical abuse, and mental abuse are not glossed over and left me feeling raw. The suspense of not knowing where this story was going completed screwed with my head. At some point I even thought this book was going to be the death of me and the reason for my lack of sleep.

Claire met Anthony at the restaurant where she bartends. While she worked, they flirted and teased one another. Anthony charms her into meeting him for a drink after her shift. Thinking Anthony is joking when he offers her a job with enough money to pay off her debts, she signs a little napkin that changes her life forever. A week later, she is drugged, kidnapped, violated, and taken to Anthony's beautiful home which is now her prison. She is now at his mercy until her debt is paid in full.

“He hurt her - not just physically but also emotionally - down to her core. He had humiliated and seemed to enjoy humiliating her routinely since she arrived.”

Even though a relationship is eventually formed between Claire and Anthony, it never felt...right. The consensual sex scenes even felt wrong at times. And when Claire had to keep compartmentalizing things in order to stay sane, I continued to feel uneasy about the relationship. Because this relationship was strategically created by Anthony in the beginning, and no matter how much I would let my mind hope things could be different for them, I couldn't let go of the malicious and cruel things he kept doing to Claire. My fear for Claire was always close to the surface.

This story made me question my own limits. How can a story as disturbing and appalling as this one keep me compelled to keep going? It pushed my boundaries. Made me angry. And it was almost too painful to read at times. But, to be quite honest, not knowing where the story was going is what kept me glued to the pages!

I didn't even know what I was getting myself into, but with everyone describing it as a mindfuck, I was looking forward for it.

Maybe it's just me but the kind of books I would describe as a mindfuck are Iain Reid's books. This was so hard for me to even get through but I decided to read it anyway.

At first it was a typical billionaire romance with a touch of 365 days-esque kidnapping setting. And then it went on for hundreds of pages of just straight up domestic abuse. It was frustrating. 
I don't know if the point of the book was to demonstrate their toxic relationship, but the repetitive abuse was just so frustrating. He wouldn't even let her call her own sister, on dozens of occasions. And that was followed by Claire validating his behaviour repeatedly. 
Honestly I don't understand how she never even asked him at questions initially about their ‘arrangement'. this is not too far into the book but he basically tells her that he will pay off her debt of 215k in return of her sexual services. But I just cannot get over the fact that he gives her no specificied time period, and him being a billionaire, I'm sure he could pay it off in literally a minute.

The story did get a little fun and tense, but I did not deserve to go through 500 pages of nothing to reach there. I was curious to know what the mind blowing ending was, but if I need to get through this much to find out, I would rather not know. This is just my opinion, but I've read many domestic thrillers with shocking plot twists and a similar vibe, and I think I would just prefer those over this.
I shouldve just dnfd this. this was just not for me.