Tears of Tess

I have no idea how to begin; I am sitting here staring at my computer screen, trying to come up with the words for this review. I love to read. I can handle pretty much any book with any concept: abuse, rape, M/M, ménage. You name it, I have read it. I particularly like dark reads every now and then. I have two favorites from authors CJ Roberts and Aleatha Romig that are extremely popular. I love books that have ultimate mind melts. (I want to say a different word--rhymes with duck, suck...words like that--but Amazon has a problem with foul language, so please as you’re reading this feel free to insert the correct word.)I think it might have been hours before I actually took a breath while reading Tears of Tess. I loved the book and I hate that I love the book; it’s not really a story or character that you should love but I do. It is dark and twisted beyond words and I ate up every second of it. I could not put it down; I was entranced the entire time and as hard as some of the scenes are to read I could not look away and many times I really wanted to look away. This book may be the one that has broken me, some of it was too much for me to handle. It tore me to shreds inside. Now you are probably asking why it did this to me. I do not have a great answer for that except to say maybe it is that I just do not understand. I have never read a book with BDSM quality to it that goes to this extreme. I would imagine that there are people that delve into this extreme and “to each his own”, I say. I do not want to confuse people, yes this book contains BDSM and some of it is consensual or verges on consensual. Other parts are not and what is done to women that have been sold is torture and rape.That right there shows what an amazing author Pepper Winters is--true, raw, natural talent. The author writes Tess as a fighter; she is a survivor and fought and coped in whatever way she needed to in order to survive. Q is her new Master. She was given to him as a gift and watching her fight him and be drawn to him at the same time should not even make sense. You wanted her to get away from him, but you wanted them together at the same time. I hated myself for feeling that way. Q is a mystery though and one I did not figure out until the end when Tess figures it all out. The revelation blew my mind! I always figure it out and this time I was so entranced, the answers passed me by. Q is definitely not what he seems.The magnitude of this relationship once the cards are laid out on the table is brutally honest and brutally beautiful in a way that seems wrong but is right for them. I am asking myself if I fell for Q in the book. By the end I did fall for him, but I also see him as he sees himself--a monster and in turn I would then have to say that Tess is a monster too. Maybe I am wrong for believing they are monsters since I truly can’t understand where they are coming from; I can’t grasp the things that they want and so desperately need from each other. Maybe it is not fair of me to say, all I know it is how the book made me feel. I am just trying to be honest with the readers as well as myself. The most honest I can be to my readers here is that this book frightened me. I am scared to read book 2 Quintessentially Q but I will and I it is going to happen soon. I also know that there is a third book and I will read that too. I have really opened myself raw to anyone that reads this review, probably opened myself up more than I ever have before. I feel very emotional letting these feelings out for all of you to read.I stand in ovation to Pepper Winters for her creativity and for being able to make me feel so intensely about a book. I know it is for entertainment purposes but it is her skill as a storyteller that brought the story to life.

I'm going to review all 3 books here. Please note there will be SPOILERS.Book 1 - Introduction to Torture. The book opens up with a glimpse into Tess's 'boring', yet safe life with her vanilla boyfriend, Brax. She fantasizes about being tied up, whipped and taken. Her fantasies turn into a night mare when she is kidnapped and sold into slavery and actually experiences being tied up whipped and taken.Enter Q. Now Q is interesting. If you read most all of the reviews (of those who liked this book) Q is a dark hero! Women love him! He is 'gifted' with Tess as his slave. Now, Q has a secret that is revealed towards the end (his true nature - hint he turns out to be a good guy) but I just can't buy it. - Here comes the SPOILER - See Q has this dark twisted monster inside that craves beating women to get off sexually. So he fights it by accepting women/slaves as bribes and then 'saving/rehabilitating' them. Ok, good guy, right? Only he doesn't do that with Tess. See his monster repels broken women. This is why he is able to fix them. But Tess isn't broken, so what does Q do? He tries to break her! Now all you reviewers out there who love Q, please tell me how this makes him a good guy? I found him very disturbing. The author did an amazing job of writing this complex character. Q is a sick twisted human being that the author manages to get you to like towards the end because of his one redeeming quality. He does rescue women who've been sold into slavery.But uh oh, wait... there is a hypocrisy to 'good deeds'. He doesn't want to save Tess, doesn't even fake wanting to. He wants to break her. That goes against all he believes. And it's this hypocrisy I couldn't get past. There is a scene when he first receives Tess ,and strings her up for other men to look at and touch that made me dislike him intensely, and that dislike followed to the end. He really hurt Tess. Q watches as one man rapes her with the wooden handle of a knife. Wasn't pretty, the author talks about splinters in the vagina, blood, etc. Oh ,but Q was supposedly looking the other way. This treatment of Tess was contradictory to his need to possess her, and not have another touch her. He had thoughts of possessing her fully, from the start. I just couldn't get past Q letting other use her like that in the very beginning. Even if he didn't know she was being raped in front of him. *cough cough*Nothing Q did after that could make me like him. It was a contradiction to what the author wanted to portray him as. This good man (with a tortured soul) saving broken women. The monster in him really did a number on Tess. I could accept Q's abuse of Tess if it was just him abusing her. After all, his monster needed feeding and Tess did crave the pain he gave her, but she did NOT crave others raping her. So I had a hard time accepting Q in this first book. The author tries to redeem Q by having Tess run away after this rape, which is understandable, only to be captured by men who did worse to her. So Tess now appreciates Q, because hey, lesser of two evils, right? Book 1 was well written, the characters very well developed, (whether you like them or not, you 'felt' them, flaws and all) and a very compelling story. 3. 5 starsBook 2 - Torture, torture and more torture. The entire book is about the torture of Tess. Q tortures her, (but she likes that) Then she gets kidnapped and seriously tortured, mentally and physically, and Q rescues her and tries to fix her afterwards. It was dark, and hard to read but, it was extremely compelling, and again, the author wrote the characters in a way that brought them to life. I felt like I knew these two very twisted, very tortured souls. They truly do deserve each other. In Book 2, I started liking Q, and forgiving him for his extreme stupidity, and mishandling of Tess in the begging of Book 1. Book 2 - 4 starsBook 3. Like Godfather 3, it should not have been written. More torture, gratuitous torture,and unnecessary, and it DRAGGED on and on and on! The main characters in Book 3 lost me. I didn't care after a while. I couldn't wait for the ending, that's how bad it dragged. And the torture of Q was very graphic and disturbing, and no time really spent on how he was going to mentally handle it, or how Tess was going to help him heal from his nightmare. There was no insight into how Q dealt with his trauma, or if he still suffered from the affects of it. Book 3 - 2 starsRead book 1 and 2. I know you'll be tempted to read book 3, but take my advise. Don't torture yourself. :-)

𝑻𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑻𝒆𝒔𝒔(Monsters in the Dark 1)Author: Pepper Winters⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐I can remember watching a show on tv as a yong teen and it was on a young woman who had been on vacation with her family when she was stolen and put into the trafficking ring.Years passed and other tourists are sure they've seen her in places like public washrooms, etc... and she does act a bit strange, like shes nervous, but they are never able to help her because there are always men right outside the door waiting for her.I cannot remember her name (and that actually hurts my heart, because she deserves to be remembered,) but that story has always stayed with me.The fact that she is so close to rescue but it never comes...Then I saw Tears of Tess and with a storyline very similar to the one I remember from real life, I HAD to read it.Wow. This book is harsh and gritty and gives you a glimpse into the dark world of human trafficking.It makes you think - would I have the strength Tess had? To keep fighting and not lose myself? Or would I give up and turn within, shutting everything out just to exist?I don't think many women sold into trafficking are lucky enough to find their "Q" to save them, but oh, if they all could. ❤️I'm not 100% sold on this man yet.... I do love him, BUT, there are some aspects to him that truly terrify me; however, I can feel a massive character arc coming and I 👏 am 👏 here 👏 for 👏 it! 👏Once again, Pepper has blown me away with her ability to weave a story with characters who are real and make me feel all the things, deep in my soul.

Justo lo que estaba buscando un libro de este tipo (secuestro, obsesión, oscuro) y me ha gustado mucho 🗣️‼️Hwi ieoe iejeb uej

Malo

Tears of Tess was my entry in the dark Romance world of books...it gave me my first love..Q mercer who I still compare to every other Anti hero I read till date. When I say this book was dark, please heed my warning guys...it is dark in a sophisticated yet chill inducing manner...till the end I was in awe of this characters. Tess's bravery and Q's secrets...I can't convey through words how much I have enjoyed reading this one...because some books just leave a life longing impression on you and this one is it for me...there can never be another Q...this one checks all the boxes I require in an Antihero...perfection.The triggers in this book are serious, human Trafficking, sexual slavery, abuse, and other emotional triggers. But Believe me, once you reach the end...you will be in a daze with this book and no other book will be able to fill the void this will leave you in..

Eu gostei da estória já no final, pois ficou muito obscuro no início. A mocinha é muito indecisa, mas acredito que seja pela juventude da mesma. Não entendi direito o porquê do Mr. Q QUERER "QUEBRAR" a Tess se na verdade, ele resgata a as escravas para ajuda-las. Alguém pode me ajudar na compreensão do livro?