4 Smooches!

Synopsis

How far would you go to set yourself free?

Drake Blackwell is intelligent, successful, controlling, and hiding a violent family past. He just made his latest investment: Noriko.

Imported from Japan, and wed to a stranger, Noriko struggles to stick to the rules of a Good Wife. Drake can’t seem to love her, not the way she wants to be loved. She dreams of freedom beyond the gates of Blackwell Manor.

She meets Keir, a passionate young gardener who shares her desire to break free. He gets under her skin and ignites a fire in her she can’t ignore. In the midst of her quiet desperation she thinks she has found happiness. And a glimpse of hope.

But this affair can’t last…can it?

There is a darkness lingering, but not how you’d expect. There are monsters, but not as you usually know them. The truth is, in this story, no one is completely innocent. And it’s always darkest before the dawn.

Although part of a series, this is a standalone novel with no cliffhanger.
WARNING: For ages +18. There are scenes in this novel that infer or allude to physical violence.

Review

“I was Mrs. Blackwell. The name hung about me like an ill-fitting coat.”

A young girl from a small fishing village in Japan, Noriko, arrived in the United States, already married to billionaire CEO Drake Blackwell, to little fanfare. She was greeted by her husband’s driver and then welcomed to his estate by his suspicious and jealous assistant, Sasha. No shrinking violet, Noriko quickly put the condescending Sasha in her place and attempted to set the tone for their relationship. It would be several days before she’d meet her husband for the first time.  Essentially an afterthought to Drake, this is of note as this is basically how he treats her throughout the book.

“Maybe, one day, I could learn to love him.”

Alone, lonely and with nothing to occupy her time, Noriko begins to explore her new home. She stumbles upon the estate’s beautiful gardens, a replica of a Japanese garden, and it’s there that the she meets the young and incredibly handsome gardener, Keir. The attraction between them is instantaneous, and they talk animatedly about Japan and Japanese culture. That is until Keir learns that he is speaking with Mr. Blackwell’s new wife, Riko, and not a new employee as he assumed.

“I felt lost and very alone.”

A virtual prisoner in the estate, not permitted to leave the property or use the phone to call her family in Japan, having no friends or even anyone to talk to or spend time with, Noriko is left to her own devices day after day. Her time with Drake is very limited – occasionally dinner followed by sex – and only when he isn’t otherwise occupied with or traveling for work. They sleep in separate rooms, and he does not spend any time with her. Desperate for someone to talk to, she ultimately finds herself seeking out Keir, and after several tense run-ins, a fragile friendship is formed. They both know that they can never be more – they shouldn’t even be friends – but so powerful is the draw to one another, they both find it difficult to fight the pull.

“We would never just be friends.”

Inevitably, they cross the line from friends to lovers. Unsurprisingly, as the relationship progresses, Noriko becomes increasingly desperate for her freedom. She longs to be able to love freely, to be loved freely and to be free to leave the confines of the estate, or as she thinks of it, her prison. The risks are very high, and they both know that nothing more can happen with Noriko being married to another man – a very powerful man, who also happens to be Keir’s boss. Drake is a dark man, with demons from his past, and Keir has every reason to be worried about Noriko’s safety should Drake learn about their relationship. Of course he does find out, but who will pay the price?

This book was a departure from my normal type of book. I generally only read books with a HEA, and there really wasn’t one here, at least not in the typical sense expected by a romance reader. Noriko was just so miserable in her situation; her loneliness and desperate longing for freedom drove her to behave so recklessly and the consequences – ones she wasn’t truly mature or worldly enough to contemplate beforehand – she bore for those actions were grave. The author did a great job conveying Noriko’s sadness, loneliness and homesickness, as the reader spent a lot of time in this girl’s head, and you couldn’t help but feel it.

I didn’t dislike the book, not at all, but it isn’t really the kind of book that you “love.” It was fairly dark, very emotional and a bit of a head-trip, especially considering no one in this tale was innocent. There was no one, single bad guy to heap all the blame on here; everyone played somewhat of a role in what happened, although it was Noriko who ultimately had to live with end result.

This book was very well written and edited. I was impressed with the author’s attention to detail, the character development, and the plot and storyline were both interesting and well fleshed out. Again, not my usual type of book, but I still found myself turning the pages curious as to what would happen next. If you were looking for something a bit twisted and on the darker side, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Girl Wife Prisoner by Hanna Peach. 4 smooches from me!

~ Danielle Palumbo

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