Illicit Angels by Alicia Taylor

This will cut you to the quick, I feel almost as if has picked me up off the floor and shaken me so hard my teeth are still chattering.

In the four years since that fateful night that her parents were murdered, Eternity has been through what can only be described as a living hell.

Counting down to her eighteenth birthday, Eternity is literally ticking off the minutes – that magic number cannot come soon enough, because it brings with it the opportunity to finally break free. To escape the clutches of her Uncle and give herself and her sister a future that they are both so desperate for.

But life has yet more heartache to heap upon Eternity’s young shoulders because despite everything she could have possibly imagined, all the torment and abuse that she has suffered, could never have imagined that her future was to be sealed with one word…Sold.

What she has been through was nothing more than a training ground for what she has to endure now – she is an Angel. One where she has no free will, no choices, she is a commodity and she has two options… accept it or face the consequences.

As a new angel she is learning what is expected from her and she is finding it hard to not only accept but to comprehend. She is a plaything, to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, people who have no scruples and enough money to allow them the opportunity to indulge in whatever they desire.

Ryke is Justice the enforcer, the man that keeps the punters in line, no matter who they are. The last place you ever want to be is on the receiving end of what he has to meat out because he has no limits!

But is there more to him that everyone sees, what does he have in his soul?

With Eternity in his sights he has a task to perform, he will train her and show her what exactly is expected but there is more there than he is prepared to let on, he will do what is expected but he is also desperate to protect her as much a she can from her new environment.

Ryke is a dark character he has demons that lurk beneath his surface, ones that if let loose will devour him but Eternity is like a balm to his soul in some respects, his desperation to help her is almost as if it is what he needs to make good the evil of his past.

Can Eternity be what Ryke needs?

I have to say that this was a book that held nothing back, it came at you with both barrels and never let up the whole way through.

It brought the ugly truth of the sex trade to the fore and never let me forget that the oldest profession known to man has a dangerously dark underbelly where there are no limits, nothing is off the table and it was shocking.

I was blown away by the depth of description that the author bled into the story, the details she imparted were more than I could handle at times but I was thankful that she didn’t sugar coat her story, this needed to be as harsh as it was in order to enforce the seriousness of the situation.

An amazing start to what I have no doubt will be an exceptional series