CAPTIVE ( Captive #1) by Brighton Walsh-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 24, 2015

He’s the most dangerous man she’s ever met…and she’s falling in love with him.

Madison Frost is desperate to escape her life. Daughter of a prominent businessman, she has everything a girl could ask for. Except for a family who’s present in her life, and anyone to talk to outside the four walls of the prison she calls home. Madison dreams of one day leaving her life behind. She never thought being kidnapped is how it would happen.

Now she’s being held captive by a man who’s as frightening as he is sinfully gorgeous. Enormous, muscular, and filled with secrets, the man they call Ghost is an enigmatic mercenary, and Madison is trapped with him. She doesn’t know who hired him or why, but the more time she spends at his mercy, the more she realizes he’s not what he seems. Beneath his rough exterior lies an unexpected gentleness and a heart as broken and battered as her own.

But as Madison lets down her walls, Ghost holds tight to his, hiding secrets that could destroy everything.

REVIEW: CAPTIVE is the first installment in Brighton Walsh’s contemporary, new adult Captive romance series. This is twenty year old Northwestern student Madison Frost and Ghost’s (aka Gage) storyline.

Told from alternating first person points of view (Ghost and Madison) the premise focuses on the abduction and imprisonment of Madison Frost. Madison grew up privileged; the only child of a successful businessman and his alcoholic wife, Madison knows what it feels like to be invisible and ignored. Her issues with low self esteem and poor self -image will have a major impact on how she handles her upcoming abduction and later battles. From her absent father to her barely conscience mother, Madison has been on her own for a very long time until the night she is abducted and held hostage in a remote cabin with a stranger who has more in common with Madison than they thought possible. Madison has no extended family and no close ties to friends, and in this, her absence isn’t questioned and barely noticed.

Ghost is a mercenary for hire; a man who gets paid to do what no one else will do and his most recent target is Madison Frost. Keeping his distance from Madison becomes increasingly difficult as the days pass with nothing to do but wait for his next instructions; there is a mutual attraction to one another, one that does not go unnoticed by Ghost or his captive. Then things go from bad to worse when the people pulling the strings start making further demands and refusing to pay Ghost for the job he was hired to do.

The relationship between Ghost and Madison begins as predator and prey but very quickly moves towards friendship and lovers. There is a distinct ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ feel to the storyline wherein our heroine falls for her captor but a captor who is sympathetic to her plight and family situation. I believe Madison finds a kindred spirit in Ghost-a man whose past is strangely similar to her own. Ghost will become Madison’s protector, defender and lover, but in the end he is still the man who abducted Madison for a price. The $ex scenes are intimate. CAPTIVE is not an erotic storyline but a story about building love, betrayal and learning to let go. When it comes to Madison, Ghost is gentle, caring and not without some guilt and remorse. Any anxious moments, in regards to the Madison’s safety, are short lived when our heroine begins to fall for Ghost within a very short period of time.

The secondary and supporting characters include Madison’s family housekeeper Sylvia, who is more like a mother than Madison’s own mom. We are introduced to several co-conspirators involved with Madison’s abduction including Ghost’s younger brother Riley who keeps an eye out for anything that might go wrong. Madison’s father, although absent for most of the storyline, plays a key role in the storyline premise and outcome. Some of Madison’s own thoughts and feelings come through during her counseling sessions with Dr. Ford.

CAPTIVE is an entertaining and imaginative storyline but one where the outcome wrapped up too neatly; the punishment did not fit the crime (so to speak); and there is no noticeable or noted retribution for the person in charge. The premise does not fit the current style of ‘kidnapping and abduction’ scenarios that many authors have journeyed into wherein the captive becomes a further victim through abuse and assault. Our ‘anti hero’ is not abusive; he does not torture his victim or emotionally destroy her will to live. Ghost will fall in love with Madison but any hope for the future will be lost when Madison discovers the truth.

Brighton Walsh has a passion for writing storylines about heroines with broken hearts and heroes with troubled pasts. There are emotional and controversial moments followed by intimate and intense romance. If you like a storyline with a happily ever after for two people caught up in an improbable situation, CAPTIVE will grab hold and not let go.

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley.