by Rebecca Brooke
Published by Self-published Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Suspense

I’m a pawn, a piece of chattel, a toy–used and forgotten.

When you’re done with me, you can walk away with no regrets. That’s how my husband sees me. I try to be the best wife possible for him. After all, he took me on when no one else would. Now–he’s in debt and owes more money to the loan shark than we can possibly repay.

But, don’t worry, he’s come up with a solution, it’s just not one I was expecting.

…I’ve been TRADED.

“You sent her home with him, right?” My eyes dropped to my shoes and he growled. “Tell me you didn’t, Ashton. Tell me you didn’t take the girl in lieu of payment.” I lifted my chin and he got his answer. “Jesus, fuck.”

“I made him a deal,” I said. “I get Elena for three months, and he pays back half of what he owes.”

“Half? Are you crazy? Does she have a golden pussy or something? She must have. There must be a good reason for this . . . insanity.”

By this point my dad had rounded the table, grabbing handfuls of my shirt, pulling me flush against him, his face was millimeters from mine as he shouted his displeasure. My fists clenched at my sides. At six-one I was a big bastard but Dad was bigger. He could take me without breaking sweat. Even so, my voice was tight when I looked him straight in the eye and replied, “He abuses her, Dad,” the volume dropping slightly when I continued, “I don’t know to what extent but she won’t even look me in the fucking eyes when I talk to her. Can’t make a decision on her own. Swear to Christ, she jumped six fuckin’ feet in the air when I touched her hand. I have no intention of fucking her, but I couldn’t let her leave with him. If I shot him down and let Brock rough him up a little, imagine what that would have meant for her. You know.”

Understanding washed through his features and he lowered me to the ground, releasing my shirt from his grip, smoothing out the crumpled material. “She’s staying with you?”

“Yes.” I made the split-second decision to share my plan with him. “I’ve only got three months to repair what he broke. It’ll be tough but I’ll be damned if I don’t give it a try.

Carla’s 4 Star Review:

*I was given a copy of this book as gift from Stephanie’s Book Reports in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars
Elena is a woman trapped in a abusive marriage. Her husband, Dominic, is a huge douche bag! Throughout his marriage, he has withheld his affection and brainwashed Elena to the point where she feels useless and unattractive. You know you are in for a bumpy ride when you want to put your foot up Dominic’s ass after only reading the first two pages of the book! Ugh! I hated Dominic so much and that hate just grew as the story progressed. Dominic thinks he is pulling a fast one on Ashton Hawes when he offers his wife to him for three months to help pay off his gambling debts. However, Ashton feels an instant connection to Elena, so he agrees to let her come and stay at his house for the agreed upon time frame. Dominic thinks that Ashton will use and abuse Elena as he did, but he couldn’t be more wrong. Ashton wants to encourage Elena to find her inner strength and confidence. His goal is to show her how a woman should be treated with the hopes that this plan will ultimately lead her away from Dominic and towards her freedom. As Ashton and Elena spend more and more time together, they each fall hard for one another. What will happen at the end of the three months when Dominic shows up demanding his wife back? Will Elena use her new found courage to break away from Dominic for good?

Whew, the chemistry between Ashton and Elena was off the charts! My favorite quote from this book really sums up how these two light a spark when they come together. This is what Elena says when she is describing how it feels to kiss Ashton, She says “His kiss wasn’t just a kiss. It was an experience.” Holy hell, that is hot!! Ashton was so great with Elena. He was kind and patient while showing her just how special she was.

While I did enjoy this book, there were some editing issues that made it a little difficult at times to follow the story line. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I would highly recommend it!

Renee’s Four star review:

I received an copy  of this book as a gift in exchange for an honest review for Stephanie’s Book Reports.

Rebecca Brooke’s Traded is a story about an abused wife. It’s a hard subject to read about, much less write I’m sure.  Plus it could possibly be a trigger for some people. I too expected this book form the synopsis to be a dark read but it’s really not.

Elena and Dominic dated in high school and college. He was the football star she couldn’t believe she’s dating. Celebrating their college graduation in Vegas, Elena wakes the next morning with a gold band on her hand. Shocked and not remembering getting married she finds their marriage license and a receipt form a Wedding Chapel in Dominic’s pants pocket. When Dominic awakes while she’s is in the shower, she comes out to a very angry man who makes a comment about training her to be a good wife and she tricked him into marrying her.  It wasn’t a joke. It was mean spirited and quiet shocking to Elena. Fast forward five years and the bright girl fresh out of college with dreams of singing on Broadway is  in a living nightmare. She goes to work at her job in the diner,  straight home after and has to do everything in the apartment to Dominic’s liking. He treats her like she is an idiot who can’t do anything right. Using her only  for his pleasure, being told she’s ugly, fat, and she honestly is convinced he’s the only person on earth who would want her.

Dominic though has a gambling problem and is in trouble. He is unable to repay a debt Elena has no clue about. Thinking he’s finally taking her out for a night and so excited about it, Elena finds herself being traded in place of part of the debt owed  to the Hawes family. More specifically traded to Ashton for three months until Dominic can pay his debt. Ashton, shocked at the way Elena is treated agrees and this begins Elena’s journey. Can she realize she’s been verbally abused, used, and humiliated for years? Is Ashton the one who can help her on this journey or is he doing this trade because of the money owed to him? Is it possible for Elena to find herself again while learning what true love is?

I really enjoyed this story. It flows so well and held my interest the entire time. I really liked both Elena and Ashton as characters on their own and together when she was left to live with Ashton. The parts with Dominic are just heartbreaking. I can not even imagine living each day so beaten down and feeling worthless. The journey for Elena is not a easy one and Ashton is patient and so sweet to her. It’s a second chance, show your true self worth after discovering it, love story. I do have to say while I read the ARC of Traded and realize those are not the finally copy, there were so many errors in the book that it got frustrating and confusing in places having to figure out what a sentence was suppose to say. Hopefully the book is now edited and everyone doesn’t have this problem.  It’s certainly a book worth reading.

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Rebecca lives near the shore towns of New Jersey, with her husband and two kids. When she’s not writing she loves reading and watching SOA and TrueBlood.

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