Review: Embers of Starlight by Sonia De Leon

Title: Embers of Starlight
Author: Sonia De Leon
Series: Trafficked #1
Publication: February 9th 2015
Genre: New Adult ~ Romantic Suspsense ~ Dark Realistic Fiction
Purchase: Amazon
Rating: 1/5

 

**This book contains non-gratuitous scenes of sex without consent, drug usage, violence, and ends on a small cliff-hanger**

Sometimes the saddest stories have the happiest beginnings. My reality is that in my short twenty-three years of life, I've experienced passionate love and crushing heartbreak.

I thought I made all the right choices, but in the end, those decisions led to my demise.

Now I'm being held against my will, forced to work in a sex trafficking ring. I've accepted that I will die in this place.

This is how my story began.

Sometimes you read a book and you wonder what the hell the main character did to deserve all the shit happened to her or him. This is what I felt with this book. Tula really goes through the worst of the worst. From her father and sister being killed to her mother getting mentally ill and trying to kill herself twice to ending up with an abusive husband and being sold. I know these things happen but it was all so farfetched. 

The start of the book was actually pretty decent. I liked it up until she met Adrian. I just didn't trust the guy. He seemed like a very shady guy the way he all of the sudden started paying attention to Tula, giving her so many expensive gifts. And the fact that she cheated on Adrian with her best friend Sam was really the point where I started really disliking the story. I couldn't see how Tula and Sam couldn't be together if they really loved each other. I actually really liked Sam. He's a pretty nice guy. But they were all acting so stupid. And don't even get me started on Adrian and Tula getting married while se was only nineteen years old. Two years later she gets pregnant but of course the baby dies after a few months. Meanwhile Adrian is abusing Tula and it only gets worse. Eventually Adrian sells Tula and that's where the human trafficking comes in. 

I do get that this book is supposed to be a warning to women about abuse and human trafficking but it was just poorly written. I don't know... maybe if the book was a bit longer with more character building it would've been better. I also didn't like how this story is told over six years. It all went way too fast. I really couldn't connect to Tula because her character usually was a little indifferent about the things happening to her. Sure, she cried but it felt all so unemotional. I also felt like the actually trafficking part (even though it's horrible) came so late into the book. 

I mostly do like books like this, though usually they're more romantic so I think this book wasn't just for me. I really dislike writing one star reviews but I honestly couldn't like this book. The only possitive thing for me was Sam and how I finished the book pretty fast.