Hope Restrained (The Estate, #2) by M.S. Willis

Hope Restrained by M.S. Willis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4 Stars

It’s Xander and Hope's story… YAY!!!

I loved Xander in Madeleine Abducted and I was happy to find out he got his own book.

Hope's sister is kidnapped and held as a sex slave. The owner of Hope's sister strikes a deal and says if Hope can kill Aaron, then he will release the sister. Hope storms into the Estate ready to kill Aaron, but Xander makes it a bit complicated for her.

Honestly, I wasn’t too fond of the story line. I’m not big on super strong girls, especially trained assassins. I like them strong, but when they are kind of dark, it’s hard for me to sympathize for the girl, BUT Hope's love for her sister is kind of heartwarming.

Hope Restrained is very dark and very graphic, much more than Madeleine Abducted. Again, I must warn you, it’s not for the faint of heart. There is graphic violence, rape and intense scenes, but still different and unique from the previous book.

The story begins with Hope's sister being kidnapped. You get glimpses of what’s done to her and it’s VERY SAD, but needed. You have to read and go through that to understand what she is feeling and where her mental state is.

Hope is a trained assassin and as a girl she has endured more than what the average trainee goes through. You don’t really know what she has gone through, it’s kind of explained throughout the story and again, very sad or just shocking really. Hope is fully capable in killing Aaron, but of course Aaron is protected by right hand man Xander.

You have a warm spot for Xander because of his somewhat unrequited love for Madeleine, it wasn’t very apparent in book 1, but you notice it. When Xander interacts with Hope, it’s really beautiful to read. There is a HUGE tug and pull between them, of course right? Hope tries to kill Xander so she can get to Aaron. Xander wants to capture Hope and try to get information from her. He wants to know who sent her, so Xander can kill him.

The first half of the book isn’t light, but it’s not super heavy, there’s a lot of character development and story building. I would say you are getting your feet warmed up. Towards the second half, you get your feet wet, as in, soaking wet, like you fall into the pool wet. Oh man, it gets CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!

BUT A GOOD CRAZY

After the story shift, everything just gets more intense, dark, real and very deep. You get to know more of Hope and Xander’s past. There is also more fighting and eye bugged out scenes.

If you liked Madeleine Abducted, you will like Hope Restrained, it’s just as dark, crazy and good. I seriously can’t wait for book 3, which will be Hope's sister’s story. I’m so craving a damsel in distress read.

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