Author: Noelle Adams
Release Date: February 21, 2014
Genre: Adult/New Adult Contemporary Romance
You get to the point where you can just say it. There was never anything special about me, except my father is rich and important. That's why it happened.
It was just a normal Tuesday afternoon. I was twenty-three and thinking about my new designer boots. They kidnapped me for ransom. They raped me before I was rescued. My therapist says that talking about it means I'm starting to heal.
I don't really think I am.
It's even harder to talk about Gideon. He couldn’t save me when it really mattered, so he keeps trying to save me now. He refuses to give up on me, and I can’t make him understand. There are some things you just can’t be saved from.
Warning: Salvation is a love story that follows a difficult path of healing after sexual assault. It is a true contemporary romance, but it addresses very hard issues, including rape and attempted suicide. Please consider whether this book is for you.
When the car stopped and the trunk opened, I was aware enough to try to get away. One guy was hauling me out of the trunk, and I got a good look at him. He was horrible. His head was shaved, and he had tattoos all over his arms and neck—nearly covering all the skin I could see except his face. He smelled strongly of a repellant aftershave. Just the sight and smell of him made my stomach churn, and I instinctively threw out my elbow, connecting with the general vicinity of his groin.
I didn’t connect hard enough.
He roared in outrage and struck me hard in the face.
Before that moment, I’d never been hit in my life, except maybe in some sort of childish slap fight when I was a kid. It shocks you—that sudden crack of pain, the way it jars your whole body. I fell to the ground, unable to see through the blur of water in my eyes. My stomach heaved, and I retched painfully—either from the drug or the blow. Maybe both.
I heard voices, speaking in a language I didn’t know. Then hands dragged me to my feet and made me walk.
I was dimly aware that I was pushed into the back door of a row house—from the alley—and that was so strange to me. I wasn’t taken to an abandoned warehouse or a sleazy drug den or some shitty apartment on the wrong side of town. It was an everyday, normal row house. Not in the nicest neighborhood, but in a neighborhood all the same.
It was so incredibly strange.
I still couldn’t see or think very well, but I know there were more scary guys in the house. Some were gross like the tattoo guy and some were decent looking. There was way too much aftershave in the room, and it made me queasy.
They were all speaking in the foreign language. I didn’t know then that they were Albanians.
I didn’t know anything then.
Salvation was a good, emotionally charged romance. Noelle's writing was great. Diana struggled to get past being raped, while Gideon struggles with not being enough when it counts. I did feel that her recovery process was realistic, though I didn't get a good feel for her character. Some of it could have been the narrator, and intentional, but I would have liked a bit more. As far as Gideon, I really felt bad for him and his struggles. Overall it was a good read and I'd recommend it if you want a different twist on "the hero saving the day" type story.
Noelle hand wrote her first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and currently resides in Virginia, where she teaches English, reads any book she can get her hands on, and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.
She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances.
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