Giveaway and Review: Beneath the Burn by Pam Godwin

They meet by chance. The timing is wrong.

Three years later, she finds him again, but their separation was poisoned with narcotics and bloodied by enslavement.

Her freedom gambled away, Charlee Grosky escapes the international businessman who held her captive. But his power reaches beyond her protective barriers and threatens everyone she has come to love.

Jay Mayard wears his tortured secrets under his rock god facade. Drugs are his release, even as he seeks to be the man forged of the steel only she can see.

In a celebrity world filled with paparazzi, groupies, and drugs, Jay and Charlee must face their worst fears. When the battle is over, what will be left...Beneath The Burn.


Genre: Romantic/Erotic Thriller

Content warning: Includes graphic rape, sex, anal, bondage, and violence. Age 18+ only.

4 Star Review by Lisa Kane

This was one of those books that is so dark and different I had to think about it for a day before writing my review. Charlee is living a life in fear. From the time she was 16 until she was 20 she was the sex slave and possession of billionaire Roy Oxford. Her father used her as collateral in a card game, knowing she would be turned over to Roy if he lost. And he lost. The things he did to her were so unspeakable that I had a hard time reading about them. She survived and hardened herself against having any deep feelings or emotions.

After escaping from Roy (I don’t want to provide any details on how she managed to do) she has been dating a cop named Noah and working as a tattoo artist named Sarah. This is where her passion lies. Noah’s brother, Nathan is a security expert and has managed to find out what her real name is and some of what she has endured. Against his better judgment, he hasn’t shared his findings with his brother yet.  

Jay Mayard is a singer/guitarist in the band Burn. They travel constantly but are gradually gaining fame. He has deep rooted emotional damage and can not tolerate being touched. One night after a gig in St. Louis he decides to get a tattoo at Kilroy Tattoo and encounters Charlee.  Although she is getting ready to close, she ends up taking the job. They connect and both feel the attraction between them. The ink that Jay asks for is not quite what she ends up giving him. She feels his pain and in spite of his detailed instructions regarding what he wants and how she can touch him, Charlee gives him the tattoo she thinks he needs-the one she hopes he will someday wear with pride. Jay wants to cover his scarred back and Charlee wants him to see his scars give him strength. After the job is done, he reluctantly leaves. What happens next in the tattoo shop will change Charlee’s life forever.  

Once again she is Roy’s possession. He has vowed that he can not live a life without her in it. Jay tries to reconnect with Charlee and is destroyed by what Nathan tells him happened. For months Jay grieves for her. Nathan is Charlee’s savior and they live a life on the move for 3 years. Meanwhile Jay’s band, Burn is at the top of the charts and he has wealth beyond his dreams. But he can not forget Charlee. When these two lives intersect, a domino effect occurs and they realize their previous encounter changed the course of their lives. Roy Oxford’s wealth and power knows no boundaries and he will not give up his ownership of Charlee. Everyone she knows and loves will become his target as he plots to gain back his toy. How can they outrun him, how can Charlee live a life with Jay when his every move is documented?

This book has so many twists and turns, some pleasant, some not, that I had to read parts of it over again to make sure that I understood what was really going on. It is not for the faint of heart, these two people are physically and mentally abused. They may have survived that abuse, but they will never be normal (at least according to society’s definition of normal). This book has rape, bondage, BDSM, and anal sex.

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