Caging Liberty (Liberating Deceit)

It was a great story. It had you on the edge of your seat. To find love the way that they did was great. Read for the next book from Nicole Cypher. I loved all 3 books in this series. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This author is one of my favorite dark romance authors- some of the things she comes up with... This book was fairly tame in comparison but I think it was also a warm up to the rest of the trilogy! Angel and Liberty have a chance encounter at the start of the book, and try as he might Angel cannot get her out of his mind. Five years later, Liberty is kidnapped and taken to the "Island" where he resides and, well, a lot of craziness ensues which I cannot say without some spoilers. They grow closer while very feisty Liberty tries her best to escape her circumstances, which is pretty impossible because the place is an actual island. This ends on a cliffhanger and I am guessing books 2 and 3 get progressively darker!. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Twists, turns, uncertainty and a cliffhanger- this and more is what you are going to get from this story! This is a fast paced story following Liberty and Angel as they navigate life in a private island (and not the fun kind of private island) and their growing attraction to each other all while trying to keep Liberty or "Ivy" as she is known on the island, safe. From start to finish this book keeps you on your toes with the plot twists and action that happen. All of the characters in this story, particularly Angel and Liberty, are wonderfully developed while still leaving an air of mystery and motive to keep you invested and help fuel the cliffhanger that happens at the end of this story. The one thing that I really loved was that Liberty never loses her spunk or fire throughout the entire story. When you first meet her she is this feisty, spunky, straight shooter type of girl- she says what comes to mind and has no regrets about it. It does get her in trouble more often than not and that is certainly the case on the island but despite being in a situation that should knock her down and keep her there, she still finds a way to keep fighting in the hopes that maybe one day she can get away from everything that is happening around her. The tension and drama between the MC's Liberty and Angel with the supporting characters is also well developed and wonderfully played out throughout the entire story. As the reader you certainly get the sense of tension and jealousy and all of that plays off the main arc and is seamlessly written into it that you almost forget that it is a subtext to the plot. While this book is somewhat disturbing in most regards, it is not heavily spicy. There are certainly illusions to some spicy things happening throughout the island but you rarely get much detail which was a nice pallet refresher to the dark material and situations discussed. I'm sure that is going to change with the next book (at least I hope it does) but for now I think it works with this book in setting the reader up with the background and what may come next. There are quite a few trigger warnings that come with this read so please read them all before you pick this one up. This is not a story you want to miss if you have no issues reading some really dark stuff and I have a feeling book 2 is going to be even better!

Liberty left law school to marry Robert Gaumond. Life was boring. Her only release was Robert's niece, Elsie, who is living with them until she graduates from high school after her mother passed and the internet. Saltyshells123 seems to know her better than she knows herself. Liberty gets lost in their conversations. So much so that she is contemplating meeting saltyshells123 in person. Everything changes at the blink of an eye. Liberty finds herself on a island with no clue how she got there or why. Liberty, ever willful, makes it a point to make her escape and fight her captors every step of the way. Especially when she realizes that she knows them. Sawyer and Mr. A have cultivated this island for rich men who have specific tastes. The men who reside on the island can own slaves. The women that come there are usually desperate or have something to lose. Liberty knows she has someone out there that can help her, right? Real names are not used on the island and Liberty's name is changed to Ivy. The men are only referred to as Mr. A, B or C and are able to keep women as slaves. Liberty is not having any of that. The only man she can tolerate is the one man that cannot have a slave. He can protect her as much as possible until Mr. J makes an appearance. Mr. J is new and wants Liberty. He will stop at nothing to get her. Liberty also has a few enemies upon arrival. Will her enemies be the death of Liberty? This book is so good. It ends on a cliffhanger. I will be anxiously awaiting book two of this series. Liberty is a fighter and the revelations that were made in this book should keep her fighting. So many surprises. Readers will be shocked when they discover some of what is going on. I need book two now. I don't know how I am going to wait.

At first, I was like this book is like any other dark romance you read, captive and captor, a forbidden romance.... And then I was slapped with plot twists that i didn't expect at that point. Seriously by the end I was like who do I believe? Do I actually root for any of the characters? The FMC was annoying at many parts but then her thoughts justified her action, we all can't be immune to stress and how to handle our emotions. I understand her but not necessarily like her, actually I don't think I like any MC in this book but still I am totally invested in this story and to find out what in the name of dark romance is happening here? And more importantly when did it start...