Book Review for Serenity: A Dark Romance by Skye Bailey

I received this book for free. This does not impact my review in any shape or form.

Serenity: A Dark Romance, by Skye Bailey, is a romance thriller about a woman who, after being forced into sex slavery, finds herself again in the midst of the pain. The book introduces Serenity, a disgruntled housewife who gets abducted by a mysterious man. After being given the name, “Donna”, Serenity is forced to endure the brutalities of sex slavery before being rescued by Chris. As she falls in love, Serenity is forced to choose between the life she made with Chris, and her old one with her family, all the while learning to about herself again.

This book had so much potential. Serenity’s storyline was rife with tragedy and pain, as well as hope and encouragement. Meanwhile, Jack’s taking Serenity for granted and Chris’s subsequent lack of it would’ve made an interesting dichotomy between the two. I felt horrified at the things that man put Serenity through, and was all the more glad that Bailey didn’t put a name to the perpetrator; it would’ve put the focus on that man rather than Serenity, and it would’ve derailed the story completely. The kids were cute of course.

That being said, I couldn’t help but be just a little disappointed. Both Serenity’s, Jack’s, and Chris’s POVs could’ve been fleshed out more. The way it is now, it felt like Bailey was telling me what was going on rather than show me. The romance between the two love interests definitely felt rushed. In regards to what Serenity experienced, it didn’t make sense for Serenity to slowly lose her memories, but still keep her name as “Serenity”. If anything, Bailey should’ve changed it to “Donna” since that was what she introduced herself to Chris as. As for what constitutes as a dark romance, I didn’t see anything immoral between Chris or Jack. I appreciate the fact that they were both supportive of her, but regardless, there was no dark romance to be found. Unless Bailey meant for Ray to be another contender, which I highly doubt she, or the readers, want. There were mistakes littered throughout the book, punctuation that needed to be corrected and words that I figured were more typos than anything. 

Again, this book has a lot of potential. But the pacing needs to slow down, and the POVs need to be fleshed out for me to be more immersed in the story. As such, I’ll be giving this book a rating of 2 stars out of 5 stars.