by Lola Smirnova
Book: Stand Alone
Publisher: Createspace
Pub Date: January 2014
Genre: Adult
Format: Print
Source: Publisher
Book Links: Goodreads Amazon
Back in the 90’s, the corrupt post-Soviet Ukraine with its faltering economy, is thrown into a devastating depression. Times are hard. Opportunities are scarce.
Three eager young sisters – Natalia, Lena and Julia - dream of a better life and weigh their options: do they stay and struggle like their parents, or join scores of their compatriots in the sex trade in glittering western European cities, who earn in a night what they’d take several months to earn at home? Naive and tempted by the allure of 'quick' money, the girls set off on an adventure that changes their lives forever...
For sensible, resilient and calculating Lena and Natalia, the transition to the underworld of Luxembourg’s deceptive champagne bars is eye-opening, but smooth. But for fragile, brittle Julia, haunted by a childhood assault, the change is more than just vocational. Struggling to adapt, she turns to alcohol and drugs, exposing herself to increasing danger and depravity; and, ultimately, betrayal, when a deceitful client, who claims to love her, drugs her and cleans her out.
Despite her sisters’ best efforts to intervene, she finds herself in Istanbul – culturally a world apart – in an attempt to make back the money and self-respect she’s lost. Vulnerable without the protection of Luxembourg’s champagne bars, she descends into a hell of drugs and high-risk sex until, at the novel’s terrible climax, a kidnapping, brutal assault and one-sided justice system lead to her imprisonment and a threat of deportation.
My Review: First of all, this is an Adult book! Like be very ready, its amazing and very sexy, but make sure you are fine with adult material! It really isn't for the faint of heart.
This book brings up the problems in the sex world and hopefully it'll shed some things that are happening. So the girls all decide to leave home. They don't want to struggle, but one way or another this new world won't be struggle free. Its a hard life and not just anyone can do it. Plus they learn the hard way when drugs and alcohol start to take a huge part in your life.
I felt for these girls and wished that they did have a better life after leaving home. But that's not always the case and they learned it the hard way. No matter what you will like these girls and be there for them.
I did enjoy the story. It was done well and gives you insight into this world, so it makes it just a little more than just a sex book. I'd def read more from this author.
My Rating:
✪✪✪✪✪
