Slave (Finding Anna) by Sherri Hayes

Slave is the first book in the Finding Anna series by Sherri Hayes.  Here is the blurb.

Stephan has lived the lifestyle of a Dominant for five years. After several rebellious teenage years, it gave him the stability and control he had been seeking after his parent’s death.

As president of a not-for-profit foundation, he knows what his future holds and what he wants out of life. All that changes when a simple lunch with his college friend and Mentor, Darren, leads him to buying a slave.

Thrust into a situation he never thought he’d be in, Stephan can’t walk away. He is compelled to help this girl in the only way he knows how.

Brianna knows only one thing, she is a slave. She has nothing. She is nothing.

Can Stephan help Brianna realize that she is much more than just a Slave?

This book was not what I was expecting it to be.  From the blurb I thought it would be a very taboo story with some sex thrown in and it wasn’t.  I mean it is a taboo subject of buying and owning another person…a slave…but it didn’t come across as strongly as what I thought and hoped it would.  Stephan is a rich guy who is CEO of a non-profit making foundation raising money to help those worse off.  He is propositioned over lunch by his friend and fellow Dom Darren who informs him about a young girl who is being kept as a slave by an acquaintance named Ian.  Darren doesn’t think the girl is happy to be there and he wants Stephan to buy her to take her away from her life with Ian.  Stephan agrees and so begins the story of Stephan and Brianna.

Slave is told from both viewpoints of Stephan and Brianna so we get to see a much more rounded story, knowing what the other is thinking and feeling.  Brianna is a very scared young girl who cries a lot, Stephan is exactly as you would expect him to be, controlled, rich and handsome.  Whilst I wanted more from their relationship than what I got I did get a little shocked sometimes by Stephan’s treatment as a Dom over Brianna.  I had questions about the plot and in particular Brianna.  I couldn’t understand how she thought she was a slave to Stephan and that people could actually buy other people and for it to be ok.  I could understand how she thought that way with her life with Ian but not with Stephan.  The other issue I had was with how Stephan treated her and why he thought he was better equipped to rehabilitate Brianna to being free of Ian rather than getting her professional help.  It is for these reasons that I am giving Slave 3 stars.  To me Slave is the book love child of Captive In The Dark and Gabriel’s Inferno, it has potential to be great but it let me down.  I’m not sure if I will read the other books that are planned for this series.