Book Review - Taboo Unchained by C.M. Stunich

5 ‘NOT A WHORE’ STARS! ★★★★★

PURCHASE ON AMAZON: CLICK HERE

"This is about the taboo, about rescuing the filthy side of the human soul, letting it come unchained for just a brief moment." 

♥ Buddy Read with the fantabulous Kat Stark! <- Click to read her review! ♥

After mulling over this read for an entire day, I am still picking up the remnants of my feels that this book blew into pieces. Even during the last 10% of the book, I don’t understand the confliction of my emotions with all 3 characters! Do I love Audra more? Or do I love Robbie more? Or maybe I love Lucas the most? IDK REALLY. I just can’t pick one!! It’s possible I love them all equally and maybe that makes me a crazy person. 

Can I just stress how much I LOVE the dynamic of this amazeballs trio? WELL I FREAKIN LOVE IT AND I’D LIKE TO REVEL IN IT ALL DAY LONG. Seriously tho, that’s usually such a rare feat to achieve in most reads which made this one even more awesome than it already is. 

*******

Taboo Unchained starts off with a man named Lucas Carterwho repeatedly claims that he is not a whore despite being paid to have sex with his "clients" who require him to fulfil their darkest, or shall we say, taboo fantasies (think knives for starters). For a moment, I felt like this was an exorcism of demons...well except in a more sexual manner. 

“I taste the blackness and I fuck out the light. I will teach you to turn the filthy, the nasty, the most putrid parts of your soul into sheer bliss, into an addiction you can't shake instead of a miserable, stilted, blighted existence.”

Having the story told from his POV entirely really brought out some of the best moments in the book. I can only say that I was VERY perplexed by his persona for a good majority of the book because I couldn't understand this man at all eventhough I was practically living inside his head! 



It's like there were two sides of him: 

- One which I found to be highly entertaining as he was being such a cocky, arrogant gigolo guy who seems to be rather anal about well...almost everything. Not to mentioned, he's quite the OCD type (hey, I felt sorry for his Italian couch too if someone did that to mine!). 



- Another one which then left me feeling sympathetic towards him as he struggled with this "beast of darkness" inside of him.



To spice things up, bring in two ladies into his life, one each at the total opposite sides of the spectrum. Audra, the redhead bombshell who could match Lucas's insanity and Robbie, the sweet literal girl-next-door who has a crush on him. I admit at first, my heart was already set on one woman but slowly another one crept its way into it too. I started questioning my feelingsand yelling at Kat in caps lock on who I was rooting for. 

Up till now and even with that ending, I honestly cannot give a definite answer on who I’d preferred Lucas to be with. There is just no right or wrong choice which just makes up another damn reason this book is absolutely fantastic.The fact that it leaves me in this state of confliction.



I was left very intrigued with even all of the side characters; some more whacked up than the others (I have a love/hate rship with Clarice LMFAO). And with the dark humor that the author brings out in her writing, she managed to turn a seemingly dark, gritty read with tons of kink into a rather entertaining one, which I felt brought a great balance of light and dark in this book. 

Plot-wise, I really enjoyed the unpredictability of it although it was a little hard to get into at first with Lucas constantly referring himself in 3rd person. And as far as the love triangle goes, this book definitely brought a whole new meaning to it. I can’t really explain it because you’ll need to read this one to understand how this flippin amazing dynamic works. 

But put it this way:

If you’re fan of ‘em, you should definitely read this. 
If you’re not a fan of ‘em, you should most definitely read this.

*******

Overall, I found this to be a very refreshing read for a dark lover like myself. The exceptional writing, the sheer craziness of it all and leaving me in puddle of messed-up emotions; this was one of those reads that sticks with me for a good long while ;) 

I rarely give a dark read 5 stars unless it involves some major mindfuckery but this was a complete exception because it brought out something else much more than that. It proves that a dark read can still be so alluring even without that shock factor. 

Dark lover or not, I would highly recommend this read for everyone :) I wouldn't consider it to be a dark romance because the romance itself was a rather unconventional one but the overall theme of the book is indeed dark with the kinks, some violence involved and mostly disturbing dialogues. So proceed with caution!