Stolen Desires by Tina Donahue

Paige wakes to a velvet covered room with soft candlelight. What she doesn’t realize is that she’s been taken from her home in Seattle by men from another dimension. These men are guards that traversed through a portal between two dimensions to kidnap women and bring them to their secret outpost hidden on E5. Unbeknownst to the rulers of E2 these guards have stolen women on the surface of the Earth (E1) to enslave them along with other pleasure slaves they’ve taken.

Zekin is from E2 and has served Vakar, his ruler, and its people until he is charged for crimes of treason. He is unjustly imprisoned and taken to E5, a dimension installed with a penal colony. Vakar and his men have managed to keep secret the existence of the penal colony from the people of E2. There, Zekin lives through brutal punishment and near starvation, but with the aid of other criminals, they take over the prison. He and friends are determined to save pleasure slaves from the abusive system and that’s where he finds Paige and rescues her.

Ms. Donahue has done a great job of world building in Stolen Desire. Her imagination paints E5 dimension with surreal creatures and colorful descriptions of fire and ice surroundings. The secondary characters were essential and helped the story along. I found Eeete’s character submissive and unselfish, but this is a state she’s only ever known. The atrocious punishment the slaves endured was palpable and heartbreaking. But I was glad the few Zekin saved were finally free to reclaim their dignity and hope.

I enjoyed Zekin and Paige’s story and the combustible chemistry between them. Definitely, Ms Donahue’s stories always has some hot, smoking sex with her characters and it sizzles right off the pages. Zekin finds in Paige the closeness and intimacy that he so craved from another human. In his stale existence on E2, human emotions aren’t allowed. Their environment is devoid of feelings of joy, anger, love, or comfort in their sterile and perfect realm. Paige finds in Zekin tenderness and caring she’s never felt with anyone before.

This is a stand alone as I understand from the author, but after reading the three other books before Stolen Desires the storyline made more sense to me and easier to follow along in the series. Although there was an epilogue, this part was written for preparation of Eeete’s story, book 5 of the Outlawed Realm series. I really wanted more of what happens to Zekin and Paige and their life together. There is a cameo scene with Nikoli and Regina from Unending Desire, along with Kuma and Gwen from Shameless Desire. Hopefully, we’ll know more of these characters in the next installment. Its been a fun read and one series I’ve enjoyed reading.

My rating: 3.5