Rating: 4 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Patrick is out cruising in the park, as he loves having random guys take him one after the other. He’s feeling good and having a good night until cop, Mitch, ruins the party. Patrick feels he has no choice but to comply to Mitch’s demands and Patrick finds himself blackmailed, raped, and terrified. Except it’s not a one-time event and Mitch knows where Patrick lives and works and violently abuses him again and again. Patrick is always in pain and he’s jumpy waiting for the next time Mitch will appear. But Patrick also can’t stop thinking about Mitch and maybe he’s looking forward to seeing him again.
The title of the book really says it all as the book truly is Toxic AF. This description says it’s a dark book and there are a lot of trigger warnings and it’s all true. The author says “it’s not a pretty story,” and that is also true.
Patrick likes risks, but when things take a turn, he has no idea what to do. Mitch is violent and has repressed trauma of his own from abuse and acts accordingly. This is not a redemption book where Mitch sees the error of his ways and gets help. While the relationship between Patrick and Mitch does develop over the course of the book, and through the epilogue set years in the future, this is certainly not anything close to a traditional romance and it’s a rough ride through every page.
My rating on this book is because it delivers exactly what it states it will. I can’t say that I enjoyed all of it, as maybe I am slightly losing my taste for books as violent as this one. But if you are looking for a book with a new potential trigger on every page, Toxic AF is that book.
