Aurora Browne's mother sold her to "The Garden" so that she could be come a Candidate. Upon the exchange of money Aurora ceased to be anything but a commodity to be sold and used, and she became "Candidate Browne" or just Browne. Her body, her womb, and her life are no longer hers. During the next eight years, she will birth three children and endure punishments for escape attempts; this is quite a pain-filled existence. She becomes the chosen Candidate for yet another family, the Williams, but this time it is different. Spoiled and nasty Mother Williams employs a man as her butler and surrogate lover. This man speaks to Browne as if her life and she as a person truly matters. This is something she has not experienced since she was ten years old. With an electronic device implanted in her head that will cause her death if she leaves the Williams' premises, Browne is just as trapped as she ever has been, but she now sees what she has been trying to escape to.

Bain knows that his life has been sold to the highest bidder, but it has been his choice. He sees something in Browne that draws him to her. He tries to teach her things that she has never learned, and in return becomes someone she loves completely for the first time in her life. To escape their lives as slaves, Bain runs off to garnish help from the resistance and promises to return to Browne to save her. Bain reaches out to his brother Ren, a Resistance fighter caught up in taking a government leader's wife hostage. With Angel as a prisoner, the resistance hopes to gain some leverage. Not everything works out as planned.

Will Ren risk the Resistance's hostage for his brother? Can Bain save Browne? Will any of them survive?

Ms. Kurtz provides us with a dark look at the future of the world. Everything portrayed is all too real. It's almost touchable. The reader can almost smell the fetid water and embrace the desperation of the resistance. Browne is strong in spirit and Bain is willing to risk his life and the lives of others to save her. This may have been a post-apocalyptic view of the world but the roller coaster ride that is their escape make it a tension-filled, romance with a definite edge. Highly recommended.

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Mildly sensual

Reviewer: Sara Sawyer
July 22, 2004