Redemption Island by LB Dunbar: Review

Posted September 15, 2017 in review Tags: criminals, dark

Redemption Island by L.B. Dunbar
Pages: 260
Series: Island Duet #1
Genres: Dark Romance, Romantic Suspense
Source: ARC

Goodreads

The Island

Welcome to the island.
This is no fantasy.
You’ll face fears.
You’ll face travesty.
You’ll face yourself.

One deserted island.
Two heinous crimes.
Two convicted hearts.

When decent people do bad things,
there’s only one place for forgiveness:
Redemption Island.

The island knows what you’ve done.

Redemption Island will make you uncomfortable. Nothing is clear cut. Right and wrong are not simple and Juliet and Tack will have you questioning a lot of things. At first, I expected Juliet to be the victim, but its not that easy. And while Tack is a predator, he isn’t the horrid monster of the story. Both of them are damaged and destroyed. The island was not only a consequence for their crimes, but a chance to improve themselves. They thought they would be alone.

Seriously, this is one of those books you need to go into blind. You, like Tack and Juliet, will question what is real, what really happened, and what will happen in the future. There is dark subject matter in the story, so you might want to check the trigger warnings. Go to Redemption Island with no guide and experience it just like Juliet and Tack. You will be uncomfortable, confused, angry, and sad. But, like the best characters, these two develop throughout the story. They are more honest with each other than they have been with anyone in the lives and its all because of the island. Juliet and Tack are really dynamic characters! While Juliet is cast more in the ‘victim’ role, and while she does push Tack to be a better person, she isn’t without her own internal flaws. Sometimes, she came off a little ‘preachy’ to me. People in glass houses, Juliet…

I really started to see this like a reality tv show. You know, where things are suppose to be natural and not scripted, but you wonder if some things are guided or some characters aren’t pushed to an action by a producer? I really began to wonder if Juliet and Tack were being unwittingly manipulated for an unknown reason.

Its easy to get sucked into this story. I’m still not sure if I loved it or not. Weird right? Its beautifully written and its so different from anything I have read. I think all that combined with my struggles with the characters are really giving me pause about this book! I really haven’t stopped thinking about Redemption Island. So, I am going to do something I don’t normally do….I am not rating it until I read part 2!