Tortured

by Amanda McIntyre

Book Overview

Ensnared in the war-torn, untamed Dark Ages of North England, Sierra understands all too well what it takes to survive: the ability to numb the soul. She has learned this lesson the hard way, watching her mother die at the hands of the king's henchmen, her brother cast out into the cold to perish, and discovering the treacherous, leering king holds a crucial secret about her past. But when he grants Sierra her life, she discovers the pardon is perhaps...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0373605331
• ISBN13: 9780373605330
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: Spice
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful

It is the Dark Ages - in the land of war torn Britannia the Saxon invaders have ravaged the land pillaging, raping, burning, killing, and enslaving those who were left in their wake of destruction. Sierra is one of those life was spared but death would have been much easier than what she now has to face. The malicious Saxon King Aeglech has spared her life because of her gift of the "sight" that she inherited from her mother (who was forced to serve him before her). He is the one responsible for the murder of her family and for taking away all that was dear to her. Now as if to add insult to injury he has ordered her to be the apprentice to his head Executioner. Sierra is forced to witness, and assist in the heinous tortures inflicted upon the prisoners in Lord Aeglech's dungeon. Growing up for nine years in this hellish existence Sierra soon looses herself and tries to become detached from the suffering and abominations around her. She finds some comfort in the arms of a young stable boy but the passion that she feels even though it does allow her some stolen moments of escape from her accursed life isn't love. Sierra wonders if she will ever again feel like a human being and if there is any chance at hope left. But hope sometimes comes when we least expect it and for her it comes in the form of a new Roman prisoner that is brought to the dungeon to be tortured into giving up what information he has. In this strong and honorable man Sierra sees what she has been waiting for a possible glimmer of freedom. Dryston was part of the Roman army until he and his brother Torin decided to stay in Britannia and build an army from the native people to fight the barbaric Saxons and once again to take back their land from the grips of the murderous invaders. When Dryston is captured by surprise in one of the villages and brought to the dungeons of Aeglech, he knows that he must escape and get word to his brother about the movements and numbers of the Saxons if their plans of attacking and crushing Aeglech's armies are to succeed. When the sees Sierra he can hardly believe that she is to be his torturer but she tortures him in more ways than one... this passionate young woman offers him an alliance if he will help her escape. Together they devise a plan to get them both out of the clutches of this Saxon hell. But what starts out as just an alliance for survival soon starts to become much more. Could Dryston be her savior in more ways than one could he be the savior of her soul and heart as well? This is a book that has very complex characters and layers to it and I think you will enjoy each one. Ms. McIntyre has made a strong and yet emotionally fragile heroine in Sierra. Her relationship with Dryston is one that at first was all about survival but quickly became much more. I found this read to be both very intriguing, passionate and very deep. I think she has captured the essence of this violent and dark time in history very well and posed some very good

Sensual Read!

I tried to win this book when it came out, but with no luck I knew it was going to be a must buy for me, and I wasn't dissapointed! Tortured by Amanda McIntyre was just plain fantastic! One thing I loved was that after I read it I went over to Amanda's website to check out her other books, well what I found made this little reader a very happy girl! Amanda as put together a page for her inspirations, including music & media, a cast and pictures of landscapes to give you perfect imagery into what inspired Tortured! I was for one over the moon, Amanda even talked about the story behind this masterful creation! Brilliant I tell you, I was thinking... oh oh, that is how I imagined the waterfall or castle from her eloquent words, so full of life and a clear representation of the imagery in my own head. I adored Sierra from the moment she stepped on the page, a woman just trying to survive and nothing was going to stop her. She has had a horrible and degrading existence. Only kept alive by the man who had her mother killed because he knew she could be of use to him in the future. Like her mother (a druid), Sierra was a seer, she saw the future and when the maniacal Lord Aeglech discovers this he spares her and kills her younger brother. His birth a betrayal to Lord Aeglech as he sees it, so he orders his death as he places Sierra with the executioner. An apprentice to the executioner Sierra becomes hardened to her surroundings where death and torture are an everyday experience. Until...... until the arrival of Dryston. Captured and sent to the executioner to be tortured for his knowledge of the activities and plotting against Lord Aeglech he is resilient and strong and holds onto all his secrets. He would rather them kill him. But the evil Lord has other plans, that would be Sierra. He uses her to get information about his enemies from Dryston by her power of seduction. Something about Dryston pulls Sierra towards him, lust, desire, freedom. He could be her ticket out of here. And she knows that if she doesn't at least give it a try with him, she will die here. It will killer like it killed her mother. I think the most enjoyable thing for me was Sierra having to learn that she couldn't use sex and her art of manipulation for everything. When Dryston starts working his way into her heart, Sierra is torn. It wasn't suppose to be this way. She was to get out, get her revenge and live her life, not fall in love with a man. She has had a hard life and can hold her own, but does she want to, does she want to choose to open up her heart and trust Dryston. And more than that, can he trust her?

Emotional, Beautifully Penned Epic Tale

4 1/2 stars. Living in a time of chaos and despair, at a tender age, Sierra was forced to learn the rules of survival. And learn them well. With her mother's murder, both Sierra and her brother find themselves at the mercy of the Saxon Lord, Aeglech. A druid, like her mother before her, Sierra possesses a special gift, and one that Lord Aeglech is desperate to utilize. With her quick wit and steely façade, Sierra manages to ensure her own survival, her brother, however, is not so lucky. Enslaved, and forced by Aeglech to become the executioner Balrogan apprentice, Sierra's life is literally surrounded by death. Years come to pass, death, pain and anguish are an everyday staple in her life. All feelings of compassion and love--a distant memory. Her emotions are now nothing more than primal, her only care is living to see another day. During this time, Sierra's only reprieve is the brief, stolen moments of physical release she shares with Cearl, her only companion. That is, until one man unwittingly gives her a glimpse at a life hope and promise. Captured by the Saxons, Roman soldier, Dryston is forced to endure the brutality of Lord Aeglech. Restless, and worried about a rebellion, Aeglech is desperate for any information Dryston may be withholding. When all manner of torture fail to make the Roman talk, Aeglech turns to Sierra to retrieve information from the prisoner. Using her gift of sight, Sierra sweeps through the thoughts and emotions of the Roman. What she sees stirs feelings within her that she had believed long dead. His passions, desires and loyalty intrigue her in ways she cannot comprehend, and soon, Sierra finds herself if a precarious position. She can ensure her own survival and simply allow the Roman die. Or, for the first time, allow herself to truly trust another, and with his help, she can fight to finally have the freedom she had only dared to dream about. I think that Amanda McIntyre is a brilliant story teller, and one who can pen a tale so well that you feel as though you are right there with the characters. She is an author who takes great care in her use of words and description, to the point that I'm often left astounded by how vividly scenes play out for me. I wouldn't go in to reading this story expecting some grand sweeping romance. Although erotic, for me, 'Tortured' was an epic tale of one woman's strength and determination to live. I have no doubt these characters will move you. They are unrefined and their reactions to what they are forced to endure, genuine.

Unique Medieval Romance!

The year is 500 C.E., and the land of Brittania is brutally being plundered and conquered by the vicious Saxons. The self-proclaimed king, Lord Aeglech knows no mercy when it comes to the native Britons. You either follow his rules, or you die. Sierra is nothing more than a slave, but one the Saxon king values. She is Druid; a seer of the past and future. After her mother is ordered to be murdered for hiding her young son from Lord Aeglech, a betrayal punishable by death, Sierra is forced to apprentice the king's executioner, Balrogan. Nine years now, Sierra has wondered what the fate was of her young brother and clung to the last words of her mother, "Dunna fear." Those words gave her strength through the cruelty that has consumed her life, helped to shape her into the fearless woman she has become. Now a Roman soldier, Dryston, has been captured, and when the torture that Balrogan unleashes on him proves fruitless for information regarding the rumors of a rebel army drawing near, he is turned over to Sierra. Lord Aeglach has assigned her a new form of torture...that of her body. Rather than punish him, they form a pact to help each other escape. "She was his pleasure, he was her survival." Pg. 101 Now freed from her man made prison, Dryston must free her from her self-imposed prison, because the more time he spends with the prickly Sierra, the more he feels a connection to her. The title implies more than just the torture of the hero Dryston or that the heroine Sierra is the apprentice to the executioner, Balrogan. Dryston may be physically tortured but so too is Sierra mentally tortured everyday of her life. Numb to the pain and anguish of what her life has become since her mother's death nine years earlier, Sierra begins to yearn for something each time she's in the presence of the Roman prisoner. My heart went out to Sierra as she opened herself to the longing for love. No longer is carnal pleasure, her one form of escape, with Cearl, a young stable hand, able to quench her need. That yearning now rests in the hands of Dryston, and that yearning proves to be yet another form of torture. With her broken spirit from the pain and terrible existence that was Sierra's life, she finds a sense of peace within the embrace of the Roman. Sex had always been used as a tool of escape, but with this man, it has become so much more. With Dryston, as she learns to trust, she senses she can be more than the empty, nameless, genderless being she has been for the last nine years. She can be the woman she now longs to become. Amanda McIntyre's books never fail to move me. The harshness of the times, the cruelty, the survival seems so terribly absurd considering how we live today. I think we all need to thank our lucky stars that we live in the times we do. Tortured is driven with the need for hope during such tumultuous times as was that part of history. I felt as if i were whisked away to that time and that land. The vivid descriptions and steady rhyth