Malicious Desire
Laney Kaye
Reviewed by Helen
This is a compelling story and not for the faint hearted, it tells the story of school teacher Kayla Petrovic and what happens when she is abducted and held for ransom with her six young students, the four abductors are vicious and nasty men and Kayla will do whatever is needed to save the kids, her strength and courage abounds.
Kayla has been abused all of her life from a drunken mother, she has no respect for herself and has done some terrible things in her young life to keep a roof over her head and food on the table. She has been doing so well went to university became a teacher and is loving her role in a small outback school, she is a loner and is not a mixer with people and doesn’t like to answer questions. Taking her young charges on a school excursion to the beach should have been fun and it was until the bus trip home, when everything went wrong.
Army veteran Captain Nicholas West doesn’t do love or emotion, he works hard a has been through tours of Afghanistan and Iraq he is best friends with medic Steve Colley when they are called in to find and save a school teacher and her students being held for ransom in the desert, he can do this, this is what he does well, oh but when they rescue Kayla nothing can compare to what state they find her in after being tortured, he cannot believe the strength she shoes as they walk out of the desert, he feels something special for this woman, could it be love, he knows he needs to protect her at all costs.
What can I say I had to keep turning the pages as Kayla dealt with so much, not only PTSD but her feelings from her past and there is no way she wanted to be known as a victim in her mind she wasn’t at all, her mother always told her she was no good, and then one of her attackers finds her, he is after revenge, she knew he would find her. Nick is the right person for Kayla if only she can let him in, but there is a lot to get through and Nick is very patient. Kayla would have to be one of the strongest heroines I have ever read truly, this book moved me, what can I say? I am sure MS Kaye must have been exhausted after writing this one it is so well written. I do recommend this one, but it packs an emotional punch.
4 stars
Published June 13th 2019 by Crossworlds Publishing
