Love lost her way

A Brutal, Necessary Gut-Punch I’ll Never Forget

This is not a romance. It’s a reckoning.

Some stories stay with you.

Others haunt you.

And then…

Then there are the ones that open a wound you didn’t know you had—and leave it raw, pulsing, seen.

This was that story.

The Truth Wrapped in Fiction

Julie Ann Addicott didn’t write this book to comfort you.

She wrote it to confront you.

To dare you to look at what most of us pretend doesn’t exist.

And in Carlie—this fierce, broken, unforgettable girl born into the unspeakable horror of child sex trafficking—she gave a voice to every child whose story was buried in silence.

Let me be clear:

This book isn’t about healing arcs.

It’s not a “dark romance.”

It’s not here to make you feel better.

It’s here to make you feel—even when it hurts.

The Experience of Reading This

I don’t cry easily when reading.

But this?

I cried. I shook.

I had to stop, breathe, and come back—because every page hit like a punch to the ribs.

Carlie’s life isn’t just painful.

It’s graphic. It's horrifying. It’s real.

Not in the names or the plot points, but in the essence.

The truth.

The world this book reveals isn’t fantasy. It’s fact. And that's what makes it so hard to read—and so impossible to ignore.

⚠️ A Word of Warning (and a Plea to Understand)

As the author herself says:

This is not a romance.

This is not escapism.

This book does not hold your hand.

It grabs your heart, crushes it, and asks you to look at the pieces.

If you’re looking for something easy, soft, tied up in hopeful tropes—this isn’t it.

But if you’re ready to face the brutal, bloody truths we’re taught to look away from—then read this book.

It was banned.

Yes, banned.

Because it tells the truth too loudly.

And if that doesn’t tell you how important this book is, I don’t know what does.

Some readers won’t get it.

Some might even hate it.

Because this book is not for everyone.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

It was meant for the shadows. For the silenced. For those who didn’t get to write their story.

Julie Ann Addicott wrote it for them.

And I genuinely believe this is her most powerful, fearless, and necessary work to date.

This book broke me.

But I’m grateful it did.

Because now I can’t unsee.

And I won’t look away.

If you choose to pick up this book, please take care of your heart.

Sit with it. Let it wreck you. Let it move you.

Let it change you.

📚 As always, this post may contain affiliate links. They come at no cost to you, but they help me keep sharing the stories that matter. Thank you for supporting both the books and the voices behind them.

Amazon:Love lost her way