I got Pennies for free last November; it came with a matching audiobook at the time. I figured if I got more audiobooks, I’d be able to read more books in general. I had been interested in reading A Boy and His Ribbon by the same author, so I figured I might as well pick it up.
This is definitely not a YA book. It’s fairly disturbing. But it’s worth reading if you’re okay with that.
Tasmin is strangled, revived, then renamed as Pimlico and sold as a sex slave when she was eighteen. She endures brutal treatment by the jerk that bought her, whose name is Alrik, but she is expected to refer to as Master A. After two years, she is just a shell of what she used to be, half starved and covered with scars and bruises.
Will she ever escape this living hell before death claims her? At one point this book seems hopeless and you know something has to change, or it wouldn’t be a good story. Fortunately, it does.
Alrik invites a client over, Mr. Prest, who sees Pimlico for what she is: a slave. He’s not a very nice guy himself and doesn’t want to get involved. Any involvement on his part could result in worse treatment. When he leaves, you want him to come back and take her away. You’ll just have to read the book to find out what happens next.
The book is very dark and hard to read at points, but fortunately, even though Pimlico undergoes extremely harsh treatment, we don’t have to read any graphic rape scenes or anything like that. We just know that it is happening. You have to feel sorry for her, want her to escape, and want her tormentors to see justice.
Pennies is difficult to put down. I stayed up a little bit to late so I could finish it. There are more books to this series, and you’ll want to find out what happens next, so you’ll probably want to plan on reading the next books in the series at some point after this one.