4/5 Review: Sacrifice by Kate Pearce

 

 

Awaiting execution on a foreign planet, Anna Lee has nothing left to lose — until Commander Rehz Akran offers her a chance to escape her fate. Anything is better than death, but when her training for Akran’s mysterious mission begins, the brutality is hard to take . . . especially since Anna has no idea what the workouts, beatings, and endless sexual demands are preparing her for.

Rehz Akran doesn’t deal with failure. He’s determined that his last trainee will survive her immersion in an unimaginably alien world and return alive — even if it means she’ll hate him forever. He needs to stay detached, but his new recruit makes that impossible. Soon he’s willing to defy his own training for a chance to forge a true connection with Anna.

It’s Rehz’s job to teach Anna to survive as a Tribute. And if she does, it’s his task to help her overcome the trauma of the experience. But this time he isn’t doing it to save his planet. This time he’s doing it for love.

 

Kate Pearce’s Sacrifice is a read that may be triggers for some, so read with caution.  That being said, this book is a really good read.  Commander Rehz Akran is a military man desperately trying to get through his last mission so that he can retire from the Tribute program.  He is a trainer who was a tribute himself so he knows what the trainees are going to experience.  This drives him to be hard on his trainees so that they can pass what the Ungrich have in store for them.  For his last mission he picks Anna Lee, a woman awaiting execution.  She is from Earth, but no one believes her and act as if they never heard of it.  When she is approached by Commander Akran, her survival instincts kick in and she agrees to become a tribute.  As they are trained to endure what they are expected to go through, Anna and Rehz begin to form a bond that will help them survive what they must endure as a tribute.  The training is basically torture, and only the very strong have the capacity to pass through the program.  While Rehz is training Anna they have to deal with the presence of an enemy that is close to home.  Palk is a sadistic man who enjoys the power of his position and makes sure that everyone under his power knows that he can use them as he see fits.  Anna sees first hand the abuse that Rehz still suffers whenever Palk is on the training grounds.  Seeing that softens her towards him and allows more feelings to develop between them, other than Anna’s need to kill her trainer.  Rehz believes that he is not good enough for anyone to love because of all of the tributes he has trained and lost.  He pushes Anna away, but she fights for him.  I actually enjoyed this story, once I got past the brutality of the training and the world they lived in.