Tracy’s review of Skin Dive (Skin series #4) by Ava Gray.
Gillie is a fugitive, determined never to be bound again. Because of her special gift, her former captors intend to retrieve her-by any means necessary. Taye can’t remember much about his past, but with a bounty hunter hounding them, he’ll do anything to assure Gillie’s safety and preserve her innocence…for himself.
Gillie Flynn has been “kept” by the Foundation and her healing abilities exploited for 12 years. She was stolen from her parents and set up in one of the Foundation’s facilities. She has her own apartment that looks nothing like the rest of it but she’s not allowed to see anyone but the creepy doctor who takes care of her until one other captive bribes the doc to visit Gillie.
Gillie is surprised and more than a bit wary when Taye aka T-89 starts visiting her but they soon become friends and start to plan an escape. When the escape and destruction of the facility comes about they are successful but now they run for their lives. The other captives split up but not Gillie and Taye. They decide to work together as during their visits in the facility they each became closer to the other. Gillie is not shy about sharing her feelings with Taye but Taye shuts her down because he feels that he’s not good enough for her – and he’s hiding something even more important that he just can’t share with Gillie.
Eventually they decide to join the resistance against the Foundation and go their separate ways but it doesn’t stop either one of them from yearning for the presence of the other.
This fourth novel in the Skin series continues the stories of the children turned adults who were experimented on. They have grown and developed abilities and then were hunted and taken by the Foundation for their own nefarious uses – or just to be experimented on. The resistance is run by Mockingbird and they fight the Foundation with all the abilities they have. When Gillie and Taye find that they can’t survive without help they turn to the resistance. But though they are happy in their respective jobs for the resistance they both quite heartbroken over their separation.
This is truly the part of the book – the separation – that I started to feel the love and longing between the pair. Yes, I felt it before that to a degree but it wasn’t as poignant as it was later in the book. My heart ached for Taye. He couldn’t remember anything about his life before he was at the facility and he felt for sure that he wasn’t good enough for Gillie as he thought of her as more innocent and pure. Gillie was not innocent and pure. Ok, she was technically a virgin because she’d been at the facility for so long but she was really a perfect fit for Taye. I loved them together as they got each other. They even think this about each other in the book – they knew where the other had been and what they had gone through and didn’t have to hide who they really were. They could be made at each other and throw things and still know that the other loved them.
The writing in the book is compelling. It caught my interest at the beginning of the book and kept me thinking about it even when I wasn’t reading. The whole series has been like that and it’s why I keep reading it.
Skin Dive was a really good book. It combined a wonderful story of the horrors of captivity and experimentation along with the love that can be found in such an awful place. It had a fantastic element of the paranormal without overwhelming the story with it – even though it played an integral part. If you haven’t started this series yet you should think about reading it. Great writing and great romance make for great books.
Rating: 4 out of 5
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place
This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
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