Author: Rain Carrington
Self Published
Publication Date: June 4, 2019
Length: 288 pages
Reviewed by Racheal
Synopsis
My name is Matthew Whitehouse, though everybody calls me Matt. This second story is mine, but like my cousin Mac, it’s not mine alone.
I come from a big family, bigger than most. I used to think that was great. I loved having over thirty brothers and sisters. There was always someone to play with, and I never got lonely as a kid. I loved having more than one mom because if one wouldn’t sneak me a freshly baked sugar cookie, another one would. I even loved my daddy, until I found out what kind of man he really was.
My family isn’t what most see as normal. See, my daddy and his before him, claimed to be prophets. They claimed to speak to Our Heavenly Father, and He told them to do things, things like marrying a lot of wives and having a lot of kids. That, well, I could have believed it once, maybe, but the other things God supposedly told them, I don’t believe, and never will.
It took me getting out to see into what I’d been born into and lived with for the first big part of my life. Outside looking in, that is where you need to be to see the truth. Truth hurts, it’s hard to take, but it’s only when we face it that we can start to heal.
I’m not saying to hate the family you were born into, but I am saying to keep one eye open while you enjoy them. Don’t believe everything they say, no matter if God is telling them to say it or not. I had to come to terms with the bad my family was doing, and I had to stop it. It almost got me killed.
As Mac said, we in these books have a lot in common. We had to overcome what they did, try to fix it, or live with it the best we could. Read this story, and believe it or not, it’s my life. I found the good on the other side of it, but it was one heck of a struggle to get there.
****
Matt Whitehouse needed help, but he had no idea whom he could ask. Everyone on the polygamist compound where he was raised was under the control of the prophet, who happened to be Matt’s own father.
It was his father that saved him, though Matt was sure that wasn’t his intention. A warning to a cousin who was far removed from his polygamist family sent people that would become the most important in Matt’s life.
Steve Ricci lived in a home in the middle of nowhere, still licking the wounds of a near-fatal gunshot in the line of duty when he was a US Marshal.
When Mac Blaylock got a call, warning him to ignore any plea for help from his distant cousin, Matt, the first thing Mac did was to send help. His partner, Leo, sent an old friend and former FBI agent, Stacy Woo, to find Matt, which she did, beaten nearly to death.
A mutual friend sent Stacy and Matt to Steve to hide out in his home from those trying to kill Matt, including members of Matt's own family. The only safe place for a thousand miles was Steve’s home, and when he agreed to let the two stay with him, the hard-edged woman and beaten man, he knew his life would change forever.
Matt’s heartbreak was worse than his wounds. Unable to give in to his sorrow, his goal was to free those who had no way to free themselves. Not that he ever wanted to ask for help, he needed Stacy and Steve, and the two used every resource they had to jump into the fray with him.
In Steve, Matt found not only a savior but a man who needed him too.
Trigger warning! Mentions of human trafficking and child abuse. Violence.
Review
Rain Carrington breaks down the walls of a cult
religion and one man’s struggle with family, love, his own sexuality, and doing
what he knows is right, regardless if that means betraying members of his own
family in order to right so many wrongs. This is her second book in her Legacy
Series, The Principle. Although this is the second book, I found
that it was easy enough to follow along without having read the first book in
the series.
Matthew— or
as he likes to be called Matt—
almost loses his life in a back alleyway one night for going against his
father’s orders. When I think of other people’s beliefs when it comes to
matters of Religion, I tend not to judge. Since we live in such a diverse
country, not one religion is going to be the norm. However, there is a
difference when a person or people use their power to influence or brainwash
those people who they claim to love and want to protect.
Matt had loved his childhood; to him he felt
lucky to have such a huge and wonderful family. He didn't know any better than
what was asked of him and the others that lived in the compound. He never dared
to question the authority of his father or the other men that claimed to be the
Prophets of the lord. As Matt got older it was as if some sort of magical
shades were lifted from his eyes and he started to question the activities
around him. Such as little girls disappearing from the compound or mothers
crying for their missing babies right after childbirth but what really opened
his eyes was running into his brother Dean that had been kicked out of the
compound on some bogus lies told by the elders. At first, Matt refused to
believe everything that Dean had told him until he really started to listen.
Then everything changed for Matt and his only concern was helping those who
wanted out to get out safely. But leaving the compound is so much harder and
dangerous then Matt could have ever imagined.
That night in the back of that alley, although
he almost lost his life, what Matt found in return was so much more. Due to his
cousin that left before him hiring a private eye to find him, Matt not only found
family, he found allies that would fight for not only him but for the people in
his compound. He found out just how strong he was, he also discovered a love
and the strength of another man.
This storyline was by far one of the hardest for
me to read the cause of the horror that went on behind that wall. But, this
author was incredible at writing so that it made me feel like this was a real
compound and these characters were more like real live people trying shutdown
another cult and give hope and freedom to the ones that wanted it, and help and
moral support to the ones that they knew would have trouble dealing with life
on the outside.
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