The Island of Lost Girls

Powerful people have a strong sense of entitlement. Creating a world that is mirrored and centered around them is their primary goal. What about those that are not rich, working class and just want to live a normal life? What about those that think buying people in order to make others happy fulfill some perversion giving them ownership of that person as their slave? Enter the world that Mercedes is forced or enslaved into at a young age. Enter her world knowing that she might never escape as one teen named Tatiana and one father Matthew Meade make a bargain with her father to make Mercedes owned by his daughter as her playmate. This is just the surface as you enter her world in 1985 and then in 2015 or later you will see there is little difference in her life and learn the truth behind the walls created by Meade. Hidden beneath the faces of all the young girls is a façade allowing no one to see what is really inside. The corruption of this island, the free spirits of women defeated and deflated, men treating them an object and the attitude that they are worthless, must comply and obey comes through. Mercedes and her sister Donatella thinking they are entering the world of the rich and powerful soon learn the inner truths.

Sold by her father to be a playmate and slave to Tatiana at a young age and later in years as an adult, this spoiled, heartless and mean socialite is placated, cajoled and enabled by a powerful father that even she cannot disobey. 

In another timeline and part of the world in La Kastellana, we meet Robin a distraught mother whose background is filled with heartache, fighting with her daughter, unfeeling at times and a father who writes letters and hardly enters the world of Gemma their teenage daughter who runs away. Hoping to find her and asking for help from the police and others, no one seems to care. Class distinction, a new duke running the island, thousand live there and yet only the ruling and rich are important. The island is hidden away yet in plain sight as women are treated as servants. Mercedes must work for the Duke and his daughter but what really is happening is sex trafficking, drugs, people trafficking and young girls forced to please a man anyway they desire. Higher standards for some, women have few if any rights and young beautiful ones soon have a terrible fate.

What is hidden behind the doors and those that are hoping to gain wealth but at what expense? Donatella dares to speak out to Tatiana and then she is found in a terrible state. What will her mother do? Why does her father shun them and what about Mercedes?
Robin is lost within her own world and the police take away her right to find her daughter and then something happens and Mercedes realizes the truth. Just what can she do? What about Paulo the security man will he help? Mercedes cannot forgive what happened to her sister. The crowd there, the yelling begins and the women finally stand tall and together what about the Duke, her father and the men?
Games played at the expense of the girls. Sex, drugs, liquor and who wins the take but is it really a win? How much money to give up your honor to make yourself seem important when in reality you are nothing but a pawn within this Duke’s life.

Four girls, three left one lost and where is Donatella? The elaborate plan, the graphic scenes, Tatiana’s hate for anyone not like her, her using Mercedes and her determination to get revenge. Will she? A distorted face, cuts, bruise and deformed. How did this happen to her sister? We follow Gemma and her falling from grace, her mother worn out, fearful and then someone comes to her side. The horror beneath the world of the rich, no remorse, greed, dishonoring others and Robin Hanson hoping to find her lost child. Power is gold. Power is money, power makes you who you are. Those within his world benefit and others fall he does not care. Author Alex Marwood takes us deep inside the world of the rich, the dangerous, powerful and the entitled. A fictional island but a true to life plotline and characters that resemble some within our own world and news.

The Meade family shows contempt for those not within their circle, lures young girls to think they are going to be rich, and have it all and yet they are the ones who provide the fun, entertainment for men at their own expense. How do you live in a world that you cannot escape when your own father devalues you and takes a stand on the other side.

The water has been her home and her ability to stay below her savior. With Felix at her side, learning how to get the lobsters from the ocean and understanding how to live below and above Mercedes comes up with a plan that is well thought out, cleverly executed and an ending you won’t see coming. The women fight back at last when a death occurs. A mother that stand tall and an evil man turns a blind eye to his failings. The book takes the reader into two timelines so get to know Donatella and Mercedes as well as Tatiana as teens and then working for The Duke, dealing with his parties and the men as Mercedes is determined to save a life, revenge the death of sister, and hopefully pray for the return of the Lost Girls. The title does not only mean missing, it means lost within themselves, lured into thinking they were going to model and never realizing the horrors and brutal treatment that will come. Young teens need to be watched, guided and listen to when fears are within them, needing to fit in with others, being part of a popular group and parents need to pay closer attention to them. The epilogue makes you wonder: What is real? What is within a mind that is gone? Just what is truth? The Island of Lost Girls is a powerful, true to life account of what happens when young girls want more, take what they can get at their own expense. Mercedes teaches readers many lessons within her own world and actions as she hopes to save some Lost Girls herself.

Fran Lewis: Just reviews