by S.L. Jennings
Genre: New Adult/Contemporary Romance
Published on: 5/26/15
I’d like to tell you that I’m ok.
That the meaningless sex with countless women has somehow numbed the pain. That it’s deciphered the constant confusion in my head. Eased the self-hatred that sinks into my gut every time I look in the mirror.
I’d like to tell you that time heals all wounds.
That we evolve and grow into well-adjusted, stable adults, set on a path to right the world’s wrongs. That we are not our past…we are not our pain.
I want to tell you all those things. Hell, I want to believe all those things. But I’d be lying. I’m good at that. Living a lie is the only way I truly know how to survive.
But the day I saw her, I stopped surviving. I stopped existing. And for the first time in 24 years, I started living.
She brought me back to life. Set me free and sent my soul soaring. Made this useless shell of a man feel like…something. Something whole and real and good.
She saved me.
Although she believes I wasn’t even worth saving.
My Rating: 5 Coffee Cups!!
S.L. Jennings does it again. Seriously. If you've read anything by her you know that this woman knows exactly where the strings of your heart exist and knows exactly how to tug on them for maximum effect. I LOVED Fear of Falling. It was one of my top 5 reads of 2013 when it came out. And while reading Kami's story, as invested as I was with her and Blaine (and I was VERY invested) I gave a little piece of my heart away to Dom really really hoped that he would get his own story.
Oh quick side note- Although this is Dom's story it also keeps you fully in the loop with Kami and Blaine's happy ending. It serves as a background to what is going on in Dom's life. And with how intertwined he, Kami and Angel are it's really no surprise.
Back to my current obsession.
Dominic Trevino is a beautiful, caring, confused, broken man. Taken advantage of at a young age by a man who was supposed to love and care for him, his concept of what love is supposed to be was intensely and irrevocably altered. When it goes into detail about what exactly his uncle did to him, my heart shatters. Dom is such a strong friend to both Kami and Angel and to read what was done to him it strikes a chord with me. He's been their rock, so to see the anguish and struggle he deals with on a daily basis guts you. But he goes through the motions the only way he knows how, usually with a lot of meaningless sex with a lot of meaningless women. Most of which he picked up at the local strip club.
Enter Raven West. Literally. He first sees Raven waitressing at said strip club and makes quite the impression. That impression being intense and immediate hate on sight. She despises him and it only took her mere moments. And then enter Raven again. This time through the doors of his child mentoring job. With a young boy with selective mute-ism. Oh and have I mentioned she has a little secret she's keeping about our Dom?
This story takes you through Dom and Raven's emotional roller coaster. Mostly Dom's. He has so many issues with rejection and fear and love that he needs to work through and it seems as though Raven is just who and what he needs. She unintentionally hurts him on more than one occasion (which upsets me. Fictional character or not, I am very protective of him) but it only helps him to discover how to become the man he is meant to be. He needs the hurt to learn and grow and come out of hiding so to speak. He needed to face his demons head on to know that he is strong enough to conquer them. To know that he is not the broken young boy his uncle created.
As cliched as this will sound, I laughed, I cried, I public ugly cried and then I immediately emailed S.L. Jennings thanking her for taking me on these character's journeys. It is that wonderful of a story.
Grab it up on AMAZON NOW!!
Excerpt
It was if my body had known what my soul needed to mend itself from the verbal assault that had left me open and bleeding. Sex was that healing balm for me. And this was exactly the place where I could find it.
None of the dancers here were prostitutes, and I never paid to get laid. Ever. They fucked me because they wanted me. And I fucked them because I needed them. It was an even trade.
Contrary to popular belief, I didn’t stick my dick in just anything, and other than Cherri, had only been intimate with two other girls there: Skylar, a hot sophomore at UNC Charlotte, stripping her way through college, and Velvet, a tattooed, purple-haired vixen from England who fucked like a porn star and cursed like a sailor.
Right now, I needed Velvet. If anyone could make me forget the last twenty minutes, Raven’s razor-sharp words and myself, it was her.
My legs carried me inside, despite the numbness I felt. I didn’t want to be here, but I needed to be. And once I had the soft silkiness and warmth of a woman’s skin against me, I’d feel a helluva lot better. Luckily, Velvet was there for a day shift, working the lunch crowd in her usual getup of velvet and chains. Today she wore a cut-out thonged romper that left little to the imagination. And that was fine by me. I was tired of thinking anyway.
“Hey love,” she smiled as I approached. Her lips were painted a deep, dark eggplant purple that almost looked black. I’d have the color smeared all over me within the hour, most of it in places invisible to the public.
I didn’t waste any time. I didn’t have it in me to go through the motions and pretend I was here for anything other than sex. I leaned in close to her ear, letting my lips brush her earlobe in that sensual way I knew would get her hot, and whispered, “Back room in 10.” Then I quickly made my way to the bar to slam a shot of tequila.
She was there when I arrived, lounging on a plush loveseat with her heeled boots propped up on the arm. She looked at me with sin gleaming in her heavily lined eyes and gave me a slow, Cheshire grin. “Someone’s awfully anxious today.”
I was already loosening my tie as I stalked towards her and said, “Clothes off, boots on and get on your knees.”
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