*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*I had a tough time rating this one. It wasn't quite what I expected, though not in a bad way. It was an emotional and dark story about a broken girl, who hits rock bottom and tries to make her way back up and pick up all the shatter pieces.
There was some very heavy subject matter in this book that I found the author dealt with in an incredibly realistic way. It allows the reader to look at mental illness through the eyes of a girl that is dealing with a dark and painful past, and an uncertain future.
Georgia King
I was the girl no one should bring home to their parents. The hot mess every guy's mom warned them about
While recovering from a trauma that is disclosed later in the story, Georgia is staying with her brother, who is the coach of a hockey team. She then meets the new star player, Ben Lancaster.
What begins then is a very beautiful story of 2 very different people finding piece and love with each other. It is not necessarily a story of insta-love, though it is insta-lust. I really enjoyed the way that Georgia and Ben came together. There was some major sexual tension that took place.
"Do you feel this?" he whispered hoarsely. "You have to feel this. It can't just be me. There's no fucking way it can just be me."
I felt all of it. Every. Single. Bit of it.
It was an interesting reversal of roles that I typically don't find in books. In this case, we have Georgia being the one with the promiscuous and drug hazed past. Ben is very down to earth, and even though he was not this crazily possessive Alpha male that I have been reading lately, he had his very swoon worthy moments.
"There's no turning back now, Peaches. I can't promise that I'll fuck you nice and slow even though you deserve it, because babe, I'm already there. But I can promise that it will be hot. And you'll be screaming my name before it's done"
While I've read a few books in the past that dealt with mental illness, this book was still something else. The author painted the story of a woman dealing with something very painful and dark, but didn't merely scratch the surface. She did it in a very honest and realistic way without sugar coating. Georgia's past is not pretty, and the reader truly gets to experience it.
This was written in both Georgia's and Ben's POV, allowing the reader to get a better understanding of the characters.
There were a few things that were left unresolved, but I am assuming they will be taken care of in the next book.
There is no crazy cliffhanger (thank god! I don't think I can handle another one of those books without reading the 2nd right after), though the reader is left with many questions.
I can't say that I loved this book, there was still something that felt a little off for me throughout. I had a little trouble connecting to Georgia's character, since she was VERY different from what I typically read. I was going to rate this 3.5 stars, but given that I finished this hours ago, and I'm still thinking about, I can't give it anything less than 4.5.
If you enjoy NA Romance, you would want to give this a try. Yes it had a few kinks and a few characters and events that I found myself irritated with, but I found them to be very fitting to the plot and the overall bigger picture.
