Book Title: Better When It Hurts
Author: Skye Warren
Series: Stripped #2
Release Date: June 4th, 2015
Five years ago we lived in the same house. He was the ultimate bad boy. And my foster brother.
Now he’s back. Tougher, harder, meaner. All of it aimed at me, because I was the one who sent him away. It’s payback time. He wants his pound of flesh, and I am helpless to say no.
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{READ MORE FOR ALLISON'S REVIEW!}
Better When It Hurts sucked me in hook, line, and sinker within the first few pages. Here's the preface and I'll let you decide why...
A forbidden romance about pain that binds us together… Five years ago we lived in the same house. He was the ultimate bad boy. And my foster brother. Now he's back. Tougher, harder, meaner. All of it aimed at me, because I was the one who sent him away. It's payback time. He wants his pound of flesh, and I am helpless to say no.
I knew right away that this was a book I'd read in one sitting. That's not real conducive to my current life schedule but sleep be damned, I DID read it in a day (good thing it was shorter). It is the second book in the series, but it can really be read as a standalone. I liked the first book, Love the Way You Lie, but I freaking LOVED this. Skye Warren sets us up with a series that's definitely got some darkness, heroes that are a bit on the anti-hero side, and heroines that haven't had the easiest chances at life and are just trying to make due with the cards they've been dealt. On to the review...
Better When It Hurts depicts the story of Blue and Lola. Blue is a surly, massive bouncer at the strip club The Grand, where Lola is a stripper. We knew the two had some kind of history from reading book one, but had no clue how deep that history went. They were both kids in the foster system growing up. Foster siblings for a time- until the day Lola lied and had Blue sent away. Now he's back- for his revenge...
Lola is one of the toughest yet emotionally scarred heroines I've read in a really long time. I won't go into details on what she endures during all those years in the foster care system, but she does whatever she can do to survive. Unfortunately, this continues throughout life for Lola....
Lola and Blue's history is complicated at best. Before she betrayed him, he was one of the only people she's ever truly loved and trusted. Since then, her motto in life is self preservation. She lives with her former foster mom who suffers from dementia. Working as a stripper provides her the cash to pay for her dialysis and all their other bills. She constructs walls, a core, so thick, the johns at the club can't begin to penetrate it but Blue is another story...
"Some part of me is made of steel- a small, dark part. I'm a metal pipe covered in blood at my core."
Blue... his aspect of the book is what I devoured. Without the book even being in his POV, I was completely ensnared in his draw. He's clearly a man scorned. A man that feels Lola owes him for what she did. He wants his piece...yah. He wants her. For what she did, he deserves the chance to f*ck the hate away.
I do have to admit, Blue could be one cold bastard. But the reader feels his constant state of confusion between his deep-seated hatred towards Lola for the events five years ago...versus his insane lust for his first true love that was lost as a teenager.
“You’re going to walk down that hall and go inside my apartment. Then you’re going to strip. I don’t need to watch. I see you do that any night of the week. What I want is what comes after. You. On the couch. Facedown, ass in the air, ready to take whatever I give you.”
The plot-line is trickle fed, making the reader anxiously turn page after page trying to understand the events of five years ago. As much baggage as these two scorned, scarred people have, I couldn't help but to hope for a second chance at love between them. They both deserved their happily-ever-after. Together.
Better When It Hurts is the second book in the Stripped Series and is best read in order although it's NOT required. I'm looking forward to the next book with Candace and Ivan, the owner of The Grand. That man is one enigma.
Advanced copy received by author in exchange for my honest review.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Skye Warren is the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of dark romantic fiction. Her books are raw, sexual and perversely romantic.
Website: http://skyewarren.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skyewarren
Newsletter: http://www.skyewarren.com/newsletter
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