1 out of 4 stars
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Heartaches by H. M. Irwing tells the story of Anna Simmons, opening up with a very poignant issue: she is raped by three men. She later connects to Rafael "Rafe" Luis Brown, who harbors a similar secret of his own from the time in the military, and he seeks to help her resolve the issue. Also, there’s some sex, so if you want that? Yeah, sure, go for it, just make sure to tread carefully because there are multiple rape scenes explicitly written out.
I want to be nice and sugar coat this review, but honestly? I was not a fan. Reading Heartaches gave me a heartache, and not in a good way like after reading a good tragedy. The story wasn’t fun, it didn’t keep me interested, and there were errors scattered around like confetti.
Anna starts out as your typical erotica lead - big boobs, big butt, man I’m so pretty! And she’s also dumb as a rock, which she straight up admits to in the book. Rafe is slightly more tolerable and yet still not anyone I would feel remorseful over never having even read of him, even though he becomes Anna’s love interest as the book hits the mid-late point.
The writing itself is pretty lackluster and it tries so hard to be decent by fluffing out sentences with a lot of words, sometimes to the point of being confusing. Early on in chapter 1 we get the phrase “her chest stacked packed on the rack.” What does this mean? Help me, I am confused. Further in on the same chapter there’s “Your Dad of course was the unique exception, and the risks in proving that not the exception but the rule, is too great” which also reads awkwardly. We also have mountains of explanations of how Anna’s stepbrother Brian is abusive, but it’s hardly ever shown - in the end, he’s painted more of a manipulative, evil little man, but rarely does anything himself. Further on in chapter 2, there’s the incorrect mistake of the writing switching into first person point of view for a moment, and then later on there’s a point where her feet are referred to in the singular. By the time I hit chapter 14 and saw the line “her dream cum true” I wasn’t sure if it was a play on the scene being a sexy time scene or just a typo!
Now, we’re all here for talk about how juicy the steamy sex scenes are, right? They’re okay, honestly. If you get off on non consent, they can be kind of hot, maybe. But then there are scenes where it sounds so impossibly likely to happen that I was left flabbergasted at times. Did Anna blow a dude while he was driving? Yes. Did she do it while also getting banged doggy style? Yes! How was it done in a car? Don’t ask me and please don’t try to replicate this on the road.
Other characters are just as unlikable, if not more so. The (female) police officer that Rafe gets to assist Anna with the case is jealous of her and actively goes claws out towards her, breaking any professionalism that comes with the role. Anna’s mother is meek and rolls over for the majority of the book, and Anna’s friend (barely mentioned) gets maybe 15 lines of dialogue.
Weak characters, weak writing, and a plot that could have had potential squandered by both. I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars.
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Heartaches
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