3 out of 4 stars
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Relationships in the midst of romance, conspiracies, and revenge come under scrutiny in Heartaches 3 by H.M. Irwing. It's the author's third installment in the Bad Boy Vibes series. It's a gripping emotional tale, as much mental as it is physical, about Anna Simmons, a chubby eighteen-year-old with a sad case of the "poor me" sob story being loved separately by two experienced and suave brothers.
The novel begins with Anna lying on her bed in an agonizing moment and in a trance-like state. Her condition reflecting the current intrigues in her life. After a long spell of abuse, Anna had been loved by Matt Preston. She had then proceeded to pour her heart out to him - confiding in him her darkest secrets; yet now, she has realized that that confidence had been one-sided as he hadn't told her his. The lack of trust had thus driven her to fall in love with Rafael Brown-Preston (Rafe), an elder step-brother to Matt.
The plot of the novel is quite intricate. Anna falls in love with the two stepbrothers for different reasons. The elder discovers this and metes violence on the younger. But it's not that simple. Matt had given in to an earlier plan hatched by their father, Peter Preston, to all, excepting Rafe, rape Anna. This was to spite Anna's brother, Brian, who owed quite considerable sums of drug money to Peter and Eric Dayton, a drug lord. On another angle, Captain Eric Dayton was the boss of Rafe in their war in Syria. Eric's machination had led to the death of a soldier that Rafe was in charge of and a brother to someone not to be messed around with, Ned. Thus the battle lines have now been drawn for an ultimate showdown.
Rafe's character is likable. Not only is he the protagonist and hero, but he's also strong-willed even to the point of resisting the urges of being a Preston. Something that, surprisingly, his half-brother, Matt, admires when he says: "He'd already had a blessed existence away from his biological father, Peter Preston." Anna is the femme fatale having "evenly formed pearly white teeth." However, it was even more uncertain which held more appeal - the beauty of her smile or "the emeralds of her gaze." Despite her initial inexperience, she is a quick learner and exquisite in her mastery who "brings him easily down to his knees with one careless flick of her sweet tongue." Brian, her step-brother, on the other hand, is a high school dropout who has slow wits and was forced to work for the Prestons due to doubling up debts. Peter and Eric are easily the villains in the story. Brian whom earlier had been taken in as a son by Peter, comes to regret it later when he comes to discover what Peter has been putting his sons through. On his part, Eric is so evil that when the army sent him off to fight in Syria, Brian felt sorry for the Syrians as they had no idea what evil Eric was capable of.
I would say the author's pacing is fast from the beginning to the end of the book. At the opening chapter, we are treated to a drawn-out fight pitting Matt and Rafe over Anna's affection. This scene is played out as Anna's nightmare and sees the reader experiencing the emotions Anna has for each of these two men. This prolongs the provocative encounter and makes the reader eager to know what will happen next or who will win the duel. The tone in the novel ranges from fiery and heightened, like the duel just described, to happy and optimistic, like during the romantic and wedding scenes.
On the weaknesses, the book does not seem to be professionally edited as I came across over ten errors, including grammatical, wrong use of words and confusing sentences. On the showdown at end of the book, I also found it too rushed and lacking in enough detail for it to be enjoyable or even credible. Nevertheless, it does bring matters to a close nicely and ease up the build-up tension. On the positive side, however, the novel highlights themes that our current society grapples with, such as drug trafficking, rape, homosexuality, child abuse, war, sadomasochism and nudity in public places. It is a book that I will recommend to those who love romance novels. However, there are also explicit scenes on sadomasochistic behavior and the promotion of homosexuality which will make this book a good fit for a mature audience only. Because of the poor editing, I rate the book 3 out of 4 stars.
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Heartaches 3
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