4 out of 4 stars
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Heartaches 2 by H.M. Irwing is the second book of a trilogy in the romance genre. This is a story of love mixed with lust and deceit. The story begins, as you would expect with a trilogy, where book one left off, to continue the story of Anna and Rafe. These two are in love and desperate to help each other overcome the horrific events each had experienced before meeting. They both had been drugged and raped by people they trusted. Anna, Rafe and their friends are on-edge and on-guard as the abusers/rapists, Eric Dayton (Rafe’s abuser) and the Prestions (Anna’s abuser/rapists) have returned and have seemed to team up. The abusers/rapists have had their reputations tarnished and who knows what kind of vengeance they may seek. Will evil triumph over good? Will Anna and Rafe’s love survive?
The author does a great job throughout book two to help the reader understand the events that were explained in book one. I did not read book one and was a bit lost when I first started reading but feel that I was given enough information throughout this book to catch me up and have me invested in the story. The characters of Anna and Rafe were developed in a way that had me cheering for them as individuals and as a couple. It was great to see the characters evolve throughout the story. Anna, begins to emerge as a stronger woman for all she has endured. She is still young and impulsive and at times lets her anger or demons drive her at times. Which is understandable with all she has been through, but she has grown enough to figure out the current and past relationships that have been more toxic than good and the ones that have been more good than anything else.
There really isn’t anything about the book that I would put in the negative column, but would like to recommend a warning for the series about the dark nature and graphic descriptions throughout. I feel that this may be hard to read for someone that has experienced sexual abuse. But at the same time, I feel it could also be a good read for the same people I would like to have the warning for. The author does a great job of showing how Anna has become stronger with the help of her good friend, Pat and the love of her life, Rafe.
I, myself, am on the fence about reading book 3 of the series. I am very interested to see if Anna and Rafe get the vengeance they have both desired but am not sure I want to venture back into the dark places that this one book has taken me. I would like to think that the abusers get what the deserve and Anna and Rafe live happily ever after.
I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. The dark nature is not my normal genre but the book was well written, the characters are well developed and it appears to have been professionally edited.
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Heartaches 2
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