2 out of 4 stars
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Anna Simmons and Rafe Brown have both been through hell. Broken and victimized, each has their demons, enemies, and nightmares to face. When the justice system they have put their faith in fails them, they discover fighting for justice on their terms can make the difference between remaining a victim and becoming a survivor. The question soon becomes do they fight together, or alone?
Heartaches 2, the second installment of the Bad Boy Vibes series, by H.M. Irwing creates a beautiful and poignant narrative of abuse, survival, and moving forward with hope. Filled with heart wrenching chaos, but also humor, love, friendship, action, and moments of spite and revenge, I can gladly say this book packed a punch I was not expecting.
While this novel is the second of a series, I did not feel completely out of touch by reading it as a standalone. In fact, the author weaves flashbacks and references throughout the story just enough to remind past readers of what has happened while informing new readers of details without creating a dragging pace. This, combined with character dialogue and interactions, resulted in plot depth and character development that was surprising for an erotic romance novel. It is important to note that the work had moments of unpredictability and freshness, but also had small moments that I could easily recognize where the story was headed. Because of the moments of predictability and the suddenly rampant, random, and sometimes unemotional sex scenes in the second half of the book, my spirits fell the longer I read. Despite this, I often felt excited reading, especially the first two thirds of the novel, and think many readers could also appreciate the work.
Heartaches 2 has a page-turning effect and an air of being “unputdownable” that eventually became too much of a good thing, like too much candy creating a painful cavity. The latter part of the book was nonstop drama and I found myself having to take a break from reading merely because I was reminded of a soap opera. Some revelations and plot twists had seemingly no root in the story – just appearing out of nowhere, and it made it hard to stop and savor the anticipation and results.
I enjoyed H.M. Irwing’s Heartaches 2, but the content in later chapters paired with occasional writing errors resulted in my weighing the pros and cons of the story and my rating for quite some time. With this in mind, I give this book 2 out of 4 stars due to a story that began wonderfully, albeit with some errors, but became both overly complicated and less interesting. My advice to future readers is, be prepared for plot tangles, drama, and possible triggering themes.
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Heartaches 2
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