2 out of 4 stars
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Heartaches 2, a romance novel by H.M. Irving, is an emotionally charged, vividly descriptive read. The second book in the Bad Boy Vibes series, it delves into the lives of Rafael Brown and Anna Simmons as they are faced with demons from their past and, with each acting as the other’s rock, follow a broken path of revenge, healing and love.
Anna Simmons is a survivor of rape and emotional abuse. Betrayed by the man she’d painted as the love of her life, and drugged to undergo a harrowing experience, she forms a kinship with a fellow ‘broken’ soul, Rafael ‘Rafe’ Brown. With the continued existence of their rapists the inescapable sword of Damocles in their life, the lovers decide to exact revenge in the hopes of meting out punishment and to prevent the similar victimization of another person by their enemies. With the aid of their friends, the two fight with a passion honed by treachery and love for the downfall of their foes. When a painful truth threatens to unravel their carefully constructed plans, Anna and Rafe must decide whether the strength of their togetherness is insurmountable or the combination of their brokenness will rip them apart.
H.M. Irving has created two broken people, tormented equally by living and phantom ghosts. The widely dominant theme of rape and abuse with all its accompanying effects, were, in my opinion, perfectly brought out in this novel, tying in with the characters’ interdependency and conflicting emotions. The idea of ‘broken’ souls forging a bond regardless of their background and probably because of this to last as ‘soulmates’ was also wonderfully conveyed.
One of the most interesting central points brought to life in this novel was the love-hate feelings experienced by victims of abuse with regards to their abusers. Both Anna and Rafe, despite having often negatively volatile responses at the mention of and in the presence of their rapists, still largely retain remnants of desire for their abusers. I thought this was a marvelous depiction of the dichotomous sentiments endured by abuse victims, notwithstanding how said victims feel contempt for themselves as a byproduct of these feelings.
At times, I felt that Anna and Rafe were mentally and emotionally conjoined twins. One separate from the other seemed to elicit in both a type of sanity deprivation visible in the incessant ramblings that pervaded the novel and seemed to constitute more than three fourths of the book. This caused the novel to have an apparent superficial quality because all that seemed to be discussed were Anna’s feelings for Rafe and Rafe’s feelings for Anna, rinse and repeat.
While reading Heartaches 2, I couldn’t help but admire the imagery broadcast in the novel, which appropriately assisted in the relating of the reader to the characters’ plights and emotions. I appreciated that, in spite of the contents of the above paragraph, perspectives from other characters were interspersed throughout the novel. Irving did so dexterously, choosing select momentous events in supporting character’s lives, such as Pat’s meeting with Dan and the subsequent prelude to his coming out to his parents. The cliffhanger reached the height of suspense, and undoubtedly roused my interest for the sequel.
Heartaches 2 was swamped with errors. From the prologue to the ending, there is a consistent presence of redundancies, omission of the articles ‘a’ and ‘the’, misspelling and misuse of words, overuse of ellipses and punctuation errors and an overall grammatical incorrectness. That being said, the writing style of Irving does not leave a lot to be desired, but the work seems to have not been properly edited, and so detracts from the finish of the novel.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. With the mentioned points in mind, I believe this is a suitable rating for Heartaches 2. I would recommend this to fans of dramatic, expressive books. I would not suggest it for readers who enjoy properly edited and event-rich novels.
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Heartaches 2
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