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Friday, December 2, 2016

ARC Review: Craving by Helen Hardt


This is my first book by this author. I had no preconceived notions and truthfully no idea what kind of book this was going to be. I can honestly say I was presently surprised and patting myself on the back for picking this one.

My first impression of this book was nothing like my thought on the last page. The book starts out kind of like a sweet contemporary romance. I thought this was going to be the story of Jade redeeming Talon from his demons and loving him back to health. I thought they were both going to be each others redemption and ride off into the sunset. Jade had been left at the altar, Talon had battle demons, you can see where this is going right? Wrong! The first shock is that this is book 1 in a series.  I'm not sure how many parts it is but hopefully it is only 2 parts. I was not expecting that or the extremely steep cliff we get left hanging on at the end. SN: I'm not really into serials these days. I want instant gratification. I will only recommend a series if it was really good and this one is good enough.

As the story unfolds, you find out that nothing is quite what it seems. One of the most shocking things is that Jade is much stronger than she seems at first. Jade isn't taking any crap but somehow she is also secure enough to deal with Talon's brand of crazy. I loved how Jade threw herself in front of the moving truck that was Talon's total inability to cope with past trauma. Talon was a soldier but the source of his trauma is much deeper and much more disturbing than I saw coming at first. Talon has series issues that he has had for a long time. Jade is the only person who has been able to get close to him and at every turn he tries to boot her out of his life. The push and pull between these characters is intense times 10. Every interaction was like a slow build up followed by an explosion. It was really something to watch happen.  

Oh, and did I mention that the sex is filthy, dirty and hot? That is something I really wasn't expecting.  Jade had only had one partner so I didn't think she was up for the super hot nasty.  Talon was all semi-cray so I didn't know what that was going to be like. But omg, it all came together, a lot. I loved it.

Ok, a couple quick notes, Jade's first lawyer job is ridiculous and completely unreal. Sometimes Jade gave in to Talon and I wasn't sure it made sense. Talon crossed the line with his aggression a couple of times and I felt like what he needed was to be slapped, not screwed. Which brings me to my next point- part of Jade's strategy for dealing with Talon's issues is to give him her body. I'm not sure that was everything that he needed and many times in the book I wished Jade had pushed Talon more to open up or get help. Last note, nobody in this book can hear. Jade and Talon are banging away making all kinds of noise in a house with all kinds of people but no one ever discovered they were together. I'm just sayin...

I wished we could have gotten more answers in this installment but in the end you wind up with a good book and many many questions.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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