Harper Reagan has been through
everything a woman could possibly go through. Losing her parents and
entering foster care, only to be abused by her foster father. Running
away at fifteen, she enters the world’s oldest profession to survive.
And survive she did.
Barely...
If
you call abuse, counted as property and tortured to no end surviving
then that was what she did…survived. Her life was spared, but at what
cost. Long ago Harper had died. Today, due to those decisions she made,
she is left existing with no choice to do anything else. Staring the
devil in the face daily for as long as she did, left its mark and pain
behind for her to live with forever.
The pain of that survival scars her deeper than any physical wound she's ever received.
Harper
is finally living a better life and has a great business, friends, and a
home finally her own. She will do anything to keep her past hidden,
including jeopardizing her only chance at love and a truly good man.
Breccan Caldwell is everything Harper doesn't deserve. He's gorgeous, successful, caring and a true gentleman.
Can Breccan show Harper who she truly is? Or will he be pushed out by the darkness she allows herself to be consumed with?
This
title fits this story so well. Although Harper does not deserve the
darkness, the author did a fabulous job at showing us why she did feel that
way. From the first page I was invested in Harper and her
happiness. The secondary characters were just as important to the
development of this story and I soon found I was just as connected with them as
I was with Harper and Breccan. While I learned enough about Breccan to
find an attachment, I still feel there is much more to learn about this man in
the next book.
Harper’s
life was a tragedy out of control. The loss of her parents at a young
age, abusive foster families and then a life of prostitution as a teenager
created this shattered and broken adult. Without Nikko finding her and
rescuing her from the clutches of an evil man, Harper would have surely
died. Now with a fresh start on life, owning a business and having a
couple of close friends, Avery and Brynn, she is determined to forget the past
and protect her identity. All was going great for her till Breccan
entered her bar one night and declared his passion for her.
Breccan
is a successful, rich playboy who could have any woman he wanted. On his
quest to find his “dove” he comes across the beautiful Harper and is surprised
when she won’t crumble at his feet. Determination continues to drive him
toward her, wanting to break down the walls she has built around her.
Stumbling through her emotional mind field he strives to learn what created the
scars on her body, why she is so afraid to be seen in public with him.
What will it take for him to gain her trust and allow him to love her?
As
the story progresses we see her lower the walls and let him in but they are
never really gone. A slight mismanagement of a situation could make both
of their worlds come crashing down around them. I was engulfed in their
story from page one. To see his patience at her unwillingness to submit
to him and her internal battle to give enough to him to keep him with her but not
enough to endanger his life was a well performed balancing act on the author’s
part. I can hardly wait to start the next book in this series and find
out if Harper and Breccan will get a happy ending or if life is going to take
away another piece of her soul.
I
was blown away with the talent from this author. She had all of my basic
requirements in this book. She captured my heart in the first chapter,
making me emotionally invested in the story. The intensity was on high
level but not over the top where I felt mentally drained. The plot ran
smooth and was consistent and she left me with enough of a cliff hanger that I
wanted more, but not enough that I felt manipulated. She is by far one of
the top new authors I have experienced this year and I will be looking for more
of her work after I finish this series.
Darkness Deserved
Friday night at the bar was busy. Every table was full all night and the bar was packed as well. I couldn’t have been happier. It was ten o’clock as I was making my rounds through the crowd checking tables and helping Emma, Beth and Mya, my waitresses, out.
I had just finished setting down a round of shots at a table full of sorority girls and turned around to go back to the bar, when I felt a tingle start at the top of my head and move toward my groin. When it settled and my clit began to throb I just knew. I knew it was my Adonis.
Here at last.
Dammit.
I was hoping I could just go through life without this temptation. It’s okay Harper. You wore your big girl panties tonight so quit being such a fucktwat and grow a pair. I make my way to the bar as if I notice nothing and set the tray down for Mark and Rory, my bartenders tonight.
I head towards the end of the bar to take care of some orders I need to make, when I feel his presence beating against me from behind. It’s like he already owns my body. My skin begins to tingle, my heartbeat speeds up, and my breathing becomes shallow as I try to control it. I can feel the vein in my neck throbbing relentlessly. On the outside I know I appear composed and nonchalant, but inside- inside- I feel ready to burst.
I just want Adonis to grab me, throw me on the bar and fill me as I know only he can at this moment. He brings both arms around me so that his hands are resting on the bar and he has me trapped between it and himself. He leans in and I can feel his breath wash over my exposed neck. I inhale his scent: soap, Armani and Adonis. God, I want him to bend me over. A million different scenarios run through my mind of how to close down the bar so I can please this man.
And that’s when I stop and ice runs through my veins. I spent four years pleasing men. I was not going down that path again.
The repercussions of Harper’s past
meeting her present have left her breathless and lost. She continues to
fight an internal war with herself. Can she let the love Breccan has
offered into her life? Or was she right to push him away for his own
good?
As Harper struggles with this internal battle, will her past find her and tear down everything she has built?
Will Harper ever find her happily ever after?
Read the conclusion of the Shattering the Darkness Series.
Oh
what can I say about this follow up book to Darkness Deserved, except pure
perfection. The book starts off where she left us in book one, Harper and
Breccan are both devastated over the break up but neither will make the first
move to rectify the problem. Breccan feels Harper needs to learn to trust
him and come back on her own will, Harper sees the danger of having him in her
life and refuses to risk him for her happiness. I felt the beginning was
a bit slow for my taste, but then I realized that some would appreciate this
refresh telling of book one due to the time between reading books. I had
the chance to read them together at one time so for me it was more repetitious.
Thanks
goodness her friends know more than she is willing to admit and helps the
process along. Now that we see them together we can celebrate their
happiness, but that won’t last long. The nightmares don’t stop for
her. Worse than that, they have now mixed her past together with her
future. That dreaded day comes when the threats start, the reality of her
past attacker has come clear and she is left to decide if she has had enough
running and hiding, looking over her shoulder to see when the past would attack.
Does she have it in her to fight for her future with Breccan and the freedom
she craves?
We
learn more about Harper’s past and who was behind the scenes in rescuing her
ten years ago. As she begins to tell Breccan who and what she is it was
almost as if she were taking away a layer of the mask she hid behind.
Breccan, while I was fictionally in love with him in the first book, won even
more of my heart as I watched him respond to her past story. Side note
here to give kudos to the author. Breccan would have had every right to
run for the hills after hearing what Harper went through, but he didn’t.
What I adore about how this author played it out was he was acting like a real
man. She allowed him to have the thoughts that we would assume a man
would think and didn’t cover it up with the idea he has to be the perfect alpha
man who will never wonder or feel insecure about her truth. Did he feel
those emotions yes and we as the reader knew it, but he stood firm and loved
her. I loved this part of the book, there was no shame in him being
human and wondering about where that will fit in with his relationship with
Harper.
It
was the type of story that you needed to grab the tissues, yank your big girl
panties on and keep moving through because there was just no way I would have
been able to just stop and never know what happens to them. It was a love
story. You saw a story of survival and determination. What I took away
most was this is a story of victory. Her shattered and beaten soul finally
found the courage to think she deserved better and she was willing to fight for
it. That is true victory and I am so happy the author took the time to
develop it in this story.
Prologue
It’s been years since I lived and breathed this way. Years since I had to wonder what would happen next. I’ve been lucky; living the good life and having whatever I wanted. I suppose I couldn’t really have it all; too greedy. It was never about money, though….
It was about being out of this life, having something more.
Living.
I don’t know if Nikko and Breccan know yet what has happened, or if they can even do anything about it. I imagine they will try and I hope they succeed, but how in the hell are they even going to find me? I don’t even know where I am or how I got here. How can two people that weren’t there do anything about it?
I look around the mostly dark room. The walls are a grayish color which looks to be from stains to the once white walls. The carpet is dark, almost a greenish color. There is a small bed in the corner with a table and a lamp that hardly sheds any light in this room. It smells musty in here, like a cemented basement.
Maybe it is a basement.
I was unconscious when they took me and woke up in this room.
I sigh and sit up on the bed so that I am facing the door. My hands are still tied with nylon rope and my wrists are raw, so it hurts to move them too much.
The door starts to open and I watch.
He walks in with the same grimy smile he always had.
I hate you!
He walks closer to the bed, looks down at me and says, “Hey, babe. You’ve been busy. Looks like it’s time to pay your dues. Pants off. Now.”
Jessica grew up in a small town in Southern Iowa. She went to nursing school and became a nurse only to realize her passion was in writing and reading. She loves to spend her time with friends and is very close with her family. It took her a long time to realize she even had a joy of reading. Once having declared there was no point when the books always became movies. At twenty four she discovered how wrong she was and became obsessed with reading and made up for lost time by doing it nonstop. She began writing when dozens of ideas kept flowing through her mind that she knew she had to get out.
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