A Brutal Betrayal Tour Stop!

 Past. Everyone has one. It shapes the person they become. It determines the present. It even contributes to the future. And sometimes, people are thrown together in spite of it.

It was no secret that Megan Verona was raped. It crippled her being, turning her from a vibrant young woman to someone who feared intimacy. After years of struggling, she decided to seek help with a therapist, Declan Connors, in hopes of being able to finally have a relationship. Declan wanted to help Megan; he wanted to help everyone who sought his aid, but she was different. She consumed his thoughts until he could no longer deny his feelings. He hadn’t expected to fall for her and fall hard, but he did. It was a wonder when she returned some of his sentiment. But, like everyone, Declan also has a past, one riddled with pain and anguish, one he hadn’t fully dealt with.

If helping Megan brought out his own shadows, what did loving her do? How do both their pasts play a role in their future? Most importantly, can they conquer the past that threw them together?

The beginning of this story started out heart breaking.  Then the author took us to the place of recovery.  After that she gave us a beautiful love story, although I had an issue with it, which I will explain soon.  While comfortable in the love story, feeling the warm fuzzy feeling, she blindsided us with a twist that NO ONE saw coming and I was left enraged. 

Megan went out with her friend for drinks and dancing, two teenagers, both under 18, took the chance when a set of parents were gone to hit the bars and pretend to be grown up.  Megan found herself raped and left for dead. Years later she is referred to a new therapist after trying so many before.  She never felt a connection to those therapists because she is fearful of life and they all had relationships and families, until she met Declan.

He was new to this therapy career, after dealing with family issues that sent him reeling in life, he joined the military only to find more heart break and trauma in war.  Suffering from his own PTSD and loss of memory of parts of his past, he is starting over with his career and keeping close with his parents.  He takes Megan on as a client and finds that he is helping her make progress. 

So this is where I tell you what I had some issues with.  His form of therapy left me a bit upset.  He became involved personally with her while she was still seeing him for therapy.  I know for a fact that in the real world, you aren’t even supposed to strike a friendship up with each other till at least a year after therapy stopped.  Now that isn’t a real point since this is fiction, but while reading I continued to wonder if he wasn’t taking advantage of her and her trust. 

Next thing that ended up making me so angry was the big plot twist.  We have a beautiful romance going, hopes were high for me that Megan would find her dream come true and BAM………there it was.  Ok so I appreciated the twist, what made me angry was the ending of the book after that.  We spend over 70% of the book building the relationship and after the twist that happens, how do we as reader wrap our brain around the solution in only 10% of the book?  I would have been happier if we could have had the twist in the 50% range and give us the last half of the book to see the resolution to the problem instead. 

Even with my frustration in the book, I couldn’t give this book any lower than four stars because let’s face it the twist was brilliant and the writing style was excellent.  She kept me engaged and following along throughout the whole thing.  The development of the characters was so well done; it was very easy to empathize with Megan and Declan as they helped each other get past the ghosts and damage that was caused earlier in their life.  I would recommend this book, but with the warning to be prepared for some unethical practices in his therapy and a very rushed ending.  

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