Harrison (The Level #1)
By: V.R. Tennent
ARC Review
5 stars
Harrison is the “almost bad boy” that you didn’t know you needed in your life. He was essentially orphaned as a young child, his mother dying, and not knowing who his real father is, he was sent through the child care services system, with nothing working out due to his attitude until he reaches what the system considers “the end of the line”, he would be stuck there whether he behaved or not. The man who abandoned Harrison on the side of the road tied up, he is the man who has been the villain in Harrison’s story since he was young, the man who took his mom from him, and made her do things that nobody should have to do. The Chase family ended up finding Harrison on the side of the road and rescuing him, Mr. Chase, the father continues to visit Harrison, as he sees promise in the young boy after his two sons find him on the side of the road. Eventually Mr. Chase is bringing his sons to visit Harrison and then eventually bringing Harrison to the house, where he meets Violet.
From day one, Harrison and Violet have a connection unlike any other, but she is off limits. He is made aware of this to the extreme, and Violet is made aware as well, that Harrison is off limits. This doesn’t stop the two from becoming intimate right after Violet turns 18. Harrison panics and goes radio silent and before you know it Violet has left the house and ends up meeting and falling in love with Aiden, who she then follows all the way from London to Chicago to start a life with him.
It isn’t until 14 years later while watching the new Violet learns that she has been the other woman for all this time, and Aiden has a wife and two boys. She runs away, back to what was once her home in London, and right back into the arms of the boy who stole her heart many years ago, back to the boy, who is very much all man now. But, Violet is keeping a secret that will upend everyone’s lives around her. She is carrying the child of the man she ran from. She is not welcomed back with open arms either, and takes to working at a gentleman’s club to earn a living, until Harrison finds her there and drags her bratty self back to reality. Her brothers are not happy to see her, and Harrison is hesitant to open his arms again, knowing that the woman standing before him holds his heart and she is strictly off limits.
What they don’t know is that Aiden will follow Violet back to London, and everyone tries to do everything in their power to protect her and the baby once they find out who Aiden truly is. He is working with Violet’s father, a man who refuses to do right by his daughter, and only what is best for his business, and promises her back to Aiden to marry him and return back to Chicago. Harrison refuses to allow this to happen after Aiden shows up at his door and violently attacks the woman he loves, despite knowing she is also carrying his child. Harrison and Violet’s brothers, along with a few of their friends to keep Violet safe until the threat of Aiden and her father can subside some.
This was a phenomenal book, and is very different from the usual mafia romances you read. Harrison isn’t actually “in” the mafia, he just works with/for some of them as a lawyer. From day one, despite his fear and trepidation, you can very much tell what Violet means to him and that once he can get past all the roadblocks, he will stop at no end to be with her and raise her baby as his own. I cannot wait until the next book in the series! Something about the “lost, but found again love” just does it for me. Violet and Harrison’s story is beyond beautiful.