I really enjoyed this book. But it left some things unanswered. Basically both main characters had abusive childhoods at the hands of their parents. They both sought help from the adults in their lives and both were made to appear as self distructive liars by they're parents. At ectremely young ages, where that shouldn't even be possible to be honest! But they were both dismissed as "problem children" and literally left to live in the hells of their parents' making.
So they meet, the MMC falls hard and first, even though he was in the middle of having sex with another woman when he meets the FMC. The FMC understandably, doesn't want anything to do with him and so we get this couple dancing around each other for the first 60% of the book. The first 25% was a rehash of what we already saw in book one, which I hate(!), as it is a huge amount of wasted page count (and my time) rereading the same thing I already read before, and it's just plain boring doing that. I understand that the author is writing it this way so they can be read as standalones, however she wasted her time as the entire series is so entertwined that you really can't escape reading these books in order as a complete series.
The next 50% or so is this couple dating, getting to know each other, while still not owning their individual histories or sharing it with each other. This part I liked as we see them being a couple. Then the MMC finds out what started the FMC's life down her path to abuse and tells her. She runs off for a couple of weeks and goes no contact with the MMC which leaves him to spiral.
During this time, the FMC is getting her closure from her family and putting them behind her, but the MMC is struggling because he is being pressured by the very people who abused him and or by the people who failed him. So while he is desparate for the FMC as she is his safe harbor, he cheats by getting a blowie from a past sex partner/CW/sweetbutt. This was how he used to handle all these stressors in the past and so he fell back without meaning to. Unfortunately for him, the FMC walked in on it, as it was happening and he didn't know. The FMC walked away basically breaking up with him without the conversation or confrontation and the MMC freaks out afterward planning to make sure the FMC never finds out.
Shocker(!), the MMC is busted and he determines to get her back. The FMC refuses him time and time again. But then the MMC BEGS her to help him with his family when his father (one of his abusers) threatens to get him booted from the club, if he doesn't return to his family home (where his main abuser is). The MMC reveals his history to the FMC in order to get her assistance with this showdown, and I was HERE FOR IT!! The FMC was struggling without him because she truly loves only him and is wondering if a blowie was worth giving up what they could have. However, while she agreed to be there for the MMC she was still holding her line, that they weren't a couple anymore. We readers know it's only a matter of time of course.
The show down happens, and I'm just flabergasted that the MMC's father just REFUSED to believe anything that was said! I was like, WTF!?! The FMC confronts everyone and calls them all out but right when someone was about to get beat, she decides to leave the MMC to handle the rest on his own. Another WTF moment if ever there is one.
Anyway, the confrontation gets halted as the MMC gets called back to handle a mission with his SEAL family (his true family), and so he leaves for a month or so. During that time the FMC out of fear of the dangerous life he lives and how he might just not come back one day basically gets back together with the MMC, without him even being there(!), LOL. I found this to be funny AF and quite believable. When he returns they FINALLY have sex, the FMC looses her V card and viola(!) they are truly a couple again. This was somewhere in the 75% mark.
The rest of the book kind of flies by, but they never discuss why the MMC cheated and how it was really triggered by his abusers and the FMC's abandonment, so I feel like that was left hanging as a missed opportunity. The next thing is the FINAL confrontation with his last abuser who happens to be from an enemy club that they had been hunting down due to the rape of a side character in book one. This guy admits to the MMC's entire club what he did to the MMC since he was 10years old and with the help of and permisson from the MMC's evil stepmother! We already knew this by this point in the book but I'm just writing it that way for dramatic affect, lol.
But the real shocker here is that, the MMC's FATHER STILL DOESN'T BELIEVE IT!
What.
The.
Actual.
Fuck!!
Like for real, WTF!??! So the MMC tells them all what happened to him, the evil pervert tells them all what he did to the MMC and what he did with the evil stepmother whenever the father was out of town, and the evil stepmother gave herself away with her words and her reaction to everything. And the Father still didn't believe it! Only when video footage was found on the perverts phone of the MMC as a child and of the evil stepmother and all she did, did the Father and all the hold out brothers finally acknowledge the truth of it. The hold out brothers were all the adults who failed the MMC as a child, basically the older almost retired brothers who just let it all happen, and who in one way or another contributed or were complicite in the MMC's abuse. This was so sad to read honestly. Because I felt the betrayal wasn't over with the reveal. I felt that they truly just didn't want to admit they were wrong and would have rather kept calling the MMC, their VP, a liar than to admit the truth!
This just made them truly ugly to me. It also left me hanging with no answers because we never hear the father apologize or have that OMG moment of "What have I done?!", on page. He just doesn't fight the accusations anymore. We find out what happens later in the book that the father couldn't even be bothered to avenge his son, with regards to his wife the evil stepmother. He just kicks her out with no money and acts like she doesn't exist. I'm left asking, "That's IT!?!?". They don't have her arrested, she doesn't get beat to a pulp, well she does get a little bit of a beating by a couple of the old ladies, but NOT in anyway enough of one. So really she gets off with a slap on the wrist in my book.
The FMC has a life threatening event in the last part of the book that also sets up book three in the series and a couple others. The Father tries to help the MMC but it comes off as he is trying to take advantage of the situation and worm his way into the MMC's life without doing any work or making any effort to right his wrongs. Anyway, the main couple finally have their HEA, and I want more! LOL. That's a sign of a good book, but I do have to let everyone know that the grammar issues are still present. The british colloquialisms litter the story and make it hard to accept that it's a American MC being written about. Doesn't the UK have MC's of their own to write about?? I would love to read about them if they do!! Just saying, write what you know, especially if you aren't going to try to get it right. It's still a super interesting story and I am looking forward to the rest of the series. Just understand that this author needs serious editing help, and that should help you enjoy her work better going in. Enjoy.