“I’d give you the world if I could. I’d kill for you; I’d die for you. But the one thing I won’t do for you is stay.”
Anna Brooks dazzles once again with an enthralling romantic suspense tale about two worlds colliding and the noble sacrifices one man makes in the name of love!
From the moment 16-year-old Jessa locked eyes with enigmatic loner Ty in history class, she was instantly smitten. There was just something about him, a powerfully magnetic lure that could not be denied. "He has to feel that. The connection. The spark. It’s undeniable, and it’s something that I don’t think will ever be comparable with anyone else.” Yet every time she tried to get close to the infuriatingly aloof boy from the wrong side of the tracks, he would swoop to the rescue then vanish without a trace.
Over the next decade, her dark savior would mysteriously pop in and out of her life, jumping into the fray when she needed him the most, but never stick around for long. But even in the fleeting stolen moments they shared, their attraction was all-consuming and EXPLOSIVE!
Although Ty knew he'd never be good enough for Jessa, he vowed to protect her to his last breath. And that vow came to a shattering fruition one fateful night when a precarious situation turned deadly and he took the fall for his beloved. He tragically spent six long, torturous years locked up in jail for a crime he did not commit, but never regretted it for a single moment.
“I’d do a lifetime in here if it meant keeping her safe.”
When he finally was sprung from prison and they were thrust into each other’s orbits yet again, their passion burned brighter than ever. But being together was even more treacherous. Ty was cavorting with some dangerous criminals and knew a good girl like Jessa could never survive in his tarnished world.
“Jessa’s the only pure thing in my life. Her sheer beauty is enough to make my dirty heart clean again.”
For as badly as he wanted to see her happy, being together was still an impossible dream. So why couldn’t he stay away? Why did the idea of another man standing beside her, holding her, kissing her sweet, luscious lips incite a raging fury through him? And Jessa was equally conflicted. She was getting fed up of pining for a man who disappeared out of her life in the blink of an eye, leaving her to pick up the shattered pieces of her heart, but she too was powerless to resist their blazing attraction. And with the escalating threats that darkened their doorstep, Ty’s strong, sheltering arms were the only place she truly felt safe.
“All I’ve ever wanted is to be with him. To have him possess me in ways I’ve only dreamed.”
But when the danger finally catches up with them, and Jessa is forced to make an impossible choice, the fallout could be catastrophic!!
Ahh...the angst! The passion and peril! The torturous, star-crossed love! Anna Brooks has an innate gift for hooking the reader into the hearts and psyches of her characters from page one, and I was captivated by this story throughout. This book was chock full of ELECTRIFYING sparks, intense feels, drama, treachery, numerous twist and turns, and edge your seat excitement. The overarching plot was seamless and reached a shattering climax that left me breathless!!
There is nothing more intoxicating for me than a brooding Alpha protector who sacrifices everything for the woman he loves, and Ty fit the bill perfectly. Holy moly did I ADORE this hero!! He was such a delicious “manly man”…strong, macho, ruggedly sexy, fiercely possessive, noble to the core, and so sweet and doting with Jessa he melted my heart. There was absolutely nothing he wouldn’t do for the woman he loved!! But he’d had a very difficult upbringing that tainted his life. Growing up with a hooker for a mom skewed his perception of reality and he learned at an early age that thieving and hustling was his only means of self-preservation. So while he absorbed her light, her beauty, her strength, deep down he knew their worlds could never mesh. He tried to do right, the noble, thing. But it backfired. Big time.
“I tried to stay away from you, but you kept running back into my life.”
In an ironic twist, as much as she thought he saved her, in reality she saved him too, over and over again. Sighhhh! How utterly romantic is THAT?!! Yet life was far from a bed of roses for Jessa and Ty and I was constantly gripped with fear of what horrible thing would befall them next, courtesy of baddie gangster Marco who had Ty in his pocket. But, of course, true love eventually triumphs over evil!!
All in all, I truly relished this suspenseful, emotion-packed romance!! However, it took me a little while to connect with this couple because of all the stops and starts along the way. I just didn’t quite feel the whole instant “two souls coming together” love from the onset. It seemed a bit forced in the beginning and I did not feel it on a visceral level until a third of the way in. But as the romance progressed, and I realized where the gifted Ms. Brooks was headed with this innovative story, I did eventually fall under the irresistible spell of this star-crossed duo and was on pins and needles hoping they'd get their hard earned HEA!!
So if you are looking for a hyper-sexy, gritty romantic suspense tale with a to-die-for Alpha hero, sassy heroine, heartachy feels, and drama galore then I cannot recommend this book highly enough!