Bleeding Love

by Harleigh Rae

“The heart does things for reasons that reason will never know.” —Blaise Pascal.Emersyn Hale knew heartbreak more than she cared to admit. With unresolved issues surrounding the disappearance and death of her dearest friend, she finds herself planted in motion, with one focus. Justice. Her quest for justice fueled every move she made. Justice that she thought would feed her spirit, replenish her soul, and rid her of the guilt she’d harbored for 22 years. Blinded by the brim of her white hat, she goes deep undercover, but an assailant ambushes her justice crusade with a pursuit more powerful than justice. Love.Jai Wakefield is a retiree with nothing but time and money on his hands. He cultivates natural-born fighters with an ageless eye to unequivocally spot raw talent. An unlikely encounter lands him in the presence of his greatest contender, Emersyn. Where he once could spot a gem in a pile of hard rocks, he’s forced to apply the pressure to get her to see just how much she is worth.Two unsuspecting workaholics, Jai and Emersyn, know that the impact of life’s punches can leave you distorted and stumbling, but you can always bounce back. They don’t know that when love is on the ropes, all bets are off.

264 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 25, 2022

About the author

Harleigh Rae resides in Baltimore, MD, a hidden oasis of art and culture. She has been writing since she was old enough to firmly grasp a pencil between her thumb and pointer finger. A millennial influenced by the 90’s era that brought us some of the greatest love stories like Kinfolks, Blues Dancing, and, Rooms of the Heart she considers herself a culture-fed romantic.

On her ninth birthday, she sat alone in her bedroom, furnished with only 2 bunk beds and 2 four-draw dressers, reading a gifted copy of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, her pages only illuminated by the tiny stream of light from the streetlamp outside her window. She was amazed at how full of life the words on the page were. How they danced around in her mind, stirring up emotions of insecurity, complacency, and self-contempt that lay dormant even in her tiny nine-year-old capsule of repressed memory. At that moment, she realized the healing power of literature. She vowed to one day usher black women, much like herself with no prominent place in the world, into a place of loving, wholly.

That mission stuck with her throughout her educational pursuits. It’s what landed her at Coppin State University where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in English with a concentration in creative writing and a minor in African American Studies. Since graduating her time has been divided between teaching Pre-K literacy, writing black romance novels, and hand-making candles and teas that center the black romance reader’s experience.

As a black romance author of over 15 books and an avid reader of the genre, she has cultivated a deep commitment to breaking literary boundaries and obliterating genre norms by telling stories that fuse romance and reality to demystify the stereotypes surrounding black love. An early oeuvre of love stories written as an ode to love within you, her work speaks your deepest thoughts, fulfills your wildest fantasies, and echoes your quietest vibrations.


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Reviews

[Dédé]

Bleeding Love by Harleigh Rae is about undercover FBI agent Emersyn Hale and boxing gym owner Jai Wakefield. Let me start off by saying this story covers some extremely heavy content (I’ll place content warnings at the end of the review). Emersyn is undercover at elite bar “The Corner Office”, she’s been investigating this business for several years. Emersyn was a child boxer, somewhat of a prodigy before retiring early after the tragic loss of a childhood friend. Emersyn keeps in shape by sparring at Wakefield Gym which is where she meets Jai. Jai is immediately attracted to her and begins his pursuit. Emersyn plays him off despite her attraction. I would classify this book as a slow burn, it has a really slow start. While setting the scene, certain aspects were over-explained and others were overlooked, for example in the first half of the book you don’t see Emersyn do any detective work. There were a lot of moving parts which unfortunately caused important stuff to be lost in the shuffle. I found myself struggling to stay in the story, unfortunately I didn’t feel the chemistry between Emersyn and Jai. Their relationship feels underdeveloped. Emersyn begins underground boxing again in the story but halfway through the story that storyline is dropped. Supposedly Jai is training Emersyn but we aren’t privy to their practice sessions. At around 50% the story begins to pick up but unfortunately it still feels neither suspenseful nor romantic. However, you can see more of the moving pieces with regard to the case she’s investigating. The case is a heavy one, she’s been carrying the weight of it for years and you feel it as a reader. It stays with you even after the scene has changed. I enjoyed the last bit of the book, it’s a great example of how there’s sunshine after the rain.

CW~violence, death, sexual abuse, sex trafficking (minors), miscarriage, queerphobia
The content warnings provided by the author are more in-depth.