What Colin doesn’t know can’t hurt him.At least that’s what I tell myself about the secrets I keep. I don’t have a choice, not if I want to keep my daughter safe. And keep him Colin safe too. There are enemies in the shadows waiting to strike from all sides. I’m holding them out with my bare hands, but it’s hard not to get crushed in the process.And the truth has a way of coming out.If I’m not careful, the past I’ve been working so hard to hide, the pain I’ve been fighting so long to outrun, will wipe out the man I love.
Court’s Review
This is the first book I’ve read by this author and it won’t be my last.
Better When It Hurts is a very gritty and fairly dark read. The premise tells you exactly what you are getting into and doesn’t sugar coat anything. The story isn’t all rosy and pretty – it’s terrifying and gripping and you won’t be able to stop reading.
Lola does what she needs to do to pay the bills and keep a roof over her head. Blue has returned and wants nothing but to get what he is due from Lola. Blue doesn’t hide what he wants and Lola knows that she will give him whatever he wants, anyway he wants. The interactions between these two is real and raw – nothing is fancy or pretty. Without giving anything away outside of the blurb – what you see is what you get. Blue doesn’t change who he is because of a woman. It’s because of that one woman, he is how he is. Lola may have a new persona to everyone else, but Blue knows what and who is underneath her façade.
Skye does a fantastic job of painting the perfect atmosphere for this story. The Grand where both Blue and Lola work is an old luxury hotel stripped of it’s glory and turned into a strip club where sinners bask in their glory. Blue is an arrogant asshole who has been put their the ringer and back. Lola grew up in the same foster system as Blue and did what she had to in order to survive. Skye doesn’t mask the truth of their relationship or what happens between them.
“He’s beautiful and terrifying. He’s everything I loved and everything I’ve come to hate – a man who takes what he wants. Even if what he wants is me.”
If you enjoy darker reads, you will definitely enjoy this book. Skye does an outstanding job of writing this twisted love story. Not every love story is rainbows and sunshine.
I am looking forward to her next book in this series and will definitely be going back and reading the first one.
EXCERPT
The door slams open, and Blue strides into the room. A burst of sound follows him in the seconds before the door swings shut. I shrink back against the lockers before I can help it. That doesn’t stop him. It doesn’t even slow him down as he steps right into my space, just inches from my face, still breathing hard.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” His eyes are still wild from the fight, violence and victory mixed together.
I try not to flinch. “I wanted to…to talk to you about something.”
“How did you know I was fighting tonight?”
I’m not going to tell on Candy, even if he’ll figure it out as soon as he sees her here. Instead I bite my lip and try to remember the speech I was going to give him. “Congratulations?”
That wasn’t it.
He shakes his head. “No, Lola. This isn’t one of your little games. I’m not one of the men you can lead around by my dick. Not anymore.”
And then I do flinch, because the reminder of our past is too painful not to. “I’m not trying to lead you anywhere,” I whisper.
His lips curve into a cold smile. “No? You brought me here, didn’t you? Just you and me and the rest of the world locked out. You made that happen.”
Something pricks my eyes—tears. No no no. I can’t possibly cry in front of him. I don’t know why I’d cry at all. This is my life. I’m long past wishing for something different, aren’t I? I look down at the concrete floor so he won’t see me struggle.
Of course he doesn’t accept that. His fingers—sweaty and gloveless—lift my chin. “Why’d you come here, Lola?” His voice is suddenly lower and strangely seductive. Maybe that’s how fucked-up I’ve gotten, that cruelty turns me on. “What do you want?”
My fingers fumble as I pull the wallet from my back pocket. It’s still warm from my body as I hold it up. “This is yours. I stole it. I—I took it by accident.”
That wasn’t what I’d meant to say at all. I’d meant to explain the situation like it happened—that I’d woken up with the wallet in my bed. That I had no memory of it, but obviously there had been a mistake. I’d taken nothing from the wallet, no harm no foul.
Instead I’d stuttered like I was thirteen again, stealing everything I could slip into my pockets, confessing to my foster dad before he whipped me with his belt.
Blue takes the wallet from me, his expression speculative. It’s almost as if he’s never seen it before, even though I know it belongs to him. I rifled through his things, touched the stone-faced plastic image on his license. And he knows I invaded his privacy that way, just like I invaded his pocket when he brought me home.
He tosses the wallet onto a bench behind him, dismissing it. His hand lands on the locker beside me, blocking me in. His eyes meet mine. “You still steal.”
“No,” I say, but his wallet calls me a liar. Naturally he’d remember the worst thing about me. I’d helped him remember. “Not anymore. Not usually except…I must have been drunk or something.”
“You didn’t used to drink.”
“A lot’s changed.” I used to hate the taste of beer. It reminded me too much of foster brothers with groping hands and tongues. I still couldn’t touch the stuff, but every now and then I used alcohol to try and numb the pain. It was just a shame it never worked.
His gaze scans my body, unapologetic as it measures me, probes me, demands all my secrets. “I can see that.”
I shrug, pretending to be unaffected. No, I am unaffected, damn it. “You see more than this every night.”
“Less. When you’re naked up there onstage, that’s what you show to every man.” His eyes are hooded. “This is what you wore for me.”
AUTHOR BIO
Skye Warren is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of dark romance. Her books are raw, sexual and perversely tender. For those new to her work, consider the bestseller Wanderlust, Prisoner or the Dark Nights series starting with Trust in Me.
GIVEAWAY
The author is offering 1 e-copy of the first book, Love the Way You Lie, (both the books in the series can be read standalone) to each stop of the tour.
The giveaway ends June 19th.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
