March 5, 2015

REVIEW: Vandal (Ashes and Embers #2) By, Carian Cole




She takes my breath away; she is so beautifully damaged.

Yes I had broken her, ravished her life, destroyed her happiness. I brought her to ultimate despair. I was responsible for all the pain and suffering that now brought her to her knees in front of me.

Broken.
Hopeless.
Reckless in her agony.

She is a mirror of my own tortured soul.

But what I took away I can give back.
In ways she cannot even begin to imagine.

She is everything right in all my wrongs.

She loves me. She needs me.

She has no idea I’m the one who wrecked her life. 






Review
This is the first Carian Cole book I have read. The Ashes and Ember series follows different characters so I don’t really feel bad about missing the first one. It took me a few days to actually write this review because while I love it, I was really distressed by the end and I wanted to make sure that I could write a good non-ranty review because this book deserves it.


Vandal has always taken the self-destruction route. He has cleaned up for the most part but when the reason for sobriety gets taken away from him taken the same path he has always taken seems the best option. When Vandal meets Tabitha he knows the worst thing to do would be get involved with her but he can’t help himself. While he is helping with her grief, his might become more than he ever thought if Tabitha ever finds out what he did.


Vandal is a very broken and messed up character. He has been through some very hard things in his life and it hasn’t made him better. Vandal has problems with drugs and alcohol as well as cutting himself. Vandal is definitely dark but he is definitely beautiful in his own way. There were moments that he was such an ass it was hard to root for him but there was a tragedy in his character that I couldn’t help but hope that he found some peace. Vandal was definitely a hard character to love that for sure but you have to be proud of his journey.



Tabitha has been threw her own tragedy. She has lost the one person who meant the most for her and now she doesn’t know what to do. When Vandal shows up and offers to take her away she goes without any hesitation. She doesn’t know who he is or what he has done but she is desperate for the escape that Vandal is offering. Now she finds herself in a cabin with a man that wants to teach her to be a submissive. Tabitha doesn’t understand completely but she finds herself saying yes.



Ok I think I might be the only person who didn’t really like Tabitha. She was very elusive and distant through the first half of the book. We only got a few chapters from her POV and I can’t say that I really liked her voice. I didn’t hate her. I hurt for her tragedy and I think my dislike comes from the twist. She was just a character I couldn’t seem to connect with. She definitely got better in the second half of the book though.



Carian Cole can definitely write a great story. While reading this I went through so many different emotions. My feelings for the characters were always changing. I can say that the character are really trying and earning their happy ending. The beginning of the story was a bit shaky. It felt a little but rushed but everything smoothed out after the half way point. That’s when I could really connect and care for the characters and their emotions. When the twist happens I didn’t know what to do with myself. If it had ended the way I thought the rating on this book probably would not have been this high but I have spoken with the author. I have been told there will be another book and I now I am dying to get my hands on it. I mean it just can’t end that way. I need this book now!

I really enjoyed this book and if you like emotional reads with damaged characters finding their redemption this book is right up your alley, I promise. Go buy it!




P.S. On a random note I loved the dedication in this book. It was beautiful. It acutally was great to go along with the story.

Here it is:

“To everyone who has fallen in love with the damaged, scarred, hurt, and lonely. Embrace them. Accept them. Love them.
Keep them.”

How could you not love that. Carian Cole really is a genius and I will definitely be picking up more from her.



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