I want to say that Kay Elle’s latest book left me Speechless, but that would make for a mighty short blog post, now wouldn’t it? It did leave me stunned in the very best kind of way. It left me wanting so much more. So.Much.More All the more, in fact. But with all the more that I want, I would be OK if there weren’t any more books in this particular world because the ending as one of those ones that is both satisfying and just a little bit of a tease, to make you want more. Our girl did gooood with that.
We open on a nearly naked woman who is only wearing a rag of a shirt and is escaping in a cold and snowy Montana winter. We don’t know yet who she is escaping from, only that she’s terrified as fuck that she will be caught. I mean, she’s so terrified of being caught, that she thinks to herself that she would rather crawl through the snow on her hands and knees to get away. It doesn’t matter where she ends up as long as she gets away. It doesn’t matter if she dies, because then she will be safe. But just as she’s on her last bit of energy, she sees a light in the woods. A light that turns out to be a bar. When she gets into the bar, she’s attacked by a whole bunch of fuckholes. Luckily, there is a knight in shining armor at the bar.
Connor is the local doctor and he’s drinking at his brother’s bar. It’s a damn good thing that he’s there too. When he sees the fuckholes going after this poor young woman who is in terrible, terrible, terrible shape, he jumps in and beats them down, with the help of his brother, Cain. Then he takes our poor young woman to his house, where his office also is. He calls his nurse, Sarah, in so that they can examine this woman and try to find out what is going on with her.
When they examine her, they ask her what her name is, and all she does is pull her shirt open and show them her chest, where she is branded with the word WHORE. Connor is like newp. He and Sarah decide that they are going to call her Jenna, because she doesn’t seem to be able to talk.
Kay Elle Parker writes really strong heroines. I mean, her heroines are way up on my kickass women list. You might not think that poor broken Jenna is on that list, but she really is a very, very, very strong woman. I think that she might be one of the strongest female characters that I have ever read. Strength comes in all kinds of forms, and Jenna is incredibly strong.
If you can’t tell, I really like her. She is so broken, so damaged, so profoundly injured, but she manages to start to heal. Yes, she had help from Connor, but no one fixes themselves alone, especially not to the depth she was. The fact is, that while Connor was there to be her support and outside strength, she had to be the one who broke through what happened to her and make the steps. I like that Jenna’s recovery happened in the way that it did. It seems like the most natural way to me.
I like Connor. He has a really good, solid core. Jenna sees him as a warrior, a knight with a sword to protect people, and I totally agree with her about that. He really is a warrior of the light. He wants to make sure that Jenna is safe, from everyone and everything. He is a Dom, and I would know that he was a Dom even if he hadn’t said that he was. It’s kind of really obvious. He’s also really good at taking care of Jenna. Of course, there are some bumps along the way, but there were always going to be. It wasn’t ever going to be easy, not with what happened.
There are a lot of side characters in here. I love Sarah and Zeke. Sarah is better than a come to Jesus meeting. I’m pretty sure a come to Sarah would be much scarier. Hadley does his best to be a good guy in a really shitty situation. Connor has two brothers, Cain and Caleb. Cain is pretty fun, but that fun facade hides a really serious core. Caleb is the town sheriff, and he’s no Andy Griffith, let me tell you. He’s a total jerkoff. I mean, damn. I think he lets a little power go to his head.
And of course, Luna. Luna is my favorite side character.
I had a feeling about Sire and his friend, and I was right about them. I was kinda happy to find out that I was right. Sad too, because that could mean bad things in the future.
I won’t even mention Penelope’s family, because damn.
OK, that’s all for this one. Go check it out! Happy reading.