Friday, July 15, 2016

#Review: DAMAGE ME (Crystal Gulf, 2) by Shana Vanterpool | #BlogTour @shanavauthor @SwoonRomance #Giveaway


Damage Me
DAMAGE ME 
by Shana Vanterpool
PUBLISHER: Swoon Romance
Publication Date: July 5, 2016
Ages: New Adult
Category: NA Contemporary

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE and CONTENT WARNING: This story contains triggers for rape victims and soldiers. I did my best to remain respectful to the healing process for both. Hillary’s feelings are hers alone and ONLY represent how she feels about her attack. Dylan’s emotions about his time at war are his ALONE. You are all strong and beautiful, and you will soar again! ***

A broken soldier …
Dylan Meyer lived his life fast and hard, doing anything to keep his emotions masked. In Crystal Gulf, Texas, women, drugs, and alcohol are in abundance. After all, it’s a college town. But eventually, his lifestyle caught up to him. The birth of his daughter, Aubrey, forced him to grow up and take responsibility for his actions. He let his vices go, cleaned up his act, and allowed himself to fall for Harley Evans.
But Dylan is a liar.
He lied to himself. To Harley. To his best friend, Bach. And then he lied himself right into a U.S. Army uniform. When he went to war, he left Harley with his best friend in hopes that he’d look out for her while he was deployed. Not in his darkest nightmares did he think Bach and Harley would fall in love.

A fallen angel …
Hillary Hayes is an eighteen-year-old sophomore in college who understands the importance of rules. She’s followed them her entire life. She gets perfect grades, avoids dating, and won’t stray from the future her mother mapped out. On the outside, she’s perfect. Inside, she's drowning.
That carefully crafted future disappears when she downs a beer at a party. What’s left of that night is the wreckage of the girl she used to be.
Until she meets Dylan. Her brother’s best friend.
When Dylan returns from war, he can’t move past the betrayal. His daughter’s growing up without him. Flashbacks and PTSD from his time in Afghanistan consume him. He loses himself in a dark depression. There is no light in his darkness …until he meets Hillary. His best friend’s little sister is the only good thing among all the bad.
He’s her safe place.
She’s his light.
Can two damaged souls ever find peace, or is the damage too much to overcome?

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DISCLAIMER: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. It can be read as a stand-alone, but I read them back to back. I shall try to refrain from giving spoilers, but you know me.

First of all, who doesn't love a man who was in uniform? Dylan is the best friend of Bach, who was the bad boy character in Destroy Me (Crystal Gulf #1), and he is not doing too good after returning, injured, from Afghanistan. Not only is he suffering from PTSD, but he is also trying to get over a broken heart and the slight loss of not being allowed to see his daughter. >>>> My heart aches whenever Dylan mentions his daughter. I just deem that to be a wonderful quality in a man. <<<< His (ex)girlfriend Harley has fallen in love with his best friend Bach. Dylan's life seems to have turned upside down, but then he meets a fallen angel with Bach's eyes.

Hillary is the younger sister of Bach, and she has some friends who are a bad influence. Bach stays away from her, trying to protect her from the world he is from. Bach may have been making changes, but the past is a difficult thing to forget. Hillary wants her brother around. Heck, she wants her father around, but she soon learns that the image she thinks she has of her father, it does not exist. Something happens to Hillary, and then things get intense.

Bring these two together, and we find the bad and the good mingling perfection. There are ups and downs, as well as a few lies, that happen, but then everything falls into place and they find that the only way they feel whole is with each other. They simply cannot deny it any longer.


My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars.
I absolutely loved this! I highly recommend that if you decide to read this you are 17+, as it contains explicit adult content. I love the relationship that grows between Bach and Hillary. Older brothers get me every time. Best friends get me every time. There is to be another installment to this series (trilogy?) and I am most DEFINITELY prepared to read that one when it comes out.
Before I met Harley, this was who I was. A man who used whatever he wanted to use to forget the darkness of his past. A man who hurt to hide his hurt. And a man who lied to hide the truth. When I came home and woke up from surgery, Bach kept me in the dark for some time before he told me the truth. He’d taken my girl when he promised to watch out for her. Ever since that day, I’d let the lies go and slid back into my old skin.
This was Dylan Meyer.
Like him or not.
A man who had fallen too many times to bother trying to get up again. I’d lie there, on the floor, with gravel in my wounds and my eyes staring up at the midnight sky until I found this uncomfortable position comfortable again.

Author Bio

When I walk into a book store I feel at home. When I smell the pages of a brand new book things make sense. When I read I am who I always wanted to be. I read to escape and I write so others can as well. My family, my actress dog Bella, coffee, and a steamy love story are a few of my most precious things. My Sweet Demise is my debut new-adult contemporary romance novel. 
Keep up to date with future releases by following on Twitter: @shanavauthor 

Giveaway

Win a $10 Amazon gift card and eBook copy of DAMAGE ME.


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