e-ARC provided by Valentine PR and the author
Author: Jennifer Hartmann
Tabitha Brighton became famous when she was the only victim ever released by the serial killer known as The Matchmaker. It’s been two years and Tabitha is still broken. She didn’t come out of that basement alone. She brought the unborn child of the man kidnapped with her. She hasn’t fully processed her trauma and when the opportunity arises to tell her story to a writer she trusts, she sees it as a way to exorcise all her demons. Something she desperately needs. She wants to feel whole again – for her daughter and for the new man in her life, Gabe. Gabe, the man who loves her unconditionally, with his heart and soul. And until she mends her heart, all she does is unintentionally break his.
Gabe has his own troubled past and it comes back to haunt him with a vengeance. Two broken people and a love that just needs to learn how to bloom. And fly.
Fourth book in the Still Beating/Lotus/June First universe, TSAOOS throws us right back into that horrible basement. You know Jennifer Hartmann will hurt you before you get to sigh with relief. Gabe and Tabitha’s love story is not only a love story. It’s a story of healing, of accepting you can live a full life even after your soul has been thorn to shreds, of believing you are worthy.
I strongly suggest reading Still Beating and Lotus to understand where Tabitha and Gabe are coming from. You can’t not feel deeply for Tabitha. You want to hold her hand while she’s baring her soul to the writer, but at the same time you know Gabe is there to catch her if she falls.
There are two very different love stories in this book and when you get to the end, you understand why things were even more painful than they appear to be.
I was deeply moved by their story, by how they mend their broken pieces not to become one, but two whole people who can love with their whole souls.
I loved Still Beating, Lotus is one of my favorite books and this one ties everything together beautifully.
Thank you, Jennifer, for breaking my heart. But I always know you keep not safely in your hands until you hand it back to me full. Beautiful.
Thank you also for letting me read this early.
Possible triggers: If you read Still Beating and Lotus, you know what to expect. If not, check the CWs for this.
