“Justice is this thing that can give a victim salvation. It’s also something that can eat away at a victim like cancer when they don’t have it. It’s the difference between acceptance and peace or denial and tumult.”
This is one of the most heart breaking, emotional, second chance love stories that I have ever read. It is hard to imagine coming back from what these two went through that eventually forced them apart for eleven years, but when their paths cross again, can the past be forgotten or will it be forever lurking in the back ground.
Some things cannot be erased…cannot be overcome, but could these two work through it, together? Will their reconnection just bring back too many bad memories or will it be the catalyst for both of them to work through their issues and forge a future for themselves? So many questions…but this book will make you empathise and sympathise, you will yearn for them to make it and Elizabeth Finn draws you into their lives with a beautifully crafted story that will have you sobbing in parts but rejoicing in others.
“She could be attached to the most painful, agonizing memories in my mind, but she also filled my most favorite memories too.”
Kane and Helene as teenagers were the best of friends, they both had that connection to each other, they both felt it, but neither had the courage to take that step to finally cross the line, but it was imminent. Even though these two were total opposites, they got each other in every way, their friendship was the forever kind and you knew that if they took that next step it would be the forever kind also.
Their lives would be forever changed one night and while one went way, the other went in the total opposite direction and for eleven years these two would be apart, with devastating consequences for both of them.
Helene coped in her own way, she threw herself into her studies…that night, together with Kane’s departure had left her wasting away, but she eventually got up and dusted herself off and coped the only way she knew how, she kept her brain busy. With relentless studying she could block out her past and block out Kane together with that sense of rejection, that sense of abandonment and she worked so hard she was on her way to having her doctorate in Philosophy. On an emotional level though she was still deeply scarred and this lead to her having trouble with any relationship, Helene felt that she was destined to be alone.
“I’m just trying to figure out to deserve you Helene…And when you figure out I don’t I’m not sure what that’s going to do to me, and that…scares the shit out of me.”
Kane was the total opposite; he went to pot, literally. He threw himself into alcohol, drugs and women. He really went off the rails, but it was his coping mechanism and for all those years it worked…for him. When his father gets ill Kane is forced to come back to the town that he ran from eleven years ago, he would soon find out that these coping mechanisms only got him so far, when powerful memories resurface and the woman he left all those years ago is suddenly within arms reach, something’s cannot be repressed and finally need to be dealt with head on…but with what consequences?
“…I fight because it feels good to hurt. I drink because it feels good to go numb. And I fuck because it feels good to forget…how terrifying it can actually be.”
This was a powerful book that covered some very tough subjects, but kudos to Elizabeth Finn because it was all written sensitively and empathetically. It was so emotional and it was hard to imagine just what these two had been through, but even though it was devastating, it would ultimately be the one thing that made them gravitate towards each other, they had survived the past, now it was time for them to grab their future. These two could be each others salvation, their connection too powerful to dismiss and as old feelings resurface and though it means their past will finally have to be confronted, together they make a formidable team.
I loved Kane with a passion, he was so broken and heavily laden with guilt and shame but underneath all that you could see his heart of gold underneath that was begging to be uncovered once again. You knew that there was only one woman for the job but Helene had her own issues to deal with, she never knew why Kane abandoned her and left her to cope on her own would she be able to forgive once the truth is finally revealed?
“What would happen to this man if he unshackled his life and finally broke the chains he’d placed on himself so long ago? Could he turn around and walk out of his cave, finally seeing the shadows for what they were - a pathetic coping mechanism. Could he realign his reality with truth, rather than the twisted notions of what he’d made his world out to be.”
As I said above, this book does cover some tough subjects but sadly these things do happen and are indicative of the world that we live in today and while we would love to live in a bubble where bad things never happen it just isn’t feasible anymore. We can try and protect ourselves as much as possible but there is always someone out there who has no moral compass. Together these two fell, but at the end will they be standing?
“You were my flower too…My warmth in the cold, my beautiful thing in all the ugly. You don’t have to be afraid of this.”
One thing you can guarantee from an Elizabeth Finn book is an emotional and sexy read and this one is no different. I even felt that she was pushing her own boundaries a bit on this one and it was great to see. The emotion hit you in the heart and the sexy times hit you some place else…but you could not help but feel every emotion that these two characters bled onto the pages. Yes it was raw, yes it was gritty but on the upside it was intensely uplifting. A powerful story of forgiveness, redemption and survival. I loved this book and I cannot wait to read more from this author. I can highly recommend this book and be prepared for an intensely emotional ride but one that you will never forget and will forever be thinking about.
“It’s a good life isn’t it…a beautiful life…”
Buy Links:
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1GN3Dkj
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1DP1ZbI
Lovely review! I'm so glad you enjoyed Kane and Hell.
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