Review: Sentenced by L.L. Collins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Standalone - Jaded Regret #1
Release: October 30, 2015
Length: 246 pages

THE BAD BOY: I’m Johnny. An ex-con with a bad attitude and a controlling demeanor that somehow made the women flock to my bed but never my heart. It was unavailable for possession.

THE TEMPTATION: She was just supposed to be a two day hookup. But one taste of her and I knew I was in danger of never getting enough. She had her own demons to contend with, and dealing with my own was hard enough. I won't allow temptation to take control of me.

THE SENTENCE: I'd given myself a life sentence a long time ago, and she made me want things I wouldn't allow myself to have. Giving into it just might destroy us both.

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My Review

Damn!! This was a hard book to read because of the topics it covered. There's abuse, promiscuity, and a whole lot of anger. But despite how difficult it was, this book held me firmly in its clutches from beginning to end.

Johnny was a manwhore. Not the classic one that you can't help but love. Where you think it's pretty neat to see the manwhore fall to his feet in praise of the one.

Except it's not. Because Johnny took his manwhoring to the extreme. To a level that hasn't even been freaking invented yet! Luckily the reader gets his POV, which provides insight into the reasons for his behaviour. So although we can't condone it, we can understand it. He's masking a lot of pain and just wants his demons to shut the heck up. He was hard to like yet somehow very easy to get.

Bex was a huge bish. No really. I'm being serious. That was what her character's personality was supposed to come off ass. On the brink of stardom, she was the leader of the band Jaded Regret. With her POV, we get an opportunity to see that her utter rudeness is a mask as well. She was also hiding her lack of recovery from a huge and devastating loss. Somehow, she and Johnny seemed to be the perfect match. They clicked right away. You could hear that ish from the pages lol. And suddenly, two people with bottled up pain and emotions, let someone else in.

There were a few things that bothered me, but the biggest issue I had was the fact that Johnny had sex with someone else AFTER already having had sex with Bex. They were on a timeout but still. I'm not down with the H doing ANYTHING with ANYONE after the h is involved in the story. Sorry. That may just be me. It was just really gross and unnecessary. The story could have carried on without it IMO.

Regardless, there was a lot of hot sex between the main characters. At first, that's all they were. But those strings man. They catch on to everything.

Once these two got their ish together, it was magic. This story really did have a nice epilogue.

Recommended to lovers of rock band stories and to those who love internal struggles with beautiful rewards