REVIEW: A Terrible Love (A Terrible Love #1) by Marata Eros

Jess Mackey is living a meticulously fabricated lie of necessity. She's left the secret tragedy of her past behind along with who she was and is forging ahead with a clean slate. Jess soon discovers that passion can't be left behind; her own and that of the one man that sees who she really is. Whose presence caresses her soul in a way that may breach the peaceful life Jess has made for herself.

Devin Castile sees a young woman that is the missing puzzle piece to his existence and who is also the victim to a heinous crime. Devin convinces himself that he can remain emotionally distant even while indulging his physical desire for her. When the lies that Jess has made crumble before their attraction and the truth is revealed, one of them might pay with their life... or their very being.

(Due to sexual content and language, this book is recommended for 17+ - Adult Contemporary Women's - New Adult Fiction)

My Thoughts:

I wouldn't trade this ride for anything. I know I'm playing a dangerous game with two men. One seemingly perfect and the other impossible to ignore. 

A terrible Love was at times a gripping story which turned out to be a much different read than I expected when I first started reading it. The book's description doesn't really touch on the depth and direction of the story to any great degree and I found myself looking forward to unravelling the layers of the story.

Jess Mackey is a girl on the run from her past. She's living under an assumed identity, living with the constant fear that her past will catch up with her. Two men are about to enter her life. One will offer stability, while the other offers passion. But the past always has a way of catching up with you, and evil is much closer that you ever could have thought.

Jess was a character that frustrated me at times. She made such a point about wanting to stay off the radar, but always seemed to be finding herself in situations where she was in the spotlight. A lot of the time it wasn't here doing, but she never did anything to tone things down. 

I want what I'm doing with Cas like I want my next breath. Right now, at this very moment, I feel like he's my food and drink.

For a little while I just couldn't get a grasp on Devin's (Cas) intentions. I couldn't read him at all. Was he just the proverbial bad boy. If he was truly after a no strings relationship, why did he keep turning up to protect Jess. Why did his actions seem to say so much more than his words? And then everything fell into place. Everything he did and said made perfect sense.

“We're terrible together."

"It's not about true love, Jess."

"If it were love then it's a terrible love.” 

While there is no instant love in this book, the attraction between characters is immediate, and I did find myself at times wondering what the appeal was between them. It appeared that they knew nothing about each other, besides their physical attributes. I know that's where most relationships start but I never felt that it moved much beyond that.

This book contained quite a bit of violence. Okay, there was actually a whole lot of violence. And for the most part it's directed at women. It did make me cringe on more than one occasion. Some of the characters were truly evil. The evil you see on the news reports on a regular basis. Sick and twisted evil. It always amazes me how such crazy and sick people function normally in society for so long. And that was the case here as well. I also found myself questioning why Jess didn't choose a different path at the beginning of the book? Maybe things would have turned out much differently if she did. 

The last portion of the book was by far what I enjoyed the most. There was an escalation in the storyline which had me eager to see how things were going to play out. It was suspenseful and intriguing and was enough to push my rating of this book up slightly. I will say that I'm looking forward to reading the second book in this series, which is Cas's point of view of events, to be able to better understand his interest in Jess.

3.5/5 Stars

Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster Australia for the opportunity to read and review A Terrible Love.