Format: E-book
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: A Terrible Love, #1
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Hero: Devin Castile
Heroine: Jess Mackey
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: April 26, 2013
Started On: September 22, 2013
Finished On: September 26, 2013

Jess Mackey leads a life that gives her the sort of security that she craves after the brutality of the past that she endured and walked out from. All that Jess wants to do is blend in and be one with the crowd so that no one would notice that she is not whom she pretends to be, day in ad day out.

Jess’s one vice remains to be her love for the ballet and that turns out to be the reason for her to break out from her shell and leave that wall of anonymity behind her after two years of living under its protection. And along with embracing her love for the ballet comes another kind of “danger” calling into her life in the form of bad boy tattoed hotness Devin Castile.

The attraction between Castile and Jess is instantaneous and you can practically feel the heat between them burn the pages with the slightly erotic and very sensuous scenes of passion that leaves you begging for more. In the midst of Jess rediscovering herself and her buried passions, her very much troubled past comes calling in a way that leaves a lot to be desired and forces Jess to face her fears and come out victorious even with all odds seemingly stacked against her.

A Terrible Love is told in the first person from Jess’s point of view. Though my very first book by Mantara Eros, I fond myself totally captivated with the story that was unfolding, her ability to draw the reader in, a testament to her ability in weaving a magical story. A Terrible Love is by no means a light read. There are dark elements to it that makes it a very enjoyable page turner with that hint of menace and danger snipping at your heels all the while.

I loved the hero Castile to bits. He is the perfect combination of danger and sexiness that practically revs up my engines. A hero whose body alone speaks volumes, the way he rides that tough meanie motorbike of his enough to make this girl swoon. And that take charge attitude of his and smouldering I-am-dying-to-take-you-against-the-wall-or-any-flat-surface-available-right-now stare of his was just the right amount to leave me practically sighing all over the place.

Jess turned out to be an equally endearing heroine too. Though at times I was of the opinion that Jess just should’ve trusted her instincts and gone ahead with Castile from the start, I could understand the whys of Jess’s actions when it comes to Castile. The woman who wants no emotional entanglements, whose commitment to the ballet demands that she focus on little else but just that and the fact that Castile makes her feel all too much makes Jess hesitate in putting her heart on the line when it comes to him. And then there is that shred of mystery that surrounds Castile like an invisible aura that drives Jess a bit crazy trying to figure out where he is coming from.

I wouldn’t term the love that flares to life between Jess and Castile as a terrible love. I would label their love anything but that. Combustive, fiery, consuming; all words that I would use to describe the love between them, a love that felt right, a love that just seemed to click in all those places that hums yes when an author gets it right and a love that had me smiling as I turned the very last page. A job I would say very well done by an author who is unfamiliar to me and yet already just a step away from becoming an auto-buy for me. The best bit about looking up this book on Goodreads today? Turns out that the second book in this series is told from Castile’s point of view and its already out. How delicious is THAT going to be?

Final Verdict: One hell of a page-turner. The twists and turns this book takes leaves you drained. Yep, that good!

Favorite Quotes

“May I kiss you, Jess?” he whispers above my mouth.
No. “Yes,” I whisper back against every impulse not to.
He doesn’t take my lips softly but crushes my mouth against his, a storm crashing into the shore, his full lips working over mine, forcing them open, and I groan as he gathers me against him, his huge hands splaying against my lower back in a con- vulsive surge, bringing me into the line of his body.

I don’t know who moves first but before I can take my next breath I’m in his arms, his fingers tearing out my damp braid and plowing through my long hair. He holds my face, slam- ming his mouth against mine until I groan and open it for him. His other hand goes to the small of my back, then dives down to my ass as he lifts me against him, my legs automatically winding around his waist.

“Watch me, Jess,” he says in quiet command, and I don’t look away, can’t. He pulls out torturously slow, then slams his cock so deeply inside me my walls clench around him and he moans softly, the beautiful ebony of his eyes disappearing when he closes them in paused ecstasy.

I grip him hard and pull; he shudders under my touch. “Don’t do that, vanilla girl.”
“Or what?” I ask breathlessly.
And he shows me. Cas hikes me against the wall. “You said just fucking, Jess.”
He grinds his hips against my lower body, his engorged cock splitting my lips apart, and I gasp as an electric surge floods my system, beginning at my sex and spreading like a wildfire ignited. My hips give a responding swivel.

Purchase Links: Amazon | BookDepo | B&N | iTunes | Kobo