Review: Beneath the Burn by Pam Godwin

Beneath the Burn by Pam Godwin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Book Synopsis

They meet by chance. The timing is wrong.

Three years later, she finds him again, but their separation was poisoned with narcotics and bloodied by enslavement.

Her freedom gambled away, Charlee Grosky escapes the international businessman who held her captive. But his power reaches beyond her protective barriers and threatens everyone she has come to love.

Jay Mayard wears his tortured secrets under his rock god facade. Drugs are his release, even as he seeks to be the man forged of the steel only she can see.

In a celebrity world filled with paparazzi, groupies, and drugs, Jay and Charlee must face their worst fears. When the battle is over, what will be left…Beneath The Burn.

Genre: Romantic/Erotic Thriller

Content warning: Includes graphic rape, sex, anal, bondage, and violence. 

My Review

5 Burning Stars

How do I even go about reviewing a book that I’m pretty sure had me highlighting every other page. I’m not even slightly exaggerating. I highlighted the hell out of this book. This is the first testament of how much I enjoy a book. If I can’t stop highlighting, I know that I’m hanging on to every single word.

Love is like a series of improbable, lonely notes landing together in meaningful chaos. Where every channel carries a rhythm that conveys an expression of emotion. It doesn’t feel flat or fake or hollow. It’s not exaggerated with overtones. The complexity might feel organized, but the creation is never controlled.”

This was the story about two beautifully broken souls finding a healing peace with each other. A dark and emotional story of pain, abuse, and learning to heal. The characters were amazing, the love scenes incredibly erotic, and the writing? Devastatingly brilliant! I loved every single dark and gritty page.

I will try to review without giving away any spoilers, because you really must discover all the details for yourself. I wouldn’t want to take away from any of it.

Three years ago, Charlee and Jay have a chance encounter at her tattoo shop that effects them both immensely.

Inexplicably drawn to one another for reasons they don’t yet thoroughly understand, fate unfortunately has different plans for them. Charlee’s life takes a dark turn that night, while Jay goes on to become a famous musician.

Now three years later, fate reunites them once more but with many more painful memories and scars darkening their present.

For nine years, she didn’t know who she could cling to, or if she would ever be able to take that risk, but clinging to Jay felt… elemental. As if deep within him lay the map to emotions she’d lost and maybe some she never experienced. She wouldn’t let go. No matter how contagious his pain. If she were tough enough to endure hers, could she shoulder his too?

Charlee was such an amazing heroine. You couldn’t help but feel for her. She was so strong, yet undeniably broken.

The darkness and pain that she has experienced at the hands of an obsessive psychopath in her young years is beyond anything I can describe. Pam Godwin spared no detail in describing any of the darkest details. I consider myself to be pretty used to dark reads, but even I found myself cringing at some parts. The abuse that she experiences was incredibly difficult and disturbing to read. But it helps pain an very vivid picture of how it effects her and forms her into the person that she is now.

Jay, my beautifully broken and damaged Jay. How I loved him in this book. I’m pretty sure I feel for him in the first few pages. The mystery of his past is what intrigued me the most about him. He tries so hard to deal with the nightmares of his past, but the loss of Charlee 3 years ago sends him into another tailspin.

Lost in a haze of drugs, alcohol, and meaningless sex, he struggles to bury his dark secrets as deep as he can. That is until Charlee walks into his life again, and he finds himself wanting to be the man she deserves.

I want to learn how to bend to your touch without breaking.” He stroked his cheek along hers, the rise and fall of his chest intoxicating her. “I want you to touch me inside and out.”

While their relationship was anything but smooth, I absolutely loved the two of them together. It was emotional

Will you walk to me? Will you move so close that the ground wobbles, the walls between us crumble, and your thoughts rip open until we’re melding our fears and hopes as easily as we share air?”

Beautiful

She was his greatest possibility. His reason. His why. He would give whatever she needed to be whole and happy, because (view spoiler)[loving (hide spoiler)] her was as essential as drawing air.

And erotic as hell

If you love dark, emotional, and erotic stories, I couldn’t recommend this one enough.

This book captured my heart, the characters wove their way into it, and their story is one that will be staying with me for a long while.

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