RUIN YOU
Series: The Debt #3
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: M. O’Keefe
Release Date: November 9, 2017
Simon
The only thing that stands in the way of my revenge is her.
The lying scheming daughter of the man who killed my parents. She has the secrets I need to bring down her father.
And I’ll do anything to get them. I will lie to her. Steal from her. Use her.
Ruin her.
It helps that our chemistry is explosive.
What I’m not expecting is for her to be so sweet. And so strong.
So…irresistible.
Penny
After so many years of lying and hiding, I finally have a place to call home. With people I can call a family. The Paintbrush Inn is my life now, and I won’t let anyone ruin it.
When sexy and world-weary Simon checks in to the Inn, I never expect him to glance my way. I’ve spent my whole life blending into the background. Being overlooked and ignored. It’s been helpful, even though it’s lonely. And he’s way out of my league.
But our attraction is powerful. Undeniable.
Dangerous.
Because I can’t let anyone close. If the secrets I keep were to be revealed, my whole life would be destroyed. But something about Simon makes me break all my own rules. I’m letting him in to my home, my body, my life, never expecting he has his own secrets.
His own lies.
When the truth comes out, we’ll both be ruined.
The problem with lies is belief. That’s how things fall apart in the end. When I stop believing the lies, it’s just a story. When I believe the lies, it’s as much truth as the actual truth.
I love all things Molly O’Keefe. It’s hard for me to even imagine that she used to write pure contemporary romance when the woman writes gritty, emotional stories like she was born for it. I devour her words.
When I first read Lost Without You, I was immediately hooked on the story of the foster siblings that faced a horror the likes of which no child ever should. After a decision to save one of their own from the clutches of an evil man lands them in a situation that they see no way out of, excepting the terms of a debt to a different sort of bad man doesn’t seem so bad. After all, the devil you know and all that. Tommy paid his debt, and now it’s Simon’s turn
Simon’s life takes a full circle when Bates comes knocking to settle his debt. It forces him to remember a name and a face of a person that he tried quite hard to forget over the years. A person with a tie to him like no other. A tie to his past, a woman that just may be the answer to a revenge that he’s been plotting since before he landed in a foster home. And nothing can stop him from getting the answer he seeks.
Ruin You, much like the previous book, is quite morose. It’s not a walk in the park and rainbows and butterflies. And while I highly recommend reading the previous two books first to form a better connection to the characters, you don’t need to in order to enjoy this one. The author gives plenty of background to ensure that the reader is never lost.
Penny has been living under the veil of carefully constructed lies for years. The lies are the only thing that keep her sane. But beyond that, they’re the only thing that keep her safe. No one can ever know the secrets that she guards. Because not only would they ruin her, but the repercussions run much deeper.
She’s never been so drawn to a man before as she is with Simon. He tests all of her careful control and peace that she’s gathered through the years. Can she trust this man to be who he says he is. Penny isn’t a bombshell. She prefers to stick to the shadows in her anonymity. She’s a masterful chef, but she doesn’t want the limelight to go along with it. She has a hard time understanding why a man that looks like Simon would be drawn to someone like her.
The connection between these two is palpable. The tension between them is almost unbearable. Molly O’Keefe writes one sizzling slow burn with this book, and I couldn’t get enough.
The pacing was on the slower end. There’s a lot of build up and that takes time. And then the author finally takes pity on us with a little morsel on Bates that I had a feeling about from the very start. I seriously hope that the man will be getting a book of his own, because he steals the show every time he comes on the scene. There’s just something so alluring about the mysterious and dangerous criminal.
Ruin You was another great installment in The Debt series, and I already can’t wait for more.
PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE SERIES
Each title has a brand-new look!
Lost Without You (The Debt, #1)
Molly O’Keefe has always known she wanted to be a writer (except when she wanted to be a florist or a chef and the brief period of time when she considered being a cowgirl). And once she got her hands on some romances, she knew exactly what she wanted to write.She published her first Harlequin romance at age 25 and hasn’t looked back. She loves exploring every character’s road towards happily ever after.
Originally from a small town outside of Chicago, she went to university in St. Louis where she met and fell in love with the editor of her school newspaper. They followed each other around the world for several years and finally got married and settled down in Toronto, Ontario. They welcomed their son into their family in 2006, and their daughter in 2008. When she’s not at the park or cleaning up the toy room, Molly is working hard on her next novel, trying to exercise, stalking Tina Fey on the internet and dreaming of the day she can finish a cup of coffee without interruption.
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