Silent Scars
Series: Surviving #4
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: Ada Frost
Release Date: November 28, 2015
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Her Man.
Their Hero.
His Pain.
What happens when you pray for death and you’re ignored?
You have to live.
You have to survive.
But what if the last thing you want is to take your next breath?
To the world, Ryan is a hero, an ex-marine, brother, son and protector. He has devoted his life to keeping others safe. He will do anything and everything to ensure his loved ones are protected, even if that means destroying his very own soul. After an explosion on the battlefield ends his career in the Marine’s, Ryan is sent home with an honorable discharge. But the war hasn’t ended for him.
He is home, he is free and he’s breathing, but he’s dead inside.
He wants nothing more than peace, but the nightmares in his mind will not grant him that. They taunt him, tease him and torture his waking moments. The darkness within him is slowly consuming him, blackness has seeped into his veins and is rotting his core. Ryan is a man on the edge of destruction. For once he is the one in need of saving. He needs a saviour.
He needs her.
Ryan is commissioned as a bodyguard to Aloura Cavendish. When he initially meets her, he believes her to be a spoiled rich brat, wasting his time. But the fire inside her astounds him. When he pushes, he never expects her to push back. When he runs, she chases. For the first time in his life, Ryan has a protector willing to fight his demons. The only problem – he is too afraid to release them.
In a world of chaos and pain, you are my silence.”
Silent Scars was my first book by this author and I can say with certainty it will not be my last. I do think I did myself a disservice by jumping into book 4 in this series without having read the previous books. Don’t get me wrong, this works well as a standalone and I was never confused, but it’s clear there’s a history with the secondary characters that I was missing. Ryan’s relationship with his brothers is something I would have loved to have read first before jumping into this book, but it is what it is. I definitely plan on going back and reading the rest of this series now.
This was an extremely poignant and emotional read that was almost difficult to experience at times. Ryan’s history is absolutely devastating. Everything that he’s been through and the memories that continuously haunt him to this day made my heart bleed for him. This is not an easy story to swallow. It’s dark, it’s emotional, and it’s a story of survival.
After a devastating injury on his last tour in the Marines, Ryan is out. And while he may have his share of physical scars, none are as debilitating as his silent internal ones. The scars of his past and what he’s survived is what haunts him. The guilt of what he’s been through continues to eat at him. He’s a shell of a man that doesn’t believe he’s worth anything, let alone the attention of a beautiful woman he’s hired to protect.
Aloura was an interesting character. She’s a bit quirky and introverted, she’s shy and unsure of herself. As the daughter in an unorthodox family, the quirkiness is basically guaranteed. Her father is the owner of a medical research company that’s been working on trialling a new cancer treatment drug and controvercially they test their drugs on human patients. When the threats turn to his beloved daughter, he hires security, and Ryan just so happens to be the unwilling bodyguard. Aloura is non too happy about the shadow, but when she meets Ryan, there’s something about his brooding intensity that calls to her. She wants to find his secrets and she wants to heal his deepest wounds.
The story itself was an exercise in frustration for me. Ryan runs hot and cold so frequently it’s enough to give a girl whiplash. He yearns for a true connection and love, but in the same breath he doesn’t think he deserves it. And he certainly does his utmost best to push Aloura away in the cruelest of ways. While a part of me completely understood his behavior given everything that he’s been through, it’s Aloura’s that I had trouble connecting with. Ryan is a flat out asshole to her at times, he’s intentionally cruel and his words to her were sharp enough to cut at times. Yet she takes it all and wants to fix him. It just seemed like her connection to him was much too quick for me to really connect to. Ryan doesn’t give much for Aloura to be as invested as she is and at times I had a tough time swallowing his treatment of her and her acceptance of it.
I struggled with my rating for days. I want to rate it highly simply on the poignancy of the story, but at the same time I just didn’t connect with it as much as I wish I did. I loved Ryan, but something about Ryan and Aloura never quite grabbed me. The story is angsty as hell and filled with plenty of bumps along the way. It kept me reading well into he night but there was always also something missing and while I can’t quite place my finger on what it was, it prevented me from enjoying the story as much as I’d hoped.
I have to say that I loved the author’s writing style, and I absolutely loved the setup behind the series. I will definitely be reading all the books before this one and the future ones after. While Silent Scars wasn’t quite what I had expected, it’s still a beautiful story of perseverance and survival that I’d highly recommend to any readers that enjoy that sort of thing.
Diane Alberts remains one of my go-to authors in category romance for constantly delivering on the swoony and panty-melting romance with deliciously stubborn heroes. Her Shillings Agency series has been a favorite of mine from the beginning. I’ve been itching to get my hands on Steven’s book since a little peek of him in 
A sexy, captivating and thrilling conclusion to a trilogy that captured me from the very start! If you haven’t met Hudson Chase, you haven’t lived. The man is intense, sinfully sexy, protective, with a touch of broody. While I’m not usually a reader of trilogies since my attention span seems to wane somewhere around book 2, I’ve been dying to get my hands on this book for one reason and one reason only: Hudson.
Always Dangerous was my first book by Dee J. Adams and it’s safe to say after finishing, that it certainly won’t be my last. I love a steamy romantic suspense, and Adrenaline Highs delivers on that end flawlessly. Now you’re probably thinking to yourself, but Lana, this is book 6 in the series and you’re starting with this book. And to you, my OCD friend, I say, I like to live dangerously.
Right then.
Aurora Rose Reynolds books always have been and will continue to be my guilty pleasure. A little fluffy, a lot steamy and with a dose of insta love, I don’t know any other author that can pull all that off in one book and actually make me enjoy it. Something about this boys and their “booms”. I can’t even explain it. But I like it.
Now before you start reaching for rotten tomatoes and pitchforks, allow me to clarify my rating here. See, here’s the thing, I liked this book. It was wonderfully written and being my first book by this author I already know I’ll be reading all her others. I’m also completely hooked on this series and absolutely loved the set up as well as all the secondary characters. I also truly enjoyed both MCs here. At this point you’re probably sitting there and thinking, then why the hell are you marking this only 3.5 stars?
Well…bluntly put…it was just too sweet for my tastes. *ducks flying tomatoes*
Now I loved that this wasn’t a source of shame or secret for him. He owned it. It wasn’t a secret and he didn’t make it one, nor does he make it a given to spread it around campus either. The problem? I just don’t buy it. Ugh. I’m sorry! It’s that damn cynic in me, but a college junior, surrounded by football groupies, all his teammates are male sluts, but he’s a virgin because…reasons.
But this was also wonderfully…refreshing. This is my second time reading about a male virgin and I believe Jen Frederick pulled it off very well. Knox is just one of those characters that you can’t help but love. He goes after what he wants with a single-minded intent and feels no need for immature mind games that you’d find with most heroes in the NA genre.
What ultimately brought my rating down was 2 specific things.
In the book’s defense I am not, nor will I ever be a fan of insta-love, no matter how well it’s pulled off. And it IS pulled off wonderfully here. It’s just not my cuppa. I can’t help it. I gave it the old college try (pun intended) but could never really see past it. Perhaps because he was also a virgin on top of everything else? Whatever the case may be, I suppose I just wanted a little more interaction between them before this came into the mix. Like say, at least 12%?
It felt good to give in, to surrender. He rewarded her with more pleasure. Sex with him felt like embracing a thunderstorm, riding a wild bronc.
It’s been a hot second since I first met Jesse as Kimber’s famous pop star boyfriend in 
A musical collaboration that wins a grammy serves for a night of celebration. The pull between Reckless Beat’s front man, Mason Lynch and Sidney Higgins has always been there. One night of celebration and alcohol leads to a sizzling threesome between Signey, Mason, and Mason’s best friend and Reckless Beat’s drummer, Sean Taiden. But then a video recorded on Mason’s phone meant to capture the moment to forever remember in private gets leaked, it ruins everything and completely shatters Sidney. She lost everything; her career, her self-worth, and the man she thought she trusted.
