Jennifer Hartmann- Still Beating| Review

OUTLINE

1. Book Info.
2. Synopsis.
3. Personal Summary.
4. Personal Review.

Worth Noting: If you are a fan of the forced proximity trope and is willing to sit through people's trauma, this is for you.

Book Info

BookTitle: Still Beating.

Author: Jennifer Hartmann.

Date of Publication: 23rd December, 2020.

Pages: 700 plus.

Genre: Romance.

Theme: Survival.

Author provided Trigger Warning: rape and miscarriage.

Rating: 4/5 (Goodreads and Amazon)

When Cora attends her sister's birthday party, she expects at most a hangover or a walk of shame. She doesn't anticipate a stolen wallet, leaving her stranded and dependent on Dean--her arch nemesis and ultimate thorn in her side. And she really doesn't anticipate waking up in shackles in a madman's basement. To make matters worse, Dean shares the space in his own set of chains. After fifteen years of teasing, insults, and practical jokes, the ultimate joke seems to be on them. The two people who always thought they'd end up killing each other must now work together if they want to survive. But Cora and Dean have no idea their abductor has a plan for them. A plan that will alter the course of their relationship, blur the line between hate and love, and shackle them together with far more than just chains.

The three-part book kickstarted with a mild enemy to lovers' vibe between both of our main characters, Corabell and Dean. We got to find out that they had known each other for a little over fifteen years and also that Dean was about to get married to Corabelle’s older sister (older by ten months)- Mandy, and Corabelle was to be the maid of honor.

 Corabelle encountered a set back at the book start, when she got wasted at a bar and some of her belongings were stolen. She tried to get a lift from some of her friends, but only Dean Asher took her call and came to her rescue.

Before he could even complete his mission, they run into a mad (figuratively) man and are both knocked out and kidnapped.

During their time in the basement of their kidnapper- Earl, a lot happened. First, Corabelle was raped by the kidnapper and then Dean was forced to do same to her as well, they were poorly fed and almost on the brink of death when a miracle saved them, and Earl met his fate by Dean’s hands.

 Earl had a very crazy reason for kidnapping people (Cora and Dean were not his first victims), his reason had even earned him a nickname- match maker. He picked two people who had no positive emotional attachment to themselves and made them cohabit while suffering to force them to develop a bond over their shared trauma. His experiments had shown him that it took less than three weeks for that bond to form and once the bond had formed between his victims, he set them free by killing them.

By the time both of them were sent back to the regular world, a lot of physiological damage had already been done. The both of them tried to reinsert themselves back into the lives that they used to know, to no avail. Dean ended up breaking is engagement with Mandy because he could no longer envision them together and tried to purse the flame that had been lit between them during their time together. They experienced set backs from both themselves and society but eventually ended up together.

The book navigated between themes of sexual abuse and forced proximity with dark undertones but was an amazing read.

 Although this is my first time reading her work, I have to say that Jennifer Hartmann has an amazing writing style and she knows how to make a story come off as very compelling.

I stumbled across the book as a suggestion for books under the forced proximity trope and I wasn’t disappointed. Well there were some character flaws with a couple of the characters but they were overall good.

 My favorite character was Dean Asher, even though Jennifer had called him a bad boy (slapped on a title that didn’t even belong to him), he was one of the sweetest and realest characters in the book. I can’t forgive him for ending things with Mandy, but I guess it was necessary for plot progression.

 Personal rating is 3.5 out of 5 and you should totally read it if you think you can handle a forced proximity with sister’s fiancé.

All the summaries and reviews are my personal uninfluenced opinion of the book.