Cover Design: Natasha Snow
Length: 85,000 words approx.
Blurb
Instead, he finds the Salgado pack, and the earth beneath his feet shifts. Damien has seen the Salgado children in his school: Koko, who is in his class, and Hakan, two years older and infinitely unreachable. Damien is suddenly introduced into a world that had only ever existed in his imagination, where there is magic in the forest and the moon. He meets creatures that look like monsters, but Damien knows that monsters have the same face as anybody else.
Over the years, Damien and Hakan grow closer. First, just as friends and foster brothers in the Salgado house, and then into something heated and breathless when Damien joins Hakan at college. Despite what he may yearn for in the darkest part of the night, Damien knows, deep down in that bruised and mealy part of his core, that he’s not good enough to be part of the Salgado family, their pack. He’s not worthy of calling Hakan his home.
Even though he knows in the end it’ll hurt him, he’ll hold onto this for as long as he can.
CONTENT WARNING: This book contains themes of emotional and (nonsexual) physical child abuse and the subsequent emotional, cognitive, and behavioural impacts.
4 Stars!
After his parents' death, Damien is bounced from foster carer to foster carer, never feeling an ounce of love or understanding. The abuse he endures infects his soul, destroying his sense of self-worth. At 13, he’s unable to imagine ever finding someone who’ll love him or a family to feel secure in and begins to wonder if he wouldn’t be better off he could just disappear. Then he unexpectedly meets Mia, the head of the Salgado family and his life begins to change. As he slowly gets to know Mia and her family he finds friendship and camaraderie and, in the end, love and acceptance. It’s not an easy road for him, however, after all, how could he ever be worthy of any of them? Especially Hakan.
While I enjoyed this story I have to say it wasn’t necessarily the easiest story I’ve ever read. First, it’s definitely an emotional one. I cried more than once for Damien. Reading what he went through broke my heart repeatedly. This poor boy was so wronged. I truly wish I could’ve jumped in my Kindle and hugged him. He so deserved to be happy and loved and to feel safe.
I really liked Koko and Mia as well as those that fought for Damien. It was nice to see that he had people that wanted good things for him. I felt like so much of this book, at least Part One, was so depressing and negative. It was good when some happiness was shown.
Hakan was harder for me to completely connect to. He was sweet and there wasn’t anything wrong with him, he was just so quiet and soft-spoken most of the time. I felt like we really didn’t get a good look at his personality. I never fully understood him or his actions at a particular part in the story.
I wish I could’ve gotten more of the werewolf side of the story. It was talked about but not as much as I wished and it was only shown maybe 1 or 2 times briefly. Funnily enough, the time they did talk about it I didn’t quite understand, it’s all complicated to me.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.
***Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie by the author/publisher for my reading pleasure in hopes of an unbiased opinion, a review was not a requirement.***
5 stars
In This Iron Ground is a book by Marina Vivancos, known for her Fox Lake series. This book is about a boy who loses his parents and moves from foster home to foster home until ending up with a semi-abusive family. One night he runs in the forest and meets a wolf who turns into a woman. She brings him home explains what shifters are and sends him back home. After that, he is sort of adopted into the family of wold shifters.
Damien is the main character. In the beginning, he is a young boy living with his 7th foster care family in 4 years. This book follows him until his early twenties. He was a well thought out character with a very unique personality. I found myself feeling for him several times, almost in tears during a couple. While the second character is meant to be Hakan, the book follows Hakan's whole family, not only him. We see a lot about his siblings and his mother, who is basically the alpha and his father a "made" wolf.
This book was amazing. It gave off a Wolfsong vibe as it is a human essentially being adopted into a wolf pack while the whole wolf universe is completely different. I honestly have never heard of it being told this way and it is so unique and amazing. One of my biggest pet peeves of this book is that I have no idea how to pronounce Hakan.
I really hope there will be a second book, while the ending is satisfying, I really want to see another Damien/Hakan book. There were a few parts where I almost cried and had to put the book down for a while but I always went back to it and actually finished the book in a single day. This is a book you will want to read for sure.
*** Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie for my reading pleasure, a review wasn't a requirement. ***
a Rafflecopter giveaway
*** Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie for my reading pleasure, a review wasn't a requirement. ***
September 3 - Gay Book Reviews, Joyfully Jay, OMG Reads, MM Midnight Cafe, September 5 - Jessie G Books, Making It Happen, On Top Down Under, September 7 - Momma Says: To Read Or Not To Read, Cupcakes & Bookshelves, September 10 - Bonkers About Books, Wicked Faerie's Tales & Reviews, September 12 - Megans's Media Melange, Mirrigold, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Wicked Reads, Bayou Book Junkie, The Blogger Girls, MM Good Book Reviews
Author Bio
When Marina was a child she couldn’t sleep. Night after dissolving night she just couldn’t sleep. Nothing much worked – until she started making up stories in her head. Suddenly, the transition into unconsciousness was a smooth dive into calm waters.
Marina is currently in a period of sleepless upheaval, and she hopes writing down the stories in her head will cast the same spell it did decades ago.
Marina hopes to write in a variety of romance sub-genres, from contemporary to supernatural to sci-fi. Her style, however, tends to focus on character-centred stories that explore different facets of the human experience, such as mental health. She also enjoys writing explicit, drawn-out sex scenes, so expect those to be a prominent feature of her stories.
Marina tends to keep to herself unless prompted, so don’t be shy in approaching her!
Marina is currently in a period of sleepless upheaval, and she hopes writing down the stories in her head will cast the same spell it did decades ago.
Marina hopes to write in a variety of romance sub-genres, from contemporary to supernatural to sci-fi. Her style, however, tends to focus on character-centred stories that explore different facets of the human experience, such as mental health. She also enjoys writing explicit, drawn-out sex scenes, so expect those to be a prominent feature of her stories.
Marina tends to keep to herself unless prompted, so don’t be shy in approaching her!
 |
| Hosted By Signal Boost Promotions |
No comments:
Post a Comment