Damage Me
Shana Vanterpool
(Crystal Gulf #2)
Published by: Swoon Romance
Publication date: July 5th 2016
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
***AUTHOR’S NOTE and CONTENT WARNING: This story contains triggers for rape victims and soldiers. I did my best to remain respectful to the healing process for both. Hillary’s feelings are hers alone and ONLY represent how she feels about her attack. Dylan’s emotions about his time at war are his ALONE. You are all strong and beautiful, and you will soar again!***
A broken soldier …
Dylan Meyer lived his life fast and hard, doing anything to keep his emotions masked. In Crystal Gulf, Texas, women, drugs, and alcohol are in abundance. After all, it’s a college town. But eventually, his lifestyle caught up to him. The birth of his daughter, Aubrey, forced him to grow up and take responsibility for his actions. He let his vices go, cleaned up his act, and allowed himself to fall for Harley Evans.
But Dylan is a liar.
He lied to himself. To Harley. To his best friend, Bach. And then he lied himself right into a U.S. Army uniform. When he went to war, he left Harley with his best friend in hopes that he’d look out for her while he was deployed. Not in his darkest nightmares did he think Bach and Harley would fall in love.
A fallen angel …
Hillary Hayes is an eighteen-year-old sophomore in college who understands the importance of rules. She’s followed them her entire life. She gets perfect grades, avoids dating, and won’t stray from the future her mother mapped out. On the outside, she’s perfect. Inside, she’s drowning.
That carefully crafted future disappears when she downs a beer at a party. What’s left of that night is the wreckage of the girl she used to be.
Until she meets Dylan. Her brother’s best friend.
When Dylan returns from war, he can’t move past the betrayal. His daughter’s growing up without him. Flashbacks and PTSD from his time in Afghanistan consume him. He loses himself in a dark depression. There is no light in his darkness …until he meets Hillary. His best friend’s little sister is the only good thing among all the bad.
He’s her safe place.
She’s his light.
Can two damaged souls ever find peace, or is the damage too much to overcome?
—
SNEAK PEEK:
Before I met Harley, this was who I was. A man who used whatever he wanted to use to forget the darkness of his past. A man who hurt to hide his hurt. And a man who lied to hide the truth. When I came home and woke up from surgery, Bach kept me in the dark for some time before he told me the truth. He’d taken my girl when he promised to watch out for her. Ever since that day, I’d let the lies go and slid back into my old skin.
This was Dylan Meyer.
Like him or not.
A man who had fallen too many times to bother trying to get up again. I’d lie there, on the floor, with gravel in my wounds and my eyes staring up at the midnight sky until I found this uncomfortable position comfortable again.
—
MY REVIEW
Perfection. Dylan and Hillary were like to missing puzzle pieces that once put together make perfect sense and you can only wonder how you didn't see it before.
Damage Me is a standalone novel in the Crystal Gulf series. Both Dylan and Hillary play pivotal roles in book one but this dual pov story can be read on it's own. This powerful story about redemption, overcoming tragic pasts and righting wrongs was both heavy and lovely at the same time. Neither Dylan or Hillary's stories were easy but they were important and they were real. And while it had some of Shana Vanterpool's heart-stopping angst, the focus was really on the healing and growth of its central characters.
Dylan is a liar. Or at least he was a liar before he found himself without a girlfriend, a job or access to his daughter. Getting hurt in Afghanistan sent Dylan spiraling. Angry at everything and everyone, he knows he made mistakes but hasn't accepted the consequences just yet. But when his best friend's sister shows up on his doorstep, he finds that he has an outlet for his feelings he never expected. Hillary's life is in chaos. She found that she has a long lost brother she never new, realizes that he knew the father she didn't know existed, and then falls victim to a predator at the first house party she ever attends. As her life seemingly spins out of her control, the one person she feels comfortable with is her brother's damaged (both inside and out), best friend Dylan. As Dylan and Hilary lean on each other, both have to overcome their own pasts before they can ever move forward.
Told with raw emotion, Damage Me made me fall for a character I honestly wasn't sure I could like. Dylan was not a nice guy in the first book. He did everything wrong and never seemed to understand his faults. Coming back from war tired and totally defeated made me see him for who he really was: scared, lonely and trying to grab anything good he could. Watching him with both Hillary and then later his daughter opened my eyes to the absolute swoonyness that Dylan was capable of. He was gentle and caring and yet so dirty and sexy when Hillary pulled it out of him.
Hillary was young and somewhat naive at first. She, too, was one that I hadn't pictured with Dylan, but Ms. Vanterpool knew her characters and proved Hillary mettle more than once. As Hillary overcame the terrible obstacles that were forced upon her, she grew and matured and showed how perfect she was for Dylan. She was the light to his dark and the dark to his light. When one struggled, the other pulled them tight and proved they wouldn't let go. Neither was perfect, but together they were everything.
Reviewed by Paige
★★☆ 5 "Put Back Together" Stars ☆★★
Buy it
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—
AUTHOR BIO
When I walk into a book store I feel at home. When I smell the pages of a brand new book things make sense. When I read I am who I always wanted to be. I read to escape and I write so others can as well. My family, my actress dog Bella, coffee, and a steamy love story are a few of my most precious things. My Sweet Demise is my debut new-adult contemporary romance novel.
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