Damaging Secrets

***TRIGGER WARNING: There is a lot in this book about PTSD and assault, depression and body dysmorphia, so if those subjects are emotional triggers, you may want to avoid this book.***

In this book, we find out about what went on between Scrap and Christa that got him sent to prison for 10 years. This book is part of a longer ongoing story arc but you don’t necessarily have to have read the first books in the series to comprehend the story, it just helps.

Scrap has spent the last 10 years in prison for the murder of someone. He doesn’t regret it, what he does regret is how he did it because it got him sent away for 10 years where he couldn’t protect Christa anymore. She’s the bright image that’s kept him going for the last 10 years, knowing she’s outside, happy and living her life.

Christa isn’t happy. She’s not been happy for 10 years. She’s lived that 10 years in pain, depression and guilt because Scrap lost his life for all that time. Everyone knows he did it for her and they are expecting a fairytale ending when he gets out, but Christa knows better. She knows she’s far too broken to ever be someone’s Happily Ever After.

This story was principally about Christa and Scrap and didn’t involve the MC much except on the periphery. In fact, the MC got in the way a lot of the time, because they needed to learn how to get along with Christa’s triggers rather than give up, which is what a lot of the MC seemed to expect Scrap to do.

I really liked that both these characters were so loyal to each other, despite not actually having a relationship before Scrap got sent to prison. They had feelings for each other and they weren’t going to shy away from those feelings, even with the circumstances they were in.

Both Christa and Scrap were strong too. They kept on trying, despite all of Christa’s flashbacks. Neither one was willing to back off because they wanted to be together so much. They were fumbling their way together without much knowledge about what would work, except what their instincts told them. It could have gone horribly wrong, except both were strong enough to keep on trying.

Whilst there were difficult areas of the story to read, there was a lot of humour and sweetness in this book. I really enjoyed reading it and will happily continue the series to see what happens to the MC next.

*The above review was written after reading this book as an ebook rather than as an audio book and this addendum covers the audio parts.*

It took me a while to get used to the voices of the actors used in this book. I felt that Jillian Macie’s voices was almost a little too light and sweet for a woman as badly damaged as Christa, but I got used to it and Tor Thom’s voice was new to me and didn’t match the voice in my head for Scrap until about half way through when the two voices finally matched up. I think if I’d come to the book without having any preconceptions I would have been fine with the narrators because they were pretty good and certainly didn’t jar me out of the story at all, which can be the case if the narrators aren’t working for me. They were consistent with the voices and differentiated well between characters. They did the job well, and would be fine listening to books read by them again.

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