Review: Hold Me Close by Megan Hart

Apart, they are broken, but together, they are whole.

Effie and Heath are famous. Not for anything they did, but for what happened to them as teenagers. Abducted and abused by the same man, they turned to each other for comfort until they were finally able to make their escape.

Now adults, their relationship is fraught with guilt and despair. Whether fighting or making love, their passion is strong enough to destroy them both — and Effie's not about to let that happen. She knows it's time for her to have a 'normal' relationship, and Heath is nothing but a constant reminder of the dark past they share. Heath, on the other hand, knows Effie is the only woman he can ever love. She may want to forget what happened, but he's convinced that they must face their past together in order to move forward. So while Effie continues to bring new men into her life, Heath becomes obsessed with proving he's the one she needs.

Then a new crisis arises and Effie begins to lose every scrap of self-control she ever had. As she struggles against her desire to return to the one man who understands her, she discovers that sometimes the only safety you find is with the person who is the most dangerous for you.

Paperback, 352 pages

Expected publication: November 24th 2015 by Mira

 

Terri's Thoughts

I won a copy of this book via a giveaway on Goodreads.  In exchange I will offer my honest opinion.

I am really conflicted with this book.  At first thought I can say I really did not enjoy it.  Many times I considered putting it aside and not finishing.  That being said I did not and I stuck to it to finish it.  Something triggered my curiosity to make me want to see how it played out.  And really, without any spoilers it played out exactly as I thought it would.

My problem with this story is Effie.  She is emotionally scarred from the events of her past and she can't get out from under them.  I get it, to a certain extent.  The issues with food...makes sense.  She lived through an extremely traumatic ordeal and to not have some issues would be surprising.  What I could not understand was her relationship with men, and essentially how she used them all.  How she was only truly happy between the sheets, and even sometimes not even then.  This became annoying early on.

This story offered no surprises where the story was heading on Effie's journey to healing.  You knew that Heath was waiting in the wings and that Effie's plethora of other men were only really extra's in the storyline.  You knew exactly how it would end from the first line.

There are a lot of sex scenes in this story, 90% of which I would say were gratuitous and not really critical to the plot.  I think this is where I really struggled.  The book seemed to have an identity crisis.  Was it erotic?  Was it contemporary romance?  Was it a thriller?  Was it a serious drama?  The inability to commit to one genre left me wanting a little bit more, and not in a good way.

While I am sure there will be plenty of people who will enjoy this story, it simply was not for me.

 

About the Author

 

Megan Hart has written in almost every genre of romantic fiction, including historical, contemporary, romantic suspense, romantic comedy, futuristic, fantasy and perhaps most notably, erotic. She also writes non-erotic fantasy and science fiction, as well as continuing to occasionally dabble in horror.

--from the author's website

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