Hard Love by Shana Vanterpool

Title: Hard Love

Series: Guns & Ink

Author: Shana Vanterpool

Genre: N/A Contemporary Romance Standalone

Release Date: May 22, 2018

When two people in pain collide, there is something intoxicating about drowning in the chaos of hard love.

Brando Hawkins is a detective with the Denver Police Department. The world should be his to take. He’s a dedicated officer with a promising career. But Brando’s got secrets. Dark, ruthless secrets. At twenty-six, he’s burned-out, and the sight of another body, one more unhappy ending, might just do him in.

Catherine Abbott is a woman who wars with her demons and guards her heart. Immersed in a world where people ink their lives on their skin, Catherine trusts only that which she can see. And, as a rape survivor, she finds comfort in control.

But Brando’s demons start to tangle with hers. They’re dangerous, like hers. But they’re beautiful too.

A spray of bullets brings them together, and the pain of their pasts collide with the lure of their futures. Cat wants to mend his heart and his wounds, but Brando’s secrets lay tucked away in a vault so tightly sealed, she can’t get through.

Everything around them is covered in the confusion of love and the burn of revenge, but no one ever said love was easy.

Hard Love is the next standalone installment in the Guns & Ink series by Shana Vanterpool, a world of tattoos, love, and redemption from Swoon Romance.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

This is not a love story full of sweetness and light.  It is a love story that is born in darkness and is a hard love.

Brando was involved in finding the man who kidnapped Catherine's friend but it left him feeling jaded and lost, especially after finding out the guy was responsible for so much more.  He used the police force as a means of out running his past but the past has funny habit of catching up with you.  It leaves him badly injured and Catherine setting out to help him on his road to recovery.

There are plenty of feelings of unworthiness from both sides as Catherine has her own past impacting on her present.  This results in plenty of pushing and pulling along the way as they try to reconcile what they feel with what they fell they deserve.  It is messy and complicated but oh such a good read.  It kept me on edge throughout as they battled their pasts and their insecurities.

Romance author, coffee drinker, and bad boy aficionado. Every second not spent breathing is an opportunity to write and read. I live in Northern California with my family and actress dog, Halle Bella. (Just Bella when she decides to cut the crap.) Escaping with a good book is something I live for and I write so others can do the same.

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