Review: Never Let You Go

 

Title: Never Let You Go (Never Tear Us Apart #2)
Author: Monica Murphy
Published: May 3, 2016

Synopsis:

Darkly sexy, emotional and forbidden, a woman unwittingly falls in love with the son of her abductor. The conclusion of a two-book contemporary romance series by New York Times bestselling author Monica Murphy.
Lies hurt. Lies destroy. I tried my best to understand why Ethan kept his secrets but it was so hard. Until I realized that I couldn't deny myself any longer -- I needed to be with him. We needed each other. Despite my family's wariness, the media's fascination with us, the fact that his father still has a stranglehold on our lives, we belong together. No matter what. I will never let Ethan go. But sometimes love destroys us too, and we're too weak to banish the demons. Especially when our demons are determined to ruin us... 

My Review:
I don’t know where to start with Never Let You Go. It was a hard story to read, but it was easier than the first one. I feel that this book was meant to give the reader the hope that humans have the capability to move on after a tragedy. That we are capable to grow stronger and find it within ourselves to carry on even during our darkest days. That’s what these books represented to me and I hope that you can find something within them to make you feel something.

I usually don’t read dark stories. Never Let You Go is the story of a women who has survived being kidnapped and raped as a pre-teen. There were definitely some hard themes within these two books and they should not be read if you have a difficulty with these subjects. But, Monica Murphy handled them really well. She built her story with an undertone of hope. Hope that one can move on and past these horrible events and become stronger. The writing really was excellent. I thought the story was handled well and now the book was about moving past terrible events and growing stronger.

Katie or Katherine, she is referred to as both, has had a difficult life. Nothing has been easy for her since she was 12 and things still are not easy for her. But, she is willing to move on and past the events that hurt her as a child. During this book, I truly watched Katie grow and become more of the person she was meant to be instead of the meek character that she has been for the past eight years. It was inspiring to see her struggle but still be able to try and live life differently than she has been. She was tired of being scared and not doing anything with her life. Instead, she was strong enough to take it into her own hands and make a change. Katie’s character was really well written. I do not know any rape survivor’s, but from what I understand, it is not easy to continue on with life like normal. Murphy wrote Katie trying to get her life back really well. She also didn’t let her character hide from the hard things in life. She made Katie work towards her troubles and it was beautiful to watch the story progress.

Ethan or Will, whatever you want to call him, kind of annoyed me. I don’t do well with over-protective characters well. They bother me. I wouldn’t want anyone hovering over me constantly and that is the kind of person Ethan is. For Katie, that personality worked. I don’t know how she put up with him though. The constant worry that Ethan’s character portrayed in the book was annoying enough, I would hate to see it in real life. Ethan also had this hot and cold thing going on. That was just plain annoying. If you can’t tell, I did not like Ethan’s character that much. Though one thing I will commend him on, he was always respectful of Katie. He was slow and careful with her, respecting her past, and making sure that she was okay with everything going on between. Sure, he’s a guy and sometimes does stupid things, but for the most part he was really good about being respectful.

We also got to see inside Aaron’s head this time around. If you have not read the first book, I would recommend stopping here. Aaron is one sick bastard. That is the only way to describe him. Reading his thoughts and seeing his actions actually disgusted me. Though, it did give some insight into a rapists head and what their motivations are. Reading how he thought about his victims and how he twisted everything was slightly frightening. I know why he was locked up in jail and I wish his death row would have come a little faster. I know that that sounds terrible, but this man is horrible and you will understand once you read this book.

All in all, the book was really well written and it handled delicate subject matter really well. The underlying tone of hope throughout the whole book really helped the story with what it was trying to accomplish. That tone kept things from being too dark and terrible so that it was still an enjoyable story to read. Don’t get me wrong, the story had its sad, depressing moments where I understood what Katie was really going through, but it also had happy moments where Katie prevailed and helped herself. I would recommend this book wholeheartedly, just be careful of the subject matter. It deals with the subject well, but it could cause some bad feelings if you are uncomfortable with this type of subject matter.