Showing posts with label T.K.Leigh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label T.K.Leigh. Show all posts

Saturday 17 January 2015

Heart of Light By T.K.Leigh



Twelve years ago, Jolene’s adoptive mother died. Twelve years ago, a man showed up at Jolene’s door and promised to take care of her. Twelve years ago, Jolene was happy. Then it all changed… 

Jolene Bergio has spent the last twelve years of her life asking one question… Why? Why was she left in the custody of a man who would sell her each and every night to the highest bidder? After a few years, she shut off, giving up hope that anyone would ever find her. Until her luck changed one night and she escaped. 

Twelve years later, she finally feels something she hasn’t felt in a long time… Free. 

Almost. 

Scared that her past will find her unexpectedly, she hides away in a rented beach house, trying to distance herself from everyone… Until Dr. Cameron Bowen enters her world and slowly tears down the walls that she has built up over the past twelve years of her captivity. Jolene begins to learn to love again. 

And trust again. 

But when a man from Jolene’s past emerges, will she be able to keep her identity hidden? When lies are told and hearts are broken, will the truth surface in time to bring Jolene back from the shadows that threaten to expose who she really is?



This is twenty years later and Cam's story. He's reaching his forties (nearly) and is a DR, helping other woman come to terms with sexual abuse, sex trafficking, or abusive relationships. 

When his friend rents out his beach cottage to a frightened young girl he is reluctant at first until he sees her.
This book made me sick. What poor Jolene went through was crazy sick and I felt deeply sorry for. 
I will say I really liked Cam in the first book but in this book he got on my nerves A LOT!!! He acted so naive. He has seen the signs of abuse for years, not just by working with abused woman, but for looking after his sister Marley. So why he acted dumb through this book is anyone's guess. 
I wanted to smack him upside the head. Honestly. 

Jolene was a kind character. Kind of broke my heart the life she had to go through. The ending was really sad too but I was glad for the outcome. 

3.5*

Heart of Marley By T.K.Leigh



To the moon and back… 

From the stars to the ocean… 

That was Marley and Cameron Bowen’s secret code. 

Twins born just five minutes apart, they have the perfect life… Until tragedy strikes just weeks after their eighth birthday and their father is killed by a drunk driver. Having trouble coping with the loss of her soul mate, their mother tries to find comfort in drugs and alcohol… And an abusive man with a penchant for underage girls. No longer able to stand listening to his sister’s screams and cries every night for nearly three years, Cam takes matters into his own hands and they’re finally able to escape the nightmare. 

They’re finally able to start over… 

But the nightmare still haunts Marley. The years go on and she is forced to put on a smile, making everyone think that she is the perfect, well-adjusted teenager that she is supposed to be… Until she is faced with a painful reminder of her past during her senior year of high school and she’s no longer able to keep on the mask that she has been compelled to wear.


Where to even begin with this book.
I'd chosen it as a random read not really taking in the blurb or anything, so I pretty much went in blind. 
My God, I was completely shocked by everything, of how quickly I got sucked in and how thankful I was to the author at not being descriptive on heartbreaking scenes involving rape. 

The whole story is involved around Marley and her twin brother Cam's lives, how they moved from an abusive home, to live with their aunt and uncle. 

I will start with talking about them because never and I mean never have I hated two people like I hate them. I understand peoples beliefs in forgiveness but in this novel it took the biscuit. The uncle mostly because he forgave the abuser. You'd think with someone with two young girls he'd want to protect the world from someone like him. Three years of abuse she suffered by this man, it wasn't something that happened once and was a mistake. The man kept doing it. Yet the uncle forgave him, vouched for him and got him free. 
Then we have the aunt. As a woman you'd think she would understand what Marley had been going through. Also with two young daughters she'd want to help Marley move forward, but all the aunt did was parade her around like a sex symbol. It made me sick to my stomach. 

Marley finally feels what it's like to love. She dates, has sex, moves forward and finally starts to open up about her past, a past she's been told she can never talk about. It's forbidden. 

It all shows her brother Cam beginning his first relationship. 

As the story progressed I honestly saw it ending happily, that it was a book about moving forward, forgetting the past, but I was so freaking wrong. 

I'm not ruining the book, but I will say I cried ugly tears from the minute Marley says from the sea to the stars. or whatever their saying is. My god, I had to stop reading I was sobbing that hard. By the end of my cry fest my pillow was soaked and my cheeks felt raw. I've cried in books, like really cried, but nothing will ever compare to the tears and heartbreak I felt in this book. 

T.K.Leigh really outdone herself with this one because I don't think I'll ever get over this book. Even now five days later my heart still breaks thinking about it. 

5*