REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: VANDAL by Carian Cole

Posted March 13, 2015 by Kris and Vik in Blog Tours, Book Love, Giveaways, Guest Posts & Reviews, Home, Jmelynn Review / 0 Comments

 Vandal REVIEW

Vandal Synopsis:

amazonShe takes my breath away; she is so beautifully damaged.

Yes I had broken her, ravished her life, destroyed her happiness. I brought her to ultimate despair. I was responsible for all the pain and suffering that now brought her to her knees in front of me.

Broken.

Hopeless.

Reckless in her agony.

She is a mirror of my own tortured soul.

But what I took away I can give back.

In ways she cannot even begin to imagine.

She is everything right in all my wrongs.

She loves me. She needs me.

She has no idea I’m the one who wrecked her life.

guest review Jmelynn

hmmmm, I’m kind of stumped on how I feel about this book. Some of it I loved, it was deep and extremely heartbreaking, other parts of it though just left me wanting more, I think. Let me see if I can make sense of this….
The first few chapters of the book were beyond gripping. I’m 8 months pregnant, and I started it way too late at night for sure, but I had to put it down and start again the next day. It was just, and I know I’m repeating myself here, but there is no other word other than HEARTBREAKING!!! I’m almost afraid to put too much info here because I don’t want to ruin the story so I’m going to be pretty vague. Vandal is the drummer in Ashers and Embers. The same band that Storm was in book 1. They are on a break and the book actually starts out with Vandal literally pounding into his on again off again hometown piece. However, he gets a call from his former piece and has to take a late night trip despite his better judgement. This one road trip ends up costing him and others dearly.
So, like I was saying the first part, no matter how difficult it was to read, was amazing. Even though it literally hurt to read it, it ended up being my favorite part of the book. I liked how raw it was and the writing was flawless. Now, with that said I didn’t hate the other part of the book, I think certain parts of it just ended up making me a little mad, and at times I honestly got a little tired of reading about Vandal and Tabi getting it on and wanted to get to the big reveal part. Tabi and Vandal have a very twisted and heartbreaking past. There is that word again, I know.  One Tabi doesn’t even know they share. But Vandal is convinced Tabi is the very one for him. So this would be the part where I will admit to be a little aggravated. I’ve read plenty of books before where there is some huge lie and we know it’s going to end up with a huge explosion, but this one just seemed different. Vandal almost seemed to be taking advantage of Tabi and being a major hypocrite the entire time. He was jealous of people from her past, yet felt no need to explain himself EVER, and seeing how their past is connected, I felt, he had NO RIGHT. This normally doesn’t really bother me, except that I have that underlying dread of what’s to come, but this time it just seemed so wrong. I don’t know, blame my hormones, it just affected me different this time.
I will say, in the very very end, there ends up being a little twist I never expected. However, once I read it, I guess it didn’t have the impact on me I thought it should have. I don’t know. I was shocked for sure, but it almost seemed to be like an afterthought, and it led me to believe that had that little input been put one, two, maybe 3 chapters earlier the ending would have made sense, but it just led me to believe that another explosion was on the horizon instead and us as the readers were going to have to use our imagination on how it went down.
 I loved Storm’s book and when I read what this one was going to be about I was super excited. I could tell it was going to be amazing. I guess it just goes to say that not every book can win you over, and even though there were parts of this book I completely loved, there were also parts that just left me….. a little disappointed. It totally sounds like there could be a second book though, because it was basically a HEA for now, because I could totally see more shit hitting the fan with these two, and that little twist, yeah I would love to see how that part plays out if the other person found out about it….So we’ll seee…..

 BUY LINKS

amazon usAMAZON UKbnereader_ipadpreviewibooks_thumb_featurekobo

(Storm, book 1 in ASHES AND EMBERS)

amazon us AMAZON UKbnereader_ipadpreviewibooks_thumb_featurekobo

GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Exclusive Excerpt:

I slowly walk down the dark hallway and stop at Katie’s doorway. Her pink nightlight is on, illuminating the room. I don’t want to go in, but I can’t stop myself. The mix of her presence and her void is completely overwhelming, and I fall to my knees in the middle of the room. The pain in my chest is like nothing I have ever felt before, as if my heart is being ripped from my body and sliced into tiny pieces. I want her back so bad. I want to just feel her tiny hand in mine and tuck her into bed.

Lifting my head, my eyes fall on Teddy, Katie’s coveted bear that she left here to ‘take care of me’. I crawl to the small bed and lie my head next to the little bear that, just a few days ago, we tucked into her blankets together until she’d be back. Pressing my face against the little bear, I can’t hold back my tears anymore.

Carian Cole Bio:

carianI have a passion for the bad boys, those covered in tattoos, sexy smirks, ripped jeans, fast cars, motorcycles and of course, the sweet girls that try to tame them and win their hearts. My debut series, Ashes & Embers, follows the lives of rock band members as they find, and sometimes lose, the loves of their lives.

My first novel in the Ashes & Embers series, Storm, published on September of 2014. Vandal, the second novel in this series is publishing in February of 2015. I currently have approximately nine books slated for this series, as well as an MC series in the works, and a few stand-alones coming in 2015 onward.

Born and raised a Jersey girl, I now reside in beautiful New Hampshire with my husband and our multitude of furry pets and spend most of my time writing, reading, and vacuuming.

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