by Sophie Jordan
Series: Devil's Rock #2
Genres: Contemporary, Adult
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: July 26th 2016
Source: ARC from publisher for review
Rating: ★★★
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Hell hath no hunger like a man let out of a cage . . .
Shy and awkward, First Daughter Grace Reeves has always done what she’s told. Tired of taking orders, she escapes her security detail for a rare moment of peace. Except her worst nightmare comes to life when a ruthless gang of criminals abducts her. Her only choice is to place her trust in Reid Allister, an escaped convict whose piercing gaze awakens something deep inside her. Reid is nothing like her other captors.
He’s tougher, smarter…and one blistering look from him makes her hotter than any man ever has.
Reid spent years plotting escape and revenge . . .years without a woman in his bed. For this hardened felon, Grace Reeves isn’t just out of his league—she’s from another planet, but that doesn’t stop him from wanting her. Escaping Devil’s Rock was tough, but resisting this woman could be the end of him. For a man with nothing to lose, protecting her . . . claiming her as his own, becomes more necessary than his next breath.
Going into Hell Breaks Loose, I partly felt excited and partly nervous. Excited because I like Sophie Jordan's writing and reading any book of hers is a blast and nervous because the heroine in the book is kidnapped by people the hero knows. In the end, I fell somewhere in between when it came to my feelings for this book.
I liked Grace, the main character here. As the President's daughter, she hasn't had much freedom. So when the opportunity arises, she sneaks out of her hotel room unbeknownst to her body guard ...only to find herself kidnapped. Typically, I find myself struggling with heroines like Grace who are skittish, innocent and rather lacking in poise and elegance, despite her being a powerful man's daughter. But I liked how much strength she started to show throughout the story, during her kidnapping. She tried her best to escape her kidnappers, and tried to work her way out of the situation she was. Even though she failed at her attempts, I liked that she made the effort to try.
This series features convicts and the convict featured here is Reid. Reid has just escaped prison when he comes home to find out that his brother has gotten in with the wrong crowd and has kidnapped the President's daughter. Reid was one of those quietly intense male characters. He has that dangerous air around him, which made him quite an enigma. Having spent so many years in prison had undeniably roughened and darkened him, but he still had aspirations, passions and desires. I loved when he started to open up to Grace, talking about his childhood and his grandfather. Those were some of my favorite scenes in the book.
The attraction between them was intense and passionate from the get go. Every look they shared was steamy. Despite the intense chemistry though, I felt a bit uncomfortable with their relationship because Reid was keeping Grace without her consent. Don't get me wrong, he was nothing but gentle towards her. Still though it felt, to me, very much like Stockholm Syndrome and ultimately, that left to me feeling plain weird about the romance. Outside of that though, I quite liked Reid and Grace as a couple. They shared some really sweet scenes and I thought Sophie Jordan did a terrific job balancing out the steamy and emotional scenes.
Overall, I liked Hell Breaks Loose and the issues I had were definitely all on me because I knew what I was getting into. While I didn't love the story, I still thought it was enjoyable.
Have you read anything by Sophie Jordan before?
Let me know in the comments below!
