Literaria: Love the Way you Lie and write + giveaway

A title like a song lured me to an excerpt of this novel that had my mind reeling with just two paragraphs. Knowing it had been written by one of my favourite romance storytellers, Skye Warren, I couldn't resist the temptation.

I knew I had to read it. Poetic and sad, the author's writing style is powerfully intimate. It draws you in and absorbs your mind as your heart is slowly unwound. I could feel the main character's despair, her total dismissal of her self-worth in a world made of darkness, strip clubs and running away from painful truths.

When Honey / Honor meets this man cloaked in mystery and coiled energy, I was as helpless before his magnetism as she was. I wanted to know her secrets as badly as I hoped he'd help her in any way, not be another predator in her life.

Chapter after chapter, I felt as if I'd never read anything quite like this before. The games Kip and Honey play in the club are both psychological and physical. They are extremely sensual, partly disturbing, and equally delicate. Bad deeds have plunged Honey into her life as a stripper and, little by little, they come up to the surface as if a thriller were unfolding its mysterious plot.

Kip is intensely attracted to her, though he remains shrouded in his own secrecy, never taking advantage of her beyond certain limits even when he strips her bare of likes and deceit. It was excruciatingly unnerving to see him unravel Honey every time he summoned her to a booth, or touched her in ways I've never seen in any other book before. So deliciously unexpected and moving. Is Kip a monster or a knight in disguise? Oh, the question kept bouncing in my mind, taunting me.

Kit is a rough man, Honey is a lost woman. Together, they don't make a fairy tale, but the hope still flutters beneath the grim reality and the hopelessness. I so much wanted his gentleness to mean something because Honey needs a respite from her awful sacrifices, in the past and in the present. When they are together, nothing is assured. Still, I would feel the bittersweet poetry in their plight. In an alley or a roof, they felt so lost and so deserving of a ray of happiness.

I felt H's pain as if it were my own. She's hiding in a strip club because she's running from something even worse than that. As we discover more about her seedy past and get glimpses of who Kit really is, the emotional dam builds up a larger, more impending pressure. And oh, when it breaks! I was in real pain. When the truth explodes around Honor / Honey, it's torturous, it reeks of violence, blood and betrayal.

This couple is an amazing combination. She's tainted but deserves to be loved. He's dangerous and selfish, but he can be the saviour that she needs. It was a twisted relationship all along, but also alive with emotion and devotion. That's why I like to read this kind of dark, sad stories, because that's where the light shines brighter.

I loved the ending! It has its own kind of poetic justice. I only hope to read Lola and Blue's story soon. I'm not nearly finished with this harsh, bittersweet kind of romance.

Love the Way You Lie

by Skye Warren
Publication date: March 12th 2015
Genres: Adult, Romance

Goodreads - Amazon

A dark romance about the lies that lead us down…I’ll do anything to get safe, even if that means working at the scariest club in town.I’ll do anything to stay hidden, even if it means taking off my clothes for strangers.I’ll do anything to be free. Except give him up. When he looks at me, I forget why I can’t have him. He’s beautiful and scarred. His body fits mine, filling the places where I’m hollow, rough where I am soft.He’s the one man who wants to help me, but he has his own agenda. He has questions I can’t answer.What are you afraid of?You.