Twin Peeks Bookstore Romance Book 2
Mellanie Rourke
M/M Romance
Release Date 12.09.19
Blurb
KAINE
A lifetime of abandonment leaves its mark on a
person. So much so that when Nicki left, it made a twisted sort of sense. After
all, everyone else I had loved in this world had left me, why should he be any
different?
Six years later and he’s back in my life. He’s
still the same Nicki. Still the same sensitive, intelligent, loving and
compassionate man he was years ago. Except…there are shadows in his eyes that
were never there before. How do I love him again, trust him again? If he
disappears now, there’s no way I’d survive.
NICKI
I love Kaine Devereaux. I always have. But
sometimes love just isn’t enough. When my family moved thousands of miles away
to chase the dream of a cure for my mysterious illness, Kaine and I had no idea
that more than distance would end up separating us.
How do I ask Kaine to trust me again when I
almost destroyed him? How do I ask him to love me again, when I’m still haunted
by the specter of my past?
Nicki’s Fight is a M/M Romance with danger,
heat, and a snarky cat who saves a life. This story does include explicit sex
scenes and descriptive domestic abuse. Please pay heed to the Trigger Warning:
Scenes of domestic violence and abuse
Buy Links:
Amazon US: https://amzn.to/35FoTHW
Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2MbgpR0
Review
Surviving when being told you are HIV positive is one thing
but making a pact with the devil and sacrificing your freedom for the safety of
your mother is a whole other nightmare—one that Nicki knows all too well. That
devil is his own father whose vicious and insane anger results in Nicki
promising to never leave him and allow the horrible physical abuse his dad
heaps on him to happen all so that his mother is allowed to escape. Their
divorce and her safety is the reward Nicki gets for being the whipping boy he
has become.
When Nicki and his parents uprooted from Ohio to Florida to
consult with a specialist about Nicki’s poor health he left behind a piece of
his heart and the boy he loved, Kaine Devereaux. The boys were only sixteen and
swore to each other they would never forget the other—would always be there and
love each other. When Nicki’s diagnosis was confirmed and it was discovered his
mother had cheated on his father all that changed and now six years later Nicki
has returned to Kaine but the damage is done and Kaine, who is not a stranger
to abandonment, isn’t sure he can ever face Nicki again.
Mellanie Rourke is a new author for me and, as of this
writing, Nicki’s Fight is only her
second novel. I will say that for such a novice author, this writer packs a
huge emotional punch and delvers a jam-packed story that never seemed to stop
delivering one shocking event after another. Rourke does so well in developing
and fully fleshing out her characters—I certainly felt I knew what made both
Nicki and Kaine tick after reading their stories. Both boys had survived some
form of deep seated emotional scarring and were still learning how to cope from
years of loss and, in Nicki’s case, abuse. Thankfully the guys had friends and
family that gave them the much needed emotional support to reshape their lives
as adults but still the pain of the past haunted them both.
There were a lot of pieces to this novel in terms of
supporting cast and each had a rather intense story line that was presented in
this novel. As a result, you could sense that the author was setting up various
characters to star in future installments in the series and dangling just
enough drama to make the reader want more information about them. While that
was well done, in my opinion, it also added to what was already a heavy and
involved story. The novel was made a bit more difficult to read by the fact
that the author chose to take us back and forth in time with memories
interspersed during real time situations. This was not done seamlessly, however,
and there were times when I got a little lost as to exactly what year we were
in and what was going on since those jumps happened fairly erratically without
much introduction.
The only major thing that made me question the story was how
much abuse Nicki withstood and the fact that no one really intervened. I
understood this was a small town and his father wielded much power but the idea
that everyone, including the town doctor, never really pushed at that authority
aside from one time was a bit hard to understand. This boy was beaten
repeatedly and the author didn’t shy away from describing those scenes. Please
let that be a warning to those who may be triggered by physical abuse that this
novel could very well not be the one for you to enter into lightly. Having said
that I really was surprised that someone somehow didn’t help poor Nicki escape
particularly since late in the novel its revealed his own mother knew what was
happening.
Nicki’s Fight is
an emotional roller coaster with a shocking ending that puts to right much of a
past that never should have been allowed to happen. It also reminds us that
love can endure not only separation but last through difficult times as well if
it’s solid and steady. While this story is graphic at times in its depiction of
abuse, it also sends us a reminder of just how much the human spirit can endure
and then rise to conquer the darkness.
Excerpt
“Nicki… What happened?” he asked. “I can’t
help but feel like there is something major you haven’t told me. Something more
than just your parents breaking up kept you away for six years.”
I jerked away from Kaine and headed for the
door. Why had I thought I could do this? He deserved so much better than me. He
deserved someone stronger, someone who would have fought, who would have found
a way to escape. Someone who wasn’t sick, who wouldn’t die and leave him, like
so many other people had left him…
Through the dark storm raging in my head, a
little voice tried to convince me that I could tell Kaine the whole story, that
he’d understand what I’d done to protect my mother. To protect him. That voice
was drowned out by the flood of vile words I’d absorbed from my father like a
sponge.
I made it to the door before I was able to force
myself to stop running. I leaned against it, shaking my head in the vain hope
that I could shake off the sound of my father’s voice. I saw my palms flat
against the wooden door, the hated tattoos staring at me.
How was Kaine going to react when he found out
about the deal I’d made with my father? Would Kaine agree if he knew my dad
hated me? What if he thought being sick was some kind of punishment, that I was
an abomination? A worthless waste of human flesh, who had caused my parents to
split and humiliated my father…
I felt like I was standing on a precipice. To
either side of me a yawning chasm that threatened to swallow me whole. My
terror of Kaine’s judgment made the breath in my lungs freeze and I stood
leaning against the door. Then I felt it… a touch, feather light, gently
running over my back. I tried to pull away. I didn’t want him to feel my scars,
to know… Fuck!
To know how fucking weak I was.
I made myself turn back around and I took a
deep, hoarse breath that turned into a cough that rumbled through my chest.
Nausea swirled in my gut as I tried to get the words out, to tell him what had
happened…
“I—My dad, he— he was—” I saw Kaine’s eyes
narrow and his jaw clench. I tried to choke out an explanation, but the words
still wouldn’t come. I felt the censure in his gaze. “Fuck, Kaine! I’m so
sorry…” I doubled over with a sob, my hands grabbing my hair in a punishing
grip, the pain anchoring me in the midst of my emotional storm.
I couldn’t speak, just shook my head wildly in
frustration as Kaine tried to talk to me, but the words were just noise roaring
in my ears. I couldn’t get the words out to tell him, so I did the only thing I
could do. I showed him.
I stood up quickly and ripped the shirt off over
my head and turned my back to him, head bowed. I could feel my whole body
flushing with humiliation, my face scarlet as I faced the closed bedroom door.
A full-length mirror hung on the back of it, and I could see the look of horror
on Kaine’s face. I knew what he’d see, and the shame of it stung through my
body like a million angry bees. I’d seen it hundreds of times in my own mirror.
Sound returned slowly, and I heard him gasp as
he saw my back. Then I heard a whispered, “What the fuck…”
I just shook my head as I showed him my secret,
my shame.
If I’d just done better, been better, Dad
wouldn’t have done it. If I hadn’t been gay, I could have been a better son, a
better man, and he wouldn’t have been pushed to this extreme. It was all my
fault.
About the Author
Mellanie Rourke lives in Akron, Ohio with her
loving (and long-suffering) husband, snarky children, and furry menagerie.
She has been writing since she was a child but
never had the impulse to publish until she was introduced to the world of MM
Romance.
Now her husband has to put up with a variety of
new ways to say "penis", and her children aren't allowed to tell
their teachers what she writes.
For more information on Mellanie's upcoming
work, join her Facebook group Misfits & Malcontents at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MisfitsandMalcontents/
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