Review by Booklist Review
Gabriel spent six years of his childhood as a missing child. As a result of his experiences, he cannot stand to be touched. After her own abusive childhood, Ellie ran out of options until she ended up as a stripper. Now Gabriel hopes she can teach him how to enjoy physical contact. Ellie quickly sees that he is a danger to her carefully constructed barriers, but after she is brutally attacked, he is the only one she can turn to for help. Despite the horrors of her characters' pasts, Sheridan (Archer's Voice, 2016) weaves a surprisingly tender story about two people finding healing and acceptance in one another. While Gabriel and Ellie were mutually attracted from the start, their feelings are kindled when they start to open up to each other and learn to be vulnerable. Despite their brokenness, Sheridan avoids angst and focuses on hope. Told in alternating first-person narrations, this contemporary romance full of survival and redemption will find Sheridan many new fans.--Rothschild, Jennifer Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this gimmicky romance, bestseller Sheridan (Archer's Voice) unites two individuals who have experienced so much tragedy that their combined anguish may exhaust the reader. Ellie lost her beloved mother at an early age and was foisted on a father who had never known she existed and preferred it that way. Escaping at 18 from his insufficient protection, she is now a beautiful but wary young woman known as Crystal. While working as a stripper (Sheridan emphasizes that she had no choice but to pursue this career path), she has developed the necessary shell to survive. Then preternaturally handsome Gabriel appears in the strip club and makes an unusual request: he wants to hire Crystal to help him tolerate being touched so he can have a relationship with a woman. Gabriel's backstory is as horrific as hers: he was kidnapped as a child, locked in a basement, and tortured for years until he managed to kill his assailant to escape. Somehow, he has achieved a fairly normal adult life. Crystal is initially unwilling to participate in his experiment, afraid of being made to experience feelings herself, but circumstances force her to rely on Gabriel, and they fall in love quickly. Gabriel is brave and wants to move forward with his life; Crystal struggles with doubt and does not believe she deserves anything good. This novel often reads like a sappy, overwrought TV movie, but some readers who like seeing lost souls find each other and emerge stronger may enjoy it. Agent: Kimberly Brower, Brower Literary. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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