Title: Wicked Torture
Author: J Kenner
Publisher/Year:  EverAfter Romance 11/14/17
Length:   300 Pages
Series:  Stark World #3

Overview

He’s very good at being bad…

Outwardly, Noah Carter is riding high as Stark International’s newest tech genius. Inside, he’s still reeling from the death of his wife and daughter. For years, he’s thrown himself into his work, cutting himself off from emotional ties because they hurt too damn much. But when an old girlfriend walks back into his life, Noah realizes three things: That it’s time to heal. That Kiki is the woman he wants. And that he’ll do whatever it takes to convince her.

Aspiring singer Kiki Porter remembers Noah only too well. He’s the man who ripped her heart into tiny shreds—and then stomped on it. She’d believed he was the love of her life, but then he left, and his departure left her confused and reeling. Now he’s back, and pursuing her with a sensual relentlessness that leaves her breathless.

She wants him—she does. But even though she melts in his arms, how can she trust that this time he’ll stay? Especially when long buried secrets threaten their hope for a future together…

My Thoughts

I love this series – even the larger series and i think that there was so much build up to Noah’s background that it’s great to see it play out here.  His past continues to haunt him with the kidnapping and murder of his wife and child, but what we see is that his past was even worse.  He has another love – a true love that he had to walk away from because Darla had gotten pregnant.  So that’s where we are in this third book in the series.  their paths cross in Austin and life is turned upside down.

Kiki is back – and in Noah’s life in so many forms that he can’t even function.  He sees her in a bar singing, which was her passion back when he knew her, and now she’s doing it again right in front of him.  then there’s the fact that a day later she’s in front of him in his office of Stark Enterprises pitching a marketing plan.  They can’t seem to stay away from each other but know that being near each other is bad.  She’s got everything at stake here and he’s under a lot of pressure from Damien Stark to perform.

The story from here goes on a few different paths.  Everyone is afraid for Kiki that she will get sucked back into the world of Noah and get hurt again – get her heart broken and find herself beyond repair.  Noah on the other hand is as sure now as he was before that Kiki is for him, but he’s got so much baggage from the loss of his family that it’s hard to open up.

When they do allow themselves to try – we see that true to form of Ms Kenner our amazing author, that they are intensely connected.  There’s so much heat and passion there, the past speeds up and meets the present so fast and furious that it’s combustible and that’s exactly what happens.  So of course when things are going well and someone returns from the past, it all blows up.  Poof – gone.

I think that it’s one of the great things that our author is able to do.  She’s weaving this story that gives you hope up to a certain point and knows exactly what is needed to rip the rug out from under us.  There’s so much uncertainty in their lives and there’s even more with this past bit creeping in.  You want to root for them, but you also know that there’s so much more being discussed now.  So on that note, cold shower needed and i can’t wait to see what’s next in the series.  enjoy!