Title: Love the Way You Lie
Author: Skye Warren
Publisher/Year:  Amber Shah 3/9/15
Length:  244 pages
Series: Stripped #1

Overview

A dark romance about the lies that lead us down…

I’ll do anything to stay hidden, even if that means working at the scariest club in town. Then he shows up, mysterious and yet strangely familiar. And so damn sexy.

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 only man who wants to help, but he has secrets of his own.

He has questions I can’t answer.

I’m running from my past, but his might catch me first.

My Thoughts

I’ve clearly read all of Skye Warren’s books / series out of order but it’s ok, i’m learning! This is the first installment of the series related to The Grand, a location that we’ve come to know and love throughout Samantha’s story and an opportunity for us to see a bit more about Ivan. The scary gent. This isn’t his story though, so we’ll have to wait a book or two before we get into that one.

What we have in this first installment to the series is a story about Honor, the girl not the name, although it’s interesting that her parents named her that given their heritage. She comes from a family that has ties with the Mafia, so she’s incredibly valuable to her father and what she can do for him, and as a result, she’s engaged to a man that’s not the best for her. He’s a cop gone bad, he doesn’t treat her well, and after a variety of circumstances, she’s forced to run, taking her younger sister with her. She’s treated like an object and not one that’s beloved. She overhears her father and fiance talking about her, (until she realizes that it’s her sister they’re talking about), and that causes her to fear for their safety even more. There’s a mystery surrounding her mother’s death and disappearance and that scares Honor on top of all else that she’s going through.

Their only chance for survival is to stay under the radar and get away. We find ourselves in Tanglewood, at The Grand, the strip club that Ivan owns, and she’s working there to make ends meet. She’s a classically trained ballerina so this isn’t quite the style dancing that they had in mind for her, but it’s what helps her provide a roof over her and her sister Clara’s head.

While it’s not an ideal place for them to be, especially given that Clara is still in high school, it’s a place where Honor has managed to survive, until one day when a man comes in to the club and shifts the energy. Distracts her and makes her wonder if she’s met him and what he’s after. That’s where our story takes a turn.

Kip, he’s our man in charge here – he is known by Ivan, by others apparently, but no one tells Honor the relationship. She is warned away from him, told that he’s dangerous, yet some how she doesn’t listen since she’s drawn to him and he’s able to get under her skin just a little bit. Kip is a rogue guy for us, we don’t know his background and his motivation. We don’t know who he’s connected to but we know that he’s also drawn to Honor.

When we find out who he is, we see things take a dark turn. When we find out who he brings around as a result of his connections, we see that he should not have been trusted. What we get to towards the end of this story is a shootout, a death, a question of what the future will hold and then beginning of a relationship, and the hint of another. The who’s and the how’s are yet to be determined but I think that we get a good jumping off point to get into the rest of these stories. Enjoy!