Summary:
"For fractured souls are like magnets.
Drawn to collide into an impossible bliss…"
Labeled a ‘Cursed’ woman of Eve from birth, Maddie has endured nothing but pain and repression at the hands of The Order’s most abusive elder, Moses. Now living with her sister in The Hangmen’s secluded compound, finally, Maddie, is free. Free from the suffocating faith she no longer believes in. Free from endless years of physical and mental torment.
Just… free…
At age twenty-one, the timid and shy Maddie is content to live within the confines of her new home—safe from the outside world, safe from harm and, strangely, protected by the Hangmen’s most volatile member; the heavily pierced and tattooed, Flame.
Flame.
The man who ceaselessly watches over her with his midnight dark and searing eyes. The man who protects her with a breath-taking intensity. And the man who stirs something deep within her numbed heart.
But when circumstances conspire for Flame to need HER help, Maddie bravely risks it all for the broken man who has captivated her fragile soul.
The Hangmen’s most infamous member, Flame, is ruled by one thing—anger. Plagued by haunting demons from his past, an all-consuming rage, and isolated by an abhorrent hatred of being touched, Flame's days are filled with suffocating darkness, pierced only by a single ray of light—Maddie. The shy, beautiful woman he cannot purge from his thoughts. The woman he has an overwhelming need to possess…
... the only person who has ever been able to touch him.
Flame’s mission in life is to protect Maddie, to keep her safe. Until a trigger from his troubled past sends him spiraling into madness, trapping him in the deepest recesses of his disturbed mind.
His Hangmen brothers fear that Flame is beyond saving.
His only hope of salvation: Maddie and her healing light.
Dark Contemporary Romance.
Contains explicit sexual situations, violence, disturbingly sensitive and taboo subjects, offensive language, and very mature topics.
Recommended for age 18 years and over.
Excerpt:
The hand resting near her head inched forward in my direction. I stopped breathing as I thought she was going to touch me. But her hand stopped about an inch from mine.
I wondered what she was doing, when she said, “I like how your hand looks next to mine. It is so big and mine is so small. Yet I feel they look compatible.”
I focused on our hands and noticed that my hand was bigger than hers. Maddie’s little finger then extended, landing right next to mine. I thought of ripping my hand away, but something stopped me. I didn’t want her to touch me; I didn’t want her to be hurt. My touch only ever caused people to be hurt. But I left my hand where it was, our little fingers staring at each other.
“I sometimes imagine what our hands would look like, touching. What they would look like with our fingers intertwined. I wonder if it would make me smile. At times I daydream that it would be something we could do.”
Maddie’s voice was so quiet as she spoke. I couldn’t take my eyes off our hands. I tried to picture in my head what she described. I saw her hand reaching out for mine, but then I thought of how it would make me feel, and I shook my head.
“Our hands can’t ever touch. I can’t… I couldn’t do it.”
Maddie’s lips pulled into a half smile, but water filled her eyes and her voice hitched.
“Why are your eyes filling with water? Why is your voice breaking?” I asked, confused. I had to understand what she was thinking. What she was feeling. I didn’t know, and I had to.
“I am sad, Flame. It makes me sad to know that we can never touch.”
The muscles in my stomach pulled tight with the knowledge that I’d made her sad. Then that warm feeling I’d felt cooled and I no longer felt good. “I don’t want to make you sad. Not you. I just can’t be touched. It makes the flames worse. I can’t touch you.”
“It is okay, Flame,” Maddie said in response, then she looked up at me and added, “Because I cannot be touched by a man either. But I dream about it regardless.”
Review:
It's here! It's here! Finally, the much anticipated Souls Unfractured is here! This is the 3rd book in the Hades Hangmen series. First, we were wonderfully introduced to Mae and Styx. We were also introduced to the brothers of the MC, as well as the Order and the Commune. In the 2nd book of the series, we're introduced to Lilah and Ky. It was an amazing story and only had me loving the Hangmen even more. While I loved Ky and Lilah's story, it couldn't beat Mae and Styx for me.
Ahh, all I could think about was Styx and Mae remind me of Jax and Tara from one of my favorite tv shows... Ah, SAMCRO- how'll I'll miss you. Anyway, all through the first book, and then the second one, there was one person who...intrigued me more than anyone. There was one person that I couldn't quite figure out, one person who always left me wanting to know more. Flame. Flame is the one person in the whole series who called to me on a whole new level. For some reason, from the little I knew of him, he reminded me of one of my other favorite BBF's Rex, from Fighting to Forget by JB Salsbury. Let me just say...
Souls Unfractured did NOT disappoint! Agh, I have been waiting and waiting for this book and I was so thrilled to read it! I had that one terrified moment that I've been counting down, waiting for this experience, and was afraid that I'd talk it up so much in my mind, there's no way it could be as good in reality. Of course, that was not the case and it was WONDERFUL! Flame and Maddie... Ah! If any two characters belong together, it's these two. They are so similar and their fears are each others. Their hopes are the same. Their love for one another is fierce and consuming. They save each other. I'm not going to go into all of the details, but Flame is...fractured. He's been beaten down and broken almost beyond repair as a child. He's gone through more pain and heartache than any person ever should, much less as a young child. As he's grown up, he continues to torment himself from horrible flashbacks and vicious thoughts that invaded him early on in his life. He can't bear to be touched, he can't understand most people and most don't understand him. He's lonely and lost, until his Maddie comes around.
Maddie hasn't had it easy, either. She's grown up in the commune, and not only that... she's taken the brunt of Moses'...attention. She thought she'd never have more than an unfriendly touch and feeling cursed, but then she was saved... by her Flame. Flame is the one and only man who can make her feel like a woman, make her feel happy to have his attention and love, and the only make who could possibly make her want to feel another's embrace.
I could go on and on about this book, but I'm not going to because I don't want to spoil anything. I want anyone and everyone who loves love, who loves to see broken people find love and heal, who loves to believe in hope and healing, to read this book. I promise you won't be disappointed!
