4 Smooches!
Synopsis
Josie Banks is a girl without a past. After being found unconscious with no memory, she was shuffled in and out of foster homes where she suffered years of abuse. An experience that left her broken, damaged, and clinging to drugs and meaningless hook-ups to numb her pain.
When Josie disappeared years ago, she took a piece of Tristan with her. She’s the girl he thought he lost forever—the one he’s never been able to forget. Now a twist of fate has brought them back together, and he never wants to let her out of his inked arms again. But Tristan is haunted by a dark past of his own. On the run from ruthless criminals that shattered Josie’s world years ago, reentering her life puts them both in danger.
As Josie and Tristan’s lives become tangled once again, they find themselves unwilling and unable to escape the relentless pull that draws them together. But in Season Vining’s Beautiful Addictions, will the past leave their love in ruins—or bind them together for a lifetime?
Reviews
Meet Josie, a broken young women with amnesia. Thrust into the witness protection programme and countless foster homes after her father was murdered. She has no recollection of how and why her father was murdered or anything from her past. To numb the pain of her forgotten life and the abuse she suffered in foster care she drowns herself in booze and drugs.
Then Tristan comes into her life, a boy from her past who was in love with the person she used to be ‘Mackenzie.’ Tristan is desperate to find the girl he loved within Josie while battling his own demons. Not only that Josie’s horrific past is now catching up to her and she is no longer safe hidden under the identity the whiteness protection programme gave her.
Parts me of me LOVED this story. It was full of suspense, passion, love, redemption,heart breaking story lines, characters I enjoyed reading about and a good plot.
I loved Josie. Some people may find her difficult to connect with but I felt her pain, I felt her heartbreak at how her life had turned out and I admired that, despite being broken, she was still strong by just surviving in the first place and by doing things such as helping out the other kids on the street with food.
Tristan is someone I have definitely added to by BBF list. I liked that he was slightly different to most male leads I read about. A bit of a geek but it suited him and he embraced it, and it was sexy on him. He was a bit more reserved but still had a powerful presence and I could feel his desperation for wanting Josie to come back to life and his love for her.
The plot was also really captivating. It dragged you in pretty much from the beginning. The first scene we have with Moloney hooks you in and you know something bad is going to happen to Josie and that her life is no longer a secret, that she is no longer safe. The story line between Tristan and Josie really broke my heart. When they are at the diner on one of their first meets and Tristan remembers the girl he loved and Josie has no recollection of it; the author really made me feel the sadness of their heart wrenching, unfair lives.
There were lots of surprises and twists and turns that kept you reading page after page. Different story lines like Josie and Tristan’s relationship, the crime involvement, whether her memory would return etc, all kept the story interesting and left me wanting more.
However the reason I can’t give it a 5 star rating is that there were just too many points of view. The chapters kept changing to different characters POV and even within a chapter, swapping between different people. Honestly it got confusing who’s POV I was reading and it was hard keeping up with many characters and what part they had to play within the story; Tristan, Josie, Monica, Moloney, Alex, Mort, Rob etc, I just felt like there were too many people and it was a bit hard to keep up.
The ending was as explosive as I knew it would be. When we get a look into some of the characters lives in the future it was both uplifting and heart breaking. I have to admit I shed a tear when we look at what Rob is doing.
I do have to state one of my favourite lines from the book;
“Don’t be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again”
Overall this was a brilliant dark and gritty story, from an author who’s work I haven’t read before but after this book I will definitely keep a look out for more.
Bethany
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