Review: Bitter Heat by Mia Knight

Review:

Whenever I find a new author, I feel as if I’ve hit the jackpot. I’m always searching for stories that resonate within me, and consequently for authors that write them. When I enjoy one story by the author, all the other books the author has written gets immediately added to by never-ending TBR by default. Mia Knight was one of those gems for me. On a whim I picked up Bitter Heat, the blurb was intriguing as heck. Ex-husband and wife stuck in a cabin together? After they parted bitterly? Yes, yes sign me up for all of that.

What I didn’t expect was to be blown away by the story and the characters. And oh my gosh, the angst. THE ANGST. I love me some good angst.

Our female protagonist Jasmine Hennessy is visiting her ex-mother in law when the woman suffers a heart attack. As a result, Jasmine rushes her to the hospital, and that puts her in the path of her very volatile, still bitter ex-husband James Roth. Can I say their first encounter was fire??? Like sparks flying off the page, set my kindle on fire, kind of chemistry. Jasmine is adamant that she will not let herself get swept up by James once again. When they married, she was young, and in love, but events showed her that her love had no worth in a man like James' life. She escaped the marriage, but barely. Now a successful writer she has wised up, and she definitely knows better than to let James bulldoze his way into getting whatever he wants.

You would think so.

However, after their first encounter, Jasmine realizes that this James is very different from the man she’d married. He is angry, laser-focused, and he wants answers. Jasmine is no match for his high handed maneuvering and falls back into this angry relationship with him. She has no hope of walking away from him without scars, and when he makes her an impossible offer she has no choice but to accept, damn the consequences.

What do I say about the characters?

Jasmine is a strong, yet vulnerable person. I felt her pain, her confusion, and her angst in her every encounter with James. She wanted to hold herself away from the events unfolding but found it impossible to do so.

Now for James. James, James, James, James, James. How do I describe him? I hated him, yet I couldn’t stop reading, his every interaction with Jasmine a balm to my masochistic soul. He made me want to throw my e-reader across the room, and I had to put down the book quite a few times to process what had happened. James was mysterious, and there is a lot more to him that I think the author will explore in the coming books. Why he married Jasmine in the first place, why he kept all those secrets from her when they were married, what is his endgame now? There are so many layers to the man, and Jasmine has no way of wrapping her head around all of them. Just when she thinks she’s figured him out, he goes and does something totally unexpected making her question everything she’s known.

The downside of reading this book was the wait for the next one. Especially after that cliffhanger-ish ending. This book has everything- drama, hot sex, and did I mention ANGST. It’s like my favorite combination. Bitter Secrets, the second book, is coming out next year, and I cannot wait to dive back into the world that Mia Knight creates. In the meantime, I’ll go wild thinking about all the possible theories for the next books.

5 huge stars!!!!

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