‘Can't Hardly Breathe’ Original Heartbreakers #4 by Gena Showalter

From the BLURB:

Bullied in high school, Dorothea Mathis's past is full of memories she'd rather forget. But there's one she can't seem to shake — her long-standing crush on former army ranger Daniel Porter. Now that the sexy bad boy has started using her inn as his personal playground, she should kick him out…but his every heated glance makes her want to join him instead.

Daniel returned to Strawberry Valley, Oklahoma, to care for his ailing father and burn off a little steam with no strings attached. Though he craves curvy Dorothea night and day, he's as marred by his past as she is by hers. The more he desires her, the more he fears losing her.

But every sizzling encounter leaves him desperate for more, and soon Daniel must make a choice: take a chance on love or walk away forever.

‘Can't Hardly Breathe’ is the fourth book in the ‘Original Heartbreakers’ contemporary romance series, by Gena Showalter.

I loved Showalter’s paranormal romance series ‘Lords of the Underworld’, and I’d been meaning to read her contemporary romance stuff – but she has SO MANY BOOKS, it was hard to know where to start. When I randomly picked up ‘Can’t Hardly Breathe’ at the bookstore, I was excited to read so many of my fave romance tropes in the blurb – unrequited high-school crush between nerdy girl and hot bad boy, TICK! So I decided to give the fourth book in her ‘Original Heartbreakers’ series a try, even though the series started in 2015 and I was coming into it cold.

Ok. So. Total honesty – ‘Can’t Hardly Breathe’ is not technically “good”. The story is fairly outlandish, the exposition sometimes clunky and the dialogue occasionally recalls some of E.L James’s worst ‘Fifty Shades’ monologues … and yet, I still had fun reading it.

Dorothea Mathis was an outcast in high school, relentlessly bullied by beautiful cheerleaders and generally invisible to the rest of her classmates. What gave her a modicum of hope in those years though, was popular bad-boy Daniel Porter once showing her a kindness … and then ripping out her heart when she discovered him canoodling with one of the girls making her life a living hell.

Fast-forward to adulthood and Dorothea has taken over running her family’s inn, where army ranger Daniel is back in town and currently occupying a room … so he can take his one-night-stands somewhere more private than his dad’s house.

Daniel is helping his dad recover after a heart-attack, and trying to downplay the old man’s wish for his son to settle down, marry, and start a family. When Daniel realises the inn owner he’s renting rooms from is Dorothea from high school, he suddenly can’t get the woman with pin-up girl curves out of his head … or heart.

I was hoping there’d be a bigger focus in this book, on who Dorothea and Daniel were in high school, versus now. Dorothea had a pretty crushing experience, of seeing Daniel getting hot n’ heavy with one of the very girls who bullied her mercilessly – and I was kinda hoping that in their small town, a lot of these teen traumas would be revisited and picked apart, so there could be some closure. Also for Daniel to interrogate his history of loving and leaving, and not making the best romantic decisions, even as a teenager … Unfortunately, apart from a first-chapter prologue set in high school, the novel is very much grounded in the present day.

Dorothea is instead bogged down in a messy separation from a cheating husband, that is connected to a much bigger loss … a public warfare with her young sister, trying to keep the rundown family inn from going bankrupt, and a secret desire to finish her studies to be a meteorologist – yes, there is a lot going on. And a lot of it is stupid – the meteorology thing especially, is entirely designed for a stormy climax that’s about as subtle as a sledgehammer.

At least the romance offers up a lot of good, steamy scenes and body-positivity discussions – as Dorothea has always been a big girl, she has body hang-ups around her weight and the scars she bares from a traumatic injury. Though I would have liked a little more discussion around this – especially because Dorothea has seen Daniel’s preferred one-night-stands, and they all tended to be thin … there was room in here for Showalter to provoke and poke at Daniel’s unrealistic beauty expectations too, not just Dorothea’s.

Overall though, the obstacles keeping these two apart are flimsy and stupid – like Daniel not wanting his dad to think he and Dorothea could have a chance of marriage and kids down the line.

Daniel is also said to be suffering from PTSD after quitting the army to start his own private security business, which – this must be the most lucrative business in contemporary romance for how many ex-Army heroes venture into that line of work. There’s really nothing to Daniel’s ex-army status, and it most definitely felt like Showalter shrugged and went with the most conventional romance hero job-trope and threw in a half-hearted exploration into PTSD.

But like I said … though this romance was perhaps quantifiably “bad” and not well-written per-se, I still found myself racing to finish and quite enjoying it. I may not venture back for book 5 (because that romantic pairing, as hinted at in ‘Can’t Hardly Breathe’ didn’t intrigue me) but I might tap back in for book number 6, at least.

So. Not “good” – but a nice little distraction nevertheless.

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2.5/5

'The Darkest Passion' by Gena SHOWALTER

Book received from NetGalley

From the BLURB:

This is an another sizzling instalment of the "Lords of the Underworld" series as Aeron, keeper of the Demon of Wrath, finally meets his match...For weeks, the immortal warrior Aeron has sensed an invisible female presence. An angel - demon-assassin - has been sent to kill him. Or has she? Olivia claims she fell from the heavens, giving up immortality because she couldn't bear to harm him. But trusting - and falling for - Olivia will endanger them all. So how has this 'mortal' with the huge blue eyes already unleashed Aeron's darkest passion? Now, with an enemy hot on his trail and his faithful demon companion determined to remove Olivia from his life, Aeron is trapped between duty and consuming desire. Worse still, a new executioner has been sent to do the job Olivia wouldn't...

This is the 6th book in Gena Showalter’s ‘Lords of the Underworld’ series.

I am a fan of this series. Showalter mixes fable and Greek mythology and stirs it all up into a steamy romance with smoking hot Alpha male demons. What’s not to love?

Each male in the series is possessed by a demon – wrath, rage, pain, lies, disease, death – and each book concentrates on one of these men as they find the woman whose love releases them from their demonic inner prisons.

‘The Darkest Passion’ follows Aeron the keeper of Wrath, as he meets a fallen angel, Olivia. Olivia ‘Liv’ has been following him for months now, and Aeron has felt her holy presence and been frustrated by her hovering. But as he meets her in the (fallen) flesh, he can’t help but be intrigued…

“I watched you,” she continued, “as well as those around you, and I… ached. I wanted you, and I wanted what they had – freedom and love and fun. I wanted to play. I wanted to kiss and to touch. I wanted joy of my own.” Her gaze met his, bleak, broken. “In the end, I had a choice. Fall… or kill you. I decided to fall. So here I am. Yours.”

I loved Olivia and Aeron. Throughout the book Aeron battles with his ‘inner’ demons as well as his real possession, the demon Wrath. Aeron thinks himself less because of all the bad deeds he has carried out in his life. This makes things tricky when he finds himself attracted to the ethereal, Olivia. It makes for a very intense and sweet romance and a genuine ‘will they or won’t they?’.

This book has lots of revelations about the ultimate battle being fought between the Gods and demons - the overarching story arc of the series. Much is revealed about the ‘big player’ in the battle, king Cronus. And because of these spoilers, the battle for Pandora’s box really kicks into high gear. If you’re unfamiliar with the series, all of this won’t mean a whole lot… but fans will be thrilled to know that in this book there are spoilers-galore that hint at the trajectory of the next few books.

My one complaint about ‘The Darkest Passion’ would be a hastily (and neatly) wrapped ending. It’s a little rushed and too conveniently ‘happily ever after’ for my tastes. But that might just be me…

One thing I love about this series is the cast of characters. In each book Ms. Showalter sets up the players for the following book… ‘The Darkest Lie’ is the seventh book, and will follow keeper of Lies, Gideon. He’s one of my favourite characters because his dialogue is so tricky and I’m always genuinely impressed by the loopy meanings Showalter comes up with for him. Gideon is frequently saying things like “I want to be bored senseless” – because if he speaks a truth, he gets zapped with intense physical pain. His storyline and love-interest is set up in ‘The Darkest Passion’ and it’s definitely going to be intriguing… no spoilers, but be prepared for an “oh my God!” moment when his love interest is revealed.

I also love Paris, Keeper of Promiscuity. Paris is cursed to always seek out sexual conquests, or else wither and die. The only catch is once he ‘has’ a woman, he will never again feel a sexual stirring for her. So he is fated to never fall in love, or keep a woman. I think Paris is one of the most tragic characters, but his potential (maybe, possible?) love interest is also set-up in this book, and I am *really* looking forward to that one!

‘The Darkest Passion’ is smouldering and intriguing. Showalter beautifully combines high-stakes drama based on Greek Mythology and a demonic war within an action-packed series full of delicious Alpha males. What’s not to love? If you haven’t already I would highly recommend that you get stuck into the ‘Lords of the Underworld’ series.

4/5

P.S. – thanks to Larissa for introducing me to the wonderful NetGalley website. They give you book galleys – for free! To review!... I know, I was excited too!