Damaged by Willow Winters - Book Review (Opinião)

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Damaged

Original Title: Damaged

Author: Willow Winters

Publisher: EverAfter Romance

Pages: 300 pages

Synopsis: «It was easy to love Kat.
I didn’t know that’s what it was at first. I knew I wanted her, that I’d stop at nothing to have her in my bed. Ruining her the best way I knew how and making sure she was mine and mine alone.
Taking her was one thing, but I should have known better than to think a man like me could hold on to a woman like her.
There’s only so much I could hide and so much I could run, before the past and my sins caught up to me.
And now it’s too late.
She can’t know the truth; no one can.
She’s mine in every way and I refuse to let her go.
But I don’t know how much more she can take before her love turns to hate.»

Damaged was my first contact with this author and it was, without a shadow of a doubt, a good start.

The story follows Evan and Kat, a couple that everyone would call perfect and that one day, thanks to Evan, is involved in an extremely media covered scandal that puts the relationship at stake.

Before each chapter, there’s a poem supposedly written by the character that is going to narrate and, since we have both points of view, I found it an excellent detail (on Amazon you can find an ebook with just the poems that, at the time this was written, is free. So I recommend it for those who want to read them or just save them).

Regarding the characters, I really like Evan, even though he annoyed me a lot throughout the story, specially by hiding secrets from her wife because they are, allegedly, too dangerous for her, when I actually think that, since she was already involved by being marred to him, they weren’t that special. With this said, I really liked Kat, however, the same problem applies to her that I applied to her husband – both fantastic characters, but over complicated in an unnecessary way most of the time. Overall, the character I liked the most was Maddie, one of Kat’s closest friends that ends up a wallflower throughout the story, but I’m eager to see more of on the next book of the duology.

Honestly, what annoyed me the most weren’t the characters themselves but their actions – Evan doesn’t want to share things with the person he should trust the most and Kat acts like a true teenager instead of an adult.

A part that the author built up very well was the suspense: the book has moments, even in the beginning, that the reader doesn’t know the secrets or how deep they are and the curiosity is very high and, when the mystery ends, the story gets very heavy real quick. Even though for me the plot twist wasn’t completely surprising or unexpected, the author wrote the whole thing very well.

Since in this series, to each couple we have a book, I only felt that the story truly started at the end of this book. But, we have, with no doubts whatsoever, the creation of a perfect environment to develop even better the second book and I’m thrilled to read it, therefore I highly recommend it.

Good readings.

(3.5 out of 5 stars)

• «Love is a stubborn heart» - Chapter 13
• «But envy comes with threats and in its nature, ruins.» - Chapter 15

Damaged

Nome original do livro: Damaged
(Sem edição em português)

Nome da Autora: Willow Winter

Editora: EverAfter Romance
Número de páginas: 300 páginas

Sinopse: «It was easy to love Kat.
I didn’t know that’s what it was at first. I knew I wanted her, that I’d stop at nothing to have her in my bed. Ruining her the best way I knew how and making sure she was mine and mine alone.
Taking her was one thing, but I should have known better than to think a man like me could hold on to a woman like her.
There’s only so much I could hide and so much I could run, before the past and my sins caught up to me.
And now it’s too late.
She can’t know the truth; no one can.
She’s mine in every way and I refuse to let her go.
But I don’t know how much more she can take before her love turns to hate.»

Damaged foi o meu primeiro contacto com esta autora e foi, sem dúvida, um bom começo. 

A história acompanha Evan e Kat, um casal a que todos chamariam de perfeito e que um dia, por culpa do Evan, se vê envolvido num escândalo extremamente noticiado que coloca toda a relação dos dois em jogo. 

Antes de cada capítulo, temos um poema supostamente escrito por cada uma das personagens que vai narrar e, uma vez que temos ambos os pontos de vista, eu acho que foi um excelente pormenor - inclusive, existe um ebook na amazon que são só os poemas e que, pelo menos de momento, é gratuito, portanto recomendo que quem quiser lê-los ou guardá-los a aproveitar. 

Relativamente às personagens, eu gosto muito do Evan apesar de ele me conseguir irritar diversas vezes ao longo da história, especialmente ao esconder da sua mulher segredos por serem, supostamente, demasiado perigosos para ela, quando eu acho que, tendo em conta que ela já estava envolvida por ser casada com ele, não era nada por ai além. Dito isto, também gostei bastante da Kat, no entanto, aponto exatamente o mesmo problema que aponto ao seu marido - são ambos personagens fantásticas, mas muito complicadas e de forma desnecessária na sua grande maioria. Em geral, uma personagem que gostei mesmo muito foi a Maddie, uma das amigas mais chegadas da Kat que acaba por passar demasiado despercebida durante a história e de quem espero ver mais no próximo livro desta duologia. 

Verdadeiramente, o que me irritou mais não foram as personagens em si, mas sim as suas ações - o Evan porque não quer contar as coisas à pessoa a quem supostamente devia contar tudo, e a Kat porque em vez de se comportar como uma adulta parece uma autêntica adolescente. 

Uma vertente que a autora conseguiu construir muito bem foi a do suspense: tem momentos, ainda no início do livro, quando o leitor não sabe que segredos são esses ou a sua profundidade, em que a curiosidade é muito alta, e, quando o mistério acaba, a história fica pesada realmente depressa. Apesar de não ter sido, para mim, uma reviravolta completamente surpreendente ou inesperada, a autora conseguiu desenvolver bem toda a questão em causa. 

Uma vez que nesta série a cada casal corresponde dois livros, apenas no final deste primeiro é que eu senti que a história começou verdadeiramente a aquecer. No entanto, sem dúvida nenhuma que temos aqui a criação do ambiente perfeito para desenvolver ainda melhor o segundo livro e eu estou ansiosa para o ler, assim como recomendo muito. 

Boas leituras.

(3.5 em 5 estrelas)

• «Love is a stubborn heart» - Chapter 13
• «But envy comes with threats and in its nature, ruins.» - Chapter 15