Destroyed

by Pepper Winters

[Romance Schmomance]

*jaw dropped to the floor*
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

Pepper Winters has done it again everyone! I wasn't sure how she was going to top her 'Monsters in the Dark" series, but she seriously and it's pretty tough to pick a top favorite. BUT, Destroyed is officially my current top book for 2014. Just like her previous work, she continues to draw you into each page through her words. I may be speaking out of my ass, but there are only a few authors that I've come across that can do that. Destroyed was not what I expected, but she has seriously blown any expectation out of the water!

How do you write a review without giving anything away?! I sat on this review for days wondering to myself what and how I was going to say it. For once, a book completely stunned that I had no idea what I was going to write. After finishing Destroyed that is pretty much how I felt, the book completely ruined me.

In the beginning, we start off in Hazels mind, she joins her best friend, Clue, at Obsidian, which is an underground fight club that not everyone can get into. And that's THE place where she locks eyes with the owner - Obsidian Fox. And it's that very day that her life completely changes.

Hazel has secrets of her own (one that will completely shatter her life), her life wasn't perfect, but she never showed that. She was strong and she made it known. I loved how fierce and how much of a fighter she really was. She was very protective and it was definitely in her nature to be that way.

Fox - he was served the worst card I could have ever imagined. Actually it was beyond that, it just never existed in my mind. He's had a sick, demented, brutal life that started when he was young. And all of it has burdened him, his entire life. He's the perfect definition of damage, and utterly & completely BROKEN. He wishes he could live a normal life, but he knows he'll never get and refuses to believe it. He's been programmed to obey and kill, and a simple touch can trigger and set him off.

Hazel and Fox are completely drawn to each other and it's pretty damn powerful. And he goes and buys her off for what he needs/wants for a month. Hazel's little secret is part of the reason why she accepts his offer, but the other part is well ... she wants him too. Can Hazel be the one bring some sort of normal to his life? Will Fox be able to accept Hazel's touch without trying to kill her?

This book was like a waiting game, I never really knew what was coming and that just captivated me more. I went through different phases with Fox. For majority of the book, I completely loathed the man, he sickened me and it was very hard to feel sorry for his upbringing (does that make me a bad person?). I've just never been in the mind of a man who had so many dark/brutal/bloody thoughts. It would leave me speechless a lot of the times. But eventually, I softened up for the man and I absolutely LOVED witnessing the development of his character. I learned to love this man by the end of the book. And it made me cry.

And Hazel, she wanted to help this man that fell into her life. But it was like a war between the two of them. It was back and forth (and back and forth), they couldn't stay away from each other, even if it was maybe better for them to be separated. I love Hazel, she was a strong character and I gave her so many props for what she had to endure, not just from life, but from Fox as well. Stuff that would make me run away, she faced them head on, guns blazing.

I've never really been one to read dark books, but Pepper Winters is my reason for reading them. Her ability to write about broken souls and have them find their happiness (even if it may seem a little skewed), it all works. It's perfect, it's all in unison. And I might be obsessed with Hazel and Fox; their characters are just broken ... and you can't feel nothing but pain for the both of them. And you ask why they were served this in their life?

This book will make you have all sorts of feels and you'll just wonder "how could this happen", "why is this happening". wHY ... WHYYYY?!

I am completely enamored by this book and everyone needs to read it. Pepper, I am forever a fan and I can't wait to re-read this book.