Ricochet

by Keri Lake

[stacey_is_sassy]

Behind the cover…

The cover of Ricochet has been playing on my mind for awhile. See, I saw this cover and was spellbound. At first, I was consumed with wanting. Then I heard some talk, and I hesitated. For starters, people were talking about the darkness, the violence and the fact that the heroine is kidnapped and the hero was her captor. But…I was still consumed with the cover. How could that man on the cover be violent and a kidnapper? Would I want to become attached to a bad man? Then, it got worse. I heard that the man was a shell. His life had been taken from him when he lost his family. Oh geez. I’m now supposed to see him find a new love. No, I can’t do it. This will be too hard. I’m not strong enough to handle the pain. I shelved my desire to read Ricochet and left it sitting on my wish list on Amazon. I’d see it sitting there and ask myself if I was ready…until one day, I bit the bullet. Now, even though it was sitting on my kindle, I still couldn’t bring myself to read it. I’d look at the cover and think, soon…ish. Lo and behold, the wonderful Lana, from Dirty Girl Romance, was holding a competition for Backfire #2 in the series and I thought to myself, if I win Backfire, I’ll know it’s time to read Ricochet. Guess what I won…and my journey behind the cover began.

Ricochet is a story that sucked me in from the very first page. I was bracing myself for the violence and abuse knowing that it could get quite ugly. In my previous reading experiences, I’ve found that I’m somewhat able to blank out violence, death and destruction. I get a little upset, but I’m kind of able to compartmentalise it. What I didn’t really brace for was how close to home this story hit. I’ve been where Nick has been. No, I didn’t take a bullet to the head, but I did have a head trauma after a car accident. I had the stabbing headaches, the need to rub the pain away, pull my hair out, scream my frustrations. I also dealt with extreme anger as the part of the brain affected was my short fuse. Years later, I can laugh about it, but at the time, I wasn’t the only one who suffered. Everyone around me suffered too. So, while in Nick’s case it was extreme RAGE and emotional trauma, I understood him. I was just a little nasty and took it out on those I loved. In Nick’s case, he had to deal with his head injury AND keep living knowing that the most important people in his life were gone. His only way to deal with living was to make his life a dedication to REVENGE AND CULLING.

Aubree Culling is living a lie. Her scars are hidden and the smiles on the outside are the mask to her true feelings. She’s married to a monster and every attempt at reaching for freedom is squashed with repercussions. The monster is the Mayor with the ability to hide his evilness behind a crooked chief of police and pollies in his pocket. Who would have thought that by being kidnapped gives her a taste of freedom?

There are times in Ricochet where your heart is pounding. That accelerated heartbeat is caused by the characters feelings of anger, frustration, lust and loss. I could see the emotions, feel the emotions, live the emotions. I was watching a movie in my head and at times, I wanted to scrunch my eyes closed so I wouldn’t feel so much. I loved both Nick and Aubree and felt the pain from their pasts. Was their love a perfect love? Probably not, but to two people who have lived through hurt and betrayal, sometimes an imperfect love is perfect.

Did this story leave me on a high? Yes!! Did it end the way I wanted it to? Yes!! Do I condone violence? No!! Did I understand the violence, where it came from and why it was so extreme? Kind of. It made sense to not trust that justice will be served because you don’t trust the men in power. Ricochet has made it to my Best-of-the-best Goodreads lists.