Thursday, March 20, 2014

BLOG TOUR: Destroyed – Pepper Winters + Review, giveaway & deleted scenes!

Released: March 7th, 2014

She has a secret.
I’m complicated. Not broken or ruined or running from a past I can’t face. Just complicated.

I thought my life couldn’t get any more tangled in deceit and confusion. But I hadn’t met him. I hadn't realized how far I could fall or what I'd do to get free.

He has a secret.

I’ve never pretended to be good or deserving. I chase who I want, do what I want, act how I want.

I didn’t have time to lust after a woman I had no right to lust after. I told myself to shut up and stay hidden. But then she tried to run. I’d tasted what she could offer me and damned if I would let her go.

One secret destroys them.
"The beauty in this world was hidden by filth and lies while evil was painted in beauty and smiles."
**ARC PROVIDED BY AUTHOR**


A haunting read that definitely makes it to my favorites this year. Pepper Winters has once again blown me away with a dark romance novel that made my heart jump out of my chest. The characters were undeniably captivating and the storyline so unbelievably intense. I suffered through this book in a very good way and I'm definitely welcoming more of Pepper's works with open arms in the future.

Wow, just absolutely wow. I actually find this novel darker than the Monsters in the Dark series. Here, we have Fox who's got more issues than Q. As much as I loved Q, my heart ached for Fox as well.

Fox has a troubled past which disables him from truly connecting with people other than through pain. He's always been an introvert who relishes in lashes of whips and punches to the guts. That's the only way he knows to keep the voices in his head down and try to keep his past at bay. Then enters Hazel, who flips his world all around.

The fact that she seems so immune to his threats and doesn't even seem scared of him takes him completely by surprise.
The mixture of uncertainty and fear in her eyes undid me, and I'd never been so close to breaking down. After everything I'd done, she still hadn't left.
And Hazel comes in like a hurricane into his life. He never expected someone so beautiful, so fragile yet so strong to unravel him. All of him. She isn't afraid to take control although at times it frightens her that she has so much control over him. But she didn't even know it in the beginning.
She'd successfully done in ten minutes what I'd tried to do in two years.
She brought me back to life.
Those two lines!!! Masterpiece. Absolutely brilliant. This sums them up perfectly.

The novel's structure is alternating between two point of views and this gives us an in-depth look to each of the protagonists. We have Fox who we see is struggling to take control of his life and of his past. Then we have Hazel who's more careful because she has so much to lose and she's so scared that she'll lose that one important piece of her, which you'll find out if you read the novel.

The two seem to have a destructive relationship at first. Fox lives in the pain. He lives for the pain. And Hazel can't stay away from him. They both have pulls to each other which start out as a bond of lust and turns into a real connection through chemistry.

Fox and Hazel pushes through their fears and obstacles within their life in order to be together. But, there's always something holding them back even until the end. Whether it's family or their past. They both had to overcome each of their fears individually before they could reconnect their relationship.

I have so much more to say about this book but I'd probably end up spoiling the whole thing. So I'll leave this review with a quote by Fox/Roan:
"I thought I cold walk away and let you go, but I can't. I need you too damn much. You make me feel alive. You make my fucking heart beat for the first time, and I'm not going to give that up."
Now, let me go cry in a corner as I relive this story again. 

MY RATING:

4.5 - 5 APPLES!!!!!

✭ BOOK LINKS ✭
(Click book cover for Goodreads link)

Destroyed ♕

✩✮✩ Deleted Scenes ✩✮✩

✧ Deleted Scene #1 (Roan) ✧
I screeched to a halt outside the apartment block. Oscar refused to tell me the address, but I didn’t waste time arguing. I could’ve beaten it out of him, but I had other means. 

I’d learned from his refusal last time and attached a GPS tracker to his car. It was a simple matter of following the most recent route he’d taken with the app on my android. 

The purr of my black Porsche set my nerves on edge. The dash clock said it was one a.m. 

Too early for a house call, but this wasn’t just a house call. This was a flat out demand for her to come back. I would give her anything if only she’d give me one last chance. 

Turning the engine off, I dragged bruised and cut hands through my unkept hair, and climbed out of the sports car. The sleek lines glowed like an expensive gem beneath the street lights. Raindrops ran down my face, feeling like the world cried for me. The sky sensed my inability to re-enter the human life—it mourned on my behalf the regret I felt.

- - -

✧ Deleted Scene #2 (Hazel) ✧
It was an hour before Obsidian opened its doors to fighters and I had no problem getting past the bouncer this time. I didn’t know if it was because he recognised me or before of the rage in my eyes, but he had the door open for me the moment I screeched to a stop.

Fox was exactly where I thought he would be. 

In his basement, working on yet another weapon, forging yet more steel into yet more torture equipment. 

“You!” I yelled.

He snapped upright, turning off the welding torch. He spun to face me, tugging the protective goggles off his head. “You yourself.” His grey-white eyes looked as bleak as any snowstorm. “Where the hell did you go? I’ve been trying to track you down for days?” Prowling toward me he growled, “Didn’t you think I’d go out of my mind? I know how shitty I treated you but you ran before I could fucking apologise.”
Such beautiful, beautiful scenes! :"D — Sam

THIS GIVEAWAY IS INTERNATIONAL
Signed copy of Destroyed (1)
Signed Destroyed swag packs (2)
eBook copies of Destroyed (5)
eBook copies of Tears of Tess (2)
eBook copies of Quintessentially Q (2)
Signed Monsters in the Dark swag packs (1)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pepper Winters wears many roles. Some of them include writer, reader, sometimes wife. She loves dark, taboo stories that twist with your head. The more tortured the hero the better and she constantly thinks up ways to break and fix her characters. Oh, and sex… her books have sex.

She loves to travel and has an amazing, fabulous hubby (who speaks French—hot!) who puts up with her love affair with her book boyfriends. She loves to hear from her readers so hit her up at pepperwinters@gmail.com

Check her out in these sites:


To see other stops in the tour featuring reviews, excerpts, and more, click here.

No comments:

Post a Comment