Reviewed by Carissa
TITLE: Scarred Souls
SERIES: Scarred Souls #1
AUTHOR: T.T. Kove
PUBLISHER: Less Than Three Press
LENGTH: 264 pages
BLURB:
On a cold, wet afternoon Damian stumbled across a young man huddled beneath a tree crying his eyes out. He’s got more than enough problems of his own, but is compelled to give the bloke a place to crash for at least the night.
Josh is used to being alone, and most days it’s easier than trying to deal with people who can’t, or won’t, understand him. When Damian takes him in for the night, Josh assumes it’s gong to be one more go round of sex and get out in the morning.
Neither of them expects the friendship that develops, and they’re far from prepared when friendship starts to turn into more.
Warning: This story mentions abuse and cutting
This edition has been heavily revised and expanded
REVIEW:
No life is perfect, but Josh’s life is barely even liveable. Even after the man who raped and abused him is sent to prison, Josh can’t seem to escape the fear and loathing that that man brought into his life. When one day it all gets to be too much, Josh disappears from his home, and winds up under a tree, wet, alone, and pretty much at the end of his rope.
When Damian stumbles upon Josh, he doesn’t know what to do. But he knows that he can’t just leave the guy there, so he offers to take him home. Much to Josh’s surprise, Damian doesn’t want sexual repayment for the deed, and much to Damian surprise, he finds himself drawn to the hurt and broken man. Which is especially surprising as he is asexual and has no desire to have sex at all. He has never been drawn to anyone the way he is to Josh, but even if Josh can live a life with little to no sex in it, both men are deeply scarred by their pasts and surviving the next day, instead of the next date, is their main problem.
This book hits all kinds of buttons for me. Some I’m not going to talk about, because, well, I don’t want to, but there is plenty here that I feel a deep connection to. There is quite a bit about both Josh and Damian that I get on so many different levels. Josh because of his pain, and his past, and Damian because his disconnect from ‘normal’ life. Toss them both together and I experience a whole host of emotions from pretty much the get go.
And yeah, some of it was sadness and anger, but there was also a lot of hope. Which if you read this story might sound a bit odd. Because this book doesn’t end with a great big ‘everything is fixed and everyone lives happily ever after’ finale. The recognition that Josh is not likely to ever be ‘normal’ again, is a large part of why I like this book so much. His good days do not guarantee that his bad days never happen–the same way his bad ones don’t mean the good will never come back. The reality of his mental state is not downplayed, and I like that. Still, for all that this could have been one hell of a depressing story to read, there wasn’t a lot of that soul-sucking feeling I get when I read some of the more depressing books in my library. There is something about the connection between these two guys that gives you hope. Even if we never see that hope fully realized in this story.
But by far my favorite part of this story is the fact that Damian is asexual. It has been a very very long while since I have come across a book with someone who is asexual who is both a protagonist, and in a story that I enjoyed. Damian doesn’t want to have sex. He just doesn’t. He might be willing, in the future to do it if Josh really wants to, but he has no desire to do it, hear about it, or come upon it by accidentally walking in on his roommate (though I can fully understand the last one). The fact that Damian doesn’t get ‘fixed’ by his growing love for Josh is something I was thrilled at. Because it is not something to be fixed. It just is who he is, and despite all the reasons that are given to him, Damian is perfectly happy that way.
This was a really good book and I am looking forward to the rest of the series. Especially if we get to know more about Silver and Cooper. They both have some interesting back-stories and I’d love to know more about them. This book has a few triggers, especially for suicide, cutting, and child abuse, so be careful if that is something that is going to mess you up, but other than that I really do recommend it.
RATING:
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I was waiting to see what you had to say about this one Carissa. The next book is on LTTs coming soon list already and it sounds good too. I think I’ll add both to my TBR list. Thanks!