Reviewed by Tammy

TITLE: A Tarnished Strength

SERIES: Pickleville #4

AUTHOR: April Kelley       

PUBLISHER: eXtasy Books                       

LENGTH: 101 pages

BLURB:

Brad Flynn had a rough start to life. With an abusive father and an addiction problem, his life hasn’t been easy. He has always been the resident bad ass and the town drunk. Even when he gets sober and becomes an upstanding member of the community, it doesn’t seem to change the town’s mind about him. If it weren’t for his two brothers, he would have no one.

His past doesn’t make having a love life easy either, but when he meets Kendrick Ashby, the local bar owner, he wants to give it a try. The only problem is Kendrick has his own problems, ones that make having a violent boyfriend impossible. Both have to decide if dating is even worth a try.

REVIEW:

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, get your tissues out for this one!

Brad Flynn didn’t have a very good start to life, his mother died when he was just a child and after that his father decided to not only rape him but beat him too. Brad couldn’t stop him until his teenage years and he grew big enough to defend himself and his two younger brothers. As a result of constant abuse at home and being in denial about the fact that he liked boys, Brad was an alcoholic by the time he was nineteen. It’s at this time everything comes to a head when his father decides he’s going to beat and rape his middle brother Luis. The only thing Brad remembers is bashing his father into unconsciousness for daring to touch one of his younger brothers.

You then jump ahead thirteen years and Brad and his brothers are all living together. The youngest brother Caden is now eighteen years old, out of high school and trying to find his way in life. Caden was really the luckiest of all the boys because he was too young to remember his mother and he was protected by Brad from their father.

Luis is a mechanic with a lot of mental problems thanks to his father’s abuse, the way he deals with the pressure when it gets overwhelming is to cut himself. He’s trying to get better and stop cutting but he has his ups and downs.

Brad has his own handyman business that he started after he spent time in jail for bashing a man with a baseball bat. Going to jail was the best thing that ever happened to him, he got sober, he admitted and adjusted to fact that he is gay and it had nothing to do with his father’s abuse.

Kendrick Ashby has recently escaped from a very abusive relationship with a controlling man who managed to segregate him and proceeded to mentally and physically abuse him until he put him in the hospital almost dead! Fortunately, his ex is “taken care of” whilst he’s in prison. Kendrick has bought his cousins’ bar from him so when it needs repairs he calls Brad. Kendrick decides to take a chance and get to know Brad but it’s not as easy as thought it might be. There are a lot of ups and downs as they are trying to develop their relationship, especially when Kendrick finds out what Brad was in jail for.

All in all, this is an absolutely heart wrenching, heart-warming and tearjerker of a book! Through all the up’s and down’s in this story you are right there with the characters’. I loved this book and now I’m going to have to buy the first three in the Pickleville series! I can’t wait for Luis and Caden’s books. April Kelley is a must read author and I definitely recommend this book and the Pickleville series.

RATING:  

BUY LINKS: 

eXtasy

Amazon 

ARe