Synopsis
Harper Reagan has been through everything a woman could possibly go through. Losing her parents and entering foster care, only to be abused by her foster father. Running away at fifteen, she enters the world’s oldest profession to survive. And survive she did.
Barely...
If you call abuse, counted as property and tortured to no end surviving then that was what she did…survived. Her life was spared, but at what cost. Long ago Harper had died. Today, due to those decisions she made, she is left existing with no choice to do anything else. Staring the devil in the face daily for as long as she did, left its mark and pain behind for her to live with forever.
The pain of that survival scars her deeper than any physical wound she's ever received.
Harper is finally living a better life and has a great business, friends, and a home finally her own. She will do anything to keep her past hidden, including jeopardizing her only chance at love and a truly good man.
Breccan Caldwell is everything Harper doesn't deserve. He's gorgeous, successful, caring and a true gentleman.
Can Breccan show Harper who she truly is? Or will he be pushed out by the darkness she allows herself to be consumed with?
Kota's Review
Darkness Deserved is book 1 in the Shattering the Darkness Series by Jessica Spoon. The title of the book and the series are aptly named. In Darkness deserved we meet Harper Reagan. She is a fiercely independent woman who is predominantly a solitary creature with the exception of her two best friends. Harper is a business woman, who knows exactly how to survive, and how to protect her heart, and those around her. Harper is one of the strongest female characters I have read about for a long time.
Harper’s life has been a constant of betrayal, abuse and trauma. After the death of her parents, her life become one that was lived parallel to her existence. Dissociating in order to survive, being taken advantage of and led into a life of soul destroying actions, kept the essence of Harper safe. Its this essence of Harper that we see and learn about thanks to the love and support Nicco has offered her.
Nicco is like a father and primarily Harper’s saviour. Their relationship knows no bounds in its commitment to one another.
Circumstances are such that Harper meets Breccan Caldwell. Breccan is stereotypically the millionaire boyfriend with Alpha tendencies that we all love to read about, but Breccan is so much more than that. The compassion and patience that he shows, mixed with pure lust, love and desire to protect demonstrate how perfect he is for Harper.
As the title implies, Harper believes that Darkness is her cross to bear and in Darkness Deserved this is Harpers story to defend her viewpoint, and our opportunity as readers to know without a doubt that she is deserving of so much more.
Ms Spoon has written a tale that is as heart breaking as it is uplifting. The trauma that Harper has experienced continues to be very real, and the scenes where we learn about these experiences break your heart, they may also have had me ready to kill or at least kick arse on young Harper’s behalf. Ms Spoon has written a story that captures you, heart and mind – and I was on edge waiting to see how it would all end. There is steam in this story to – you wont be disappointed with Harper and Breccan, but it is the emotional elements that really stick. The message that beauty is only skin deep is never more clear when you see past Harpers physical beauty into that of her soul.
This story of survival and love resonated with me, and I truly enjoyed the journey. It came to an end, and I was really lucky that Ascending Darkness was waiting for me when I turned the last page.
This story must be read in order, please do not do Harper’s story a disservice by cutting straight to Ascending Darkness. The scene must be set for the story that follows.
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Excerpt
Darkness Deserved
Friday night at the bar was busy. Every table was full all night and the bar was packed as well. I couldn’t have been happier. It was ten o’clock as I was making my rounds through the crowd checking tables and helping Emma, Beth and Mya, my waitresses, out.
I had just finished setting down a round of shots at a table full of sorority girls and turned around to go back to the bar, when I felt a tingle start at the top of my head and move toward my groin. When it settled and my clit began to throb I just knew. I knew it was my Adonis.
Here at last.
Dammit.
I was hoping I could just go through life without this temptation. It’s okay Harper. You wore your big girl panties tonight so quit being such a fucktwat and grow a pair. I make my way to the bar as if I notice nothing and set the tray down for Mark and Rory, my bartenders tonight.
I head towards the end of the bar to take care of some orders I need to make, when I feel his presence beating against me from behind. It’s like he already owns my body. My skin begins to tingle, my heartbeat speeds up, and my breathing becomes shallow as I try to control it. I can feel the vein in my neck throbbing relentlessly. On the outside I know I appear composed and nonchalant, but inside- inside- I feel ready to burst.
I just want Adonis to grab me, throw me on the bar and fill me as I know only he can at this moment. He brings both arms around me so that his hands are resting on the bar and he has me trapped between it and himself. He leans in and I can feel his breath wash over my exposed neck. I inhale his scent: soap, Armani and Adonis. God, I want him to bend me over. A million different scenarios run through my mind of how to close down the bar so I can please this man.
And that’s when I stop and ice runs through my veins. I spent four years pleasing men. I was not going down that path again.
Synopsis
The repercussions of Harper’s past meeting her present have left her breathless and lost. She continues to fight an internal war with herself. Can she let the love Breccan has offered into her life? Or was she right to push him away for his own good?
As Harper struggles with this internal battle, will her past find her and tear down everything she has built?
Will Harper ever find her happily ever after?
Read the conclusion of the Shattering the Darkness Series.
Kota's Review
Ascending Darkness picks up where Darkness Deserved left off. Harper’s life has turned for the better, well at least for her pleasure. But has her lapse in judgement affected her safety and that of those she loves the most?
In this story, Harper’s past starts to catch up with her and in order to keep her loved ones safe, she must battle with herself. Does she expose herself and become vulnerable to her family or does she stay closed off and run the gauntlet between her past and the potential horrors that await?
Ms Spoon does not disappoint with this story, it is full of angst, action, karma.. oh and a good dose of Alpha and romance.
The rollercoaster that unfurls throughout this story keep the pages turning. This story completes the series, but for me – it was a case of too perfectly. I also found that this installment lacked a little of the emotional connection that I felt with Darkness Deserved. Now that is not to say this was disappointing – not at all – I thoroughly bonded with these characters and loved the storytelling. It was more a case of I personally felt the benchmark was set very high throughout Harper’s journey in book one that it was hard to match the connections within book 2.
The secondary characters in Ms Spoon series, are very clearly loveable or completely hateable. There is very little room for grey when engaging with these characters.
This story is dark, sad, hopeful, and steamy… I really enjoyes when Harper and Breccan’s story took us.
4 stars for this installment – I can’t wait to read more of Ms Spoon’s work! Oh and I must get my hands on Duncan Peters…. Because he seems like a stand up kinda guy ;)
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It’s been years since I lived and breathed this way. Years since I had to wonder what would happen next. I’ve been lucky; living the good life and having whatever I wanted. I suppose I couldn’t really have it all; too greedy. It was never about money, though….
It was about being out of this life, having something more.
Living.
I don’t know if Nikko and Breccan know yet what has happened, or if they can even do anything about it. I imagine they will try and I hope they succeed, but how in the hell are they even going to find me? I don’t even know where I am or how I got here. How can two people that weren’t there do anything about it?
I look around the mostly dark room. The walls are a grayish color which looks to be from stains to the once white walls. The carpet is dark, almost a greenish color. There is a small bed in the corner with a table and a lamp that hardly sheds any light in this room. It smells musty in here, like a cemented basement.
Maybe it is a basement.
I was unconscious when they took me and woke up in this room.
I sigh and sit up on the bed so that I am facing the door. My hands are still tied with nylon rope and my wrists are raw, so it hurts to move them too much.
The door starts to open and I watch.
He walks in with the same grimy smile he always had.
I hate you!
He walks closer to the bed, looks down at me and says, “Hey, babe. You’ve been busy. Looks like it’s time to pay your dues. Pants off. Now.”
Meet the Author
Jessica grew up in a small town in Southern Iowa. She went to nursing school and became a nurse only to realize her passion was in writing and reading. She loves to spend her time with friends and is very close with her family. It took her a long time to realize she even had a joy of reading. Once having declared there was no point when the books always became movies. At twenty four she discovered how wrong she was and became obsessed with reading and made up for lost time by doing it nonstop. She began writing when dozens of ideas kept flowing through her mind that she knew she had to get out.
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