~*♥Release Blitz with Review♥*~ A Monster Like Me (Heart of Darkness #2) by Pamela Sparkman

A Monster Like Me by Pamela Sparkman
Series: Heart of Darkness #2
Release Date: September 4, 2018

Blurb

“I love the peculiar silence of shadows. They exist, but leave no mark.” 

Zeph had been a child, thrust into a war that wasn’t his. When he was older, he discovered he had landed on the wrong side of everything.

He’d been fighting for sweet revenge, because of lies he’d believed—and those lies proved to be his ruin. Falling into despair, Zeph decides living is too painful. So, he writes his final act with poison and chooses to end his story.

But Fate has other plans for Zeph and when he finds himself in the hands of his enemies, he has to decide: Does he want to live? Or does he want to die?

Or maybe that choice is no longer his to make.

Ruled by shadows and armed with secrets he never intended to share, Zeph will be put through his toughest battle yet: the war within himself.

“He isn’t a lost cause. He’s just—lost.”

That’s what Arwyn believes. She sees the monster he has become, but what she also sees is someone worth fighting for. Armed with secrets of her own, she’s determined to help Zeph fight his demons, because there was more on the line than Zeph’s soul. So much more.

Revenge may be sweet. But redemption is sweeter. The question is, can Zeph find the boy he used to be, or will he always believe that no one could ever love—a monster like him.

“You are everything good. And I am everything children are afraid of.”

**CAUTION**Contains a brief descriptive scene of childhood rape.

This is book 2 in the Heart of Darkness Duology and is recommended the reader begin with book 1, The Moon Shines Red.

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 Title: A Monster Like Me 

Author: Pamela Sparkman

Genre: Fantasy, Suspense, Romance

Series or Standalone: Standalone Series (Heart of Darkness #2)

Rating: ★★★★★

So, as seems to be my way of being on this website, and pretty much in general, I'm gonna leave the awesomely worded, eloquently stated reviews to those professional ladies that are way better at it than me and just review based on my own lame attempt at explaining what a book means. 

First, these tags above, are gonna confuse people. Like, how do you get real life issues in a fantasy book? 

That I will explain, in as little detail as I can, but I'm a blowhard, so oops if I screw up. 

When you write a particular instance into a book that can happen to you or me, it makes it real. Not to mention, when it happens to a lot more people than even come forward in real life on the daily, it's also a real world issue and thing. Fictional setting or biography, it's still something people on the daily face, so hence my tags. 

One particular issue I'm quite familiar with these days especially from a young child perspective is in this story. I've written about it before. It's one that honestly, needs more voices added to it, and if a fictional book can pull people in, start that conversation and even extend it, than so be it. Because it just needs to be a thing. 

So, that's one of the main reasons this book was so pivotal to me as a human being reading it. It felt real, even though somewhere down deep (because I still have hope there is a Lochlan out there), I know the fae aren't real. 

The author handled this issue with a lot of care which is also a trigger for me personally (because of the human close to me that lived it). Like, the level of care here, what she did in order to make it feel real, to reach the people reading on the very serious issue this is, is literally unmatched and yes I do mean literally. 

Now, apart from that, the story itself was solid and sound. For the world that was created in book one (cheap plug: The Moon Shines Red...read it because it's freaking awesome), the detail that was needed here to make the world come alive, let alone the sheer amount of character detail and information, especially since you can read this standalone, it's not an easy task for any author. Even seasoned ones in the particular genre this stands in. Pamela Sparkman, she nailed it. I didn't feel at any point like there was too much information, OR that there wasn't enough. There was just enough. To connect you to the characters, to make you fall in love with them all, the entire cast and crew (yeah this should be a movie, so get on it studios). The battles, both inward and external, done to perfection. It was a full fleshed out story that commands and demands with reason, your attention every single second. 

I was honoured to read this story, not because I've read all the other ones, but because I know with each book that this author grows. There is just something about whatever sub genre she touches (apart from the romance) that she just lives and breathes while writing and honestly, we should all aspire to be her. Her books are what I've come to expect fiction to be. 

Thanks for that author lady. You've ruined me for the world (kidding of course)

I've already gone out of my way to explain what this book meant to me (in a more serious and less blurting out all the words way before), but I'll say it again, this is her most powerful book, by far but it won't always be that, because I know the next one will be even more. It's what she does. Raising the bar for all of us. Which, good on you for that. 

Is this story a laugh a minute fun ride all the time? Nope. It is funny sometimes. It is a fun ride, because well who doesn't love a good battle scene...tell me, I'll wait. But, it is a story thats really rough to take because of how deep it makes you feel and what it makes you feel. This insane amount of emotions that sometimes overtake you and you need to find stable ground for. 

That being said is it a story that grabs you, makes you feel, rips out of your heart and then puts it back together at the right time for all involved, reader and character alike? Yes. Absolutely. But then again, I'd expect nothing less here. Truly. 

For as long as this author writes, I will be a reader, sitting here freaking out and taking in all the words, especially if all the words come together and create another book that feels like this one. 

Pamela Sparkman doesn't just write the melodic stories that read like the songs you love, she IS the song and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.