Review: 4.5 gut wrenching stars
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 20, 2013
Jointly reviewed for : [...]Gitte: I am sat here Jenny and I actually have no idea how or where to start this review, it was just so different to anything I have read in a long while. It was a hard read, and it hurt. It hurt so much that at times I wanted to put it down, but I just couldn't.To be honest, this book is certainly not for everyone. It will definitely push boundaries for some readers. In particular; readers who are or have been personally affected by breast cancer.This story, I can imagine, would be very painful and tough in respect to the main themes, which are control and fear. Control of our lives, our bodies and our minds. Control of others.  Fear of what is to come or what will be and of what we have left behind and can be no more. Fear of others.I cried so many times reading this book that I lost count. But I remember exactly why I cried, how I felt, how at times I had to catch my breath and no doubt about it this story will stay with me for a long long time.Now, because of the emotions it drew out of me, because I felt a lump in my throat through every page turn, because of these three broken, vulnerable yet somehow strong and inspirational characters; Galen, Vanka & Khalid.......I have to give it 5 stars, I can't not.It is so very dark, so very heart breaking, so very intense....so very REAL.It is also extremely erotic yet not always `comfortable to read erotica'. Sometimes it made for uncomfortable reading when control and fear was brought into the equation of three.The writing of this Author is brilliant; no doubt about it, her heart is stamped on every single page. Leaving behind a journey that is so raw and `ugly' yet so beautiful; so very devastating yet hopeful and inspiring.Jenny:  I agree Gitte.  Because of the sheer scale of feelings I encountered reading this book and the fact that it evoked such strong emotions in me, how can I not rate it highly.  I too have sat here wondering how I can best convey my thoughts about this book and it is difficult.  Unlike you, I actually did put this book down at 40% and thought I couldn't continue.  It was killing me.  I was just so......unbearably sad reading it.Breast Cancer is very raw for me and this was written from a place which felt so incredibly real, a little too uncomfortably real for me at times, but I sat myself down and I didn't move until I finished.  This book was so much more than what I originally expected it to be, so very much more.I ached and cried, and whilst I can't say I "enjoyed" this read, I can say I am so grateful I pushed through because I was afforded such an amazing reading experience, one that will stay with me for a long time to come , you don't forget a book like this in a hurry and even now I can't stop thinking about it.This ménage book  took me way out of my comfort zone at times that's for sure.  Some scenes were hard to read,  be it based on the theme or the sex partially based at times on fear, dominance and control did force me to push through my levels of comfort but it was absolutely worth every minute.The characters moved me to the ninth degree.  The determined, pragmatic Vanka who is convinced she is dying.  Galen, the movie star who appears to have it all, yet feel s his life is a shallow illusion.  Khalid, beautiful Khalid who has known so much tragedy in life and can only know love through hurt.These characters broke my heart, they seared my soul.  Theirs is not always a happy journey, in fact at times it is downright sad as you experience their desolation, but it is one that will crush your heart as it did mine, but there are also glimpses of light and times of tenderness that will steal your breath away.Gitte: We all want to find the power of the three's; peace, love and happiness. It's a cliché but we do, however life's randomly thrown obstacles do not make this an easy journey. The path and the obstacles unique to the individual, not presented exactly as we perhaps may have expected or believed.A chance meeting between three people whose lives become interwoven, who each seek in each other something different; to heal them, to give them strength to show them trust and teach them how. To embrace fear and to understand that life and love is fragile. The thread that holds lives together and ties one to the other can easily be frayed, broken and torn by the all-encompassing HURT.Vanka, Galen & Khalid broke my heart. Each for their own individual reasons. Their personal journeys in this story so different, yet all three entwined.This is not a pretty soft story wrapped up in shiny layers and a sparkling bow. Well on the surface it is not. Rather, it is a raw and gritty, sharp and multi sharp angled story wrapped up in barbed wire. Once you unravel the layers that hurt and cut you deep, you are amazed by the vulnerability, the love, the compassion and theIf you willingly relinquish control or if control is taken away from you.....What are you left with?If you live in perpetual fear or force it upon yourself.....Where do you go from there and how far are you willing to go?Jenny: This story about chance meeting, fate, destiny, pain and heartache was so profoundly moving, touching and at times disturbing in its themes and uncomfortable in the erotic sexual MMF content, but it was also brilliantly written and so compelling from start to finish that I found this wasn't just a read, but more like an experience.Galen, so intuitively in sync with Vanka rendered me breathless in some scenes.  This man could show such tenderness, compassion, and sensitivity and could care for Vanka and her needs with an unyielding kindness, yet in other ways could be somewhat cruel, so closed off."You look.........." Galen came up short.  Speechless.  Possibly a first."Stunning?" She prompted. "Fabulous?""Ethereal." He finally said, his voice a little choked.Vanka, so guarded and closed, stoic, selfless and suffering through an unimaginable experience, trying to make sense of life and thinking of the ones she will leave behind."I can take care of myself.  I have to be able to take care of myself.""Not all the time. Not now"The relationship between Khalid and Galen was the one I found the saddest and hardest to read.  Theirs was such a complicated story and the beautiful Khalid...so patient, so loving, yet so hurt who only wanted to feel and know love.It is the coming together of all three, the hurt and the pain they all share and the comfort they bring one another, how they could all serves one another's needs."Most people are in love with more than one person during their lifetime.""Or they don't admit it when it happens"This book will not appeal to everyone and as I've said I did find it hard going at times,  but I would implore you to pick up a copy of Hurt and give it a go,  because this an experience like no other.