They meet by chance. The timing is wrong.Three years later, she finds him again, but their separation was poisoned with narcotics and bloodied by enslavement.
Her freedom gambled away, Charlee Grosky escapes the international businessman who held her captive. But his power reaches beyond her protective barriers and threatens everyone she has come to love.
Jay Mayard wears his tortured secrets under his rock god facade. Drugs are his release, even as he seeks to be the man forged of the steel only she can see.
In a celebrity world filled with paparazzi, groupies, and drugs, Jay and Charlee must face their worst fears. When the battle is over, what will be left...Beneath The Burn.
Genre: Romantic/Erotic Thriller
Content warning: Includes graphic rape, sex, anal, bondage, and violence. Age 18+ only.
PURCHASE HERE:
REVIEW
HOLD ON. I have to catch my breath. Can I have a paper bag, please? Hyperventilating over here people!!!
Have you ever gone into a haunted house thinking you were invincible only to be scared out of your ever-loving mind countless times? To top it all off, once you think you’re home free and you’re out of the haunted house…the chainsaw man comes out of nowhere! Your stomach drops, your eyes bug out, you run around maniacally…? You say you will never go back BUT YOU DO. EVERY YEAR! Beneath the Burn is that haunted house.
Before I go any further I need to tell you that this book is DARK. The darkest book I’ve ever read. There is abuse, rape, BDSM, and probably every other offensive thing you can think of (and some you wouldn’t think of LOL). If you do not like to read about that sort of thing, Beneath the Burn is not for you. Heed the warning.
The book starts out with Jay giving us a little taste of his rock star side. He comes off as the typical rock star until you realize that he is damaged. So very damaged. He’s looking for something to numb/hide the pain, so on a whim he decides to get a tattoo. That’s when he meets Charlee.
Charlee is the mysterious tattoo artist that covers Jay’s scars. She leaves a mark on Jay that night and he never forgets her. They go their separate ways. On that same night, Charlee goes to meet her boyfriend. It’s obvious that she is hiding something very big in the beginning. We find out that she is running from her past and, unfortunately, it catches up to her. She is kidnapped that night by a sadistic man named Roy. There’s a backstory there, but I don’t want to give away too many secrets. The darkest moments in the book take place during her time with Roy.
I’m really avoiding spoilers here, so all I’m going to say is something big happens and we flash forward 3 years…
3 years after Jay meets Charlee, he’s back on the road to self-destruction and she’s still on the run. That’s where their story begins.
Jay and Charlee do not share a conventional relationship, but I felt the love. And the pain. And the angst. I felt everything. There were a couple of times at the end that my stomach was so far down at the South Pole that I wasn’t sure if it was ever coming back. They were “HAVE MERCY. I WANT TO CRAWL IN A HOLE AND CRY.” moments and they brought me to my knees.
This book is wild. It moves. It’s running 90 from the very beginning and it never slows down. That was a very good thing for me, because it’s also VERY long. I think it could have been split into two books, but I’m so glad it wasn’t. This way there was no cliffhanger. I wouldn’t have wanted to shorten it either, because there’s nothing I would want to take out. Plus, I was never bored and didn’t want it to end. So, I’m not complaining.
With all the intensity there are also some witty moments sprinkled all throughout the story. Most of those moments involve Jay’s band members. Love Laz!! It’s told in third person, alternating POV’s. The best part is that it’s very easy to read and has a very melodic feel to it. A very rock-n-roll melodic feel. Nothing is strained. It was very easy to immerse myself into the story.
With all the intensity there are also some witty moments sprinkled all throughout the story. Most of those moments involve Jay’s band members. Love Laz!! It’s told in third person, alternating POV’s. The best part is that it’s very easy to read and has a very melodic feel to it. A very rock-n-roll melodic feel. Nothing is strained. It was very easy to immerse myself into the story.
This is the easiest rating I’ve given in a while. I was surprised and impressed by the book as a whole. Pam Godwin kept me guessing the entire time and I loved every second.
MY RATING: 5 STARS
Reviewed by:
EXCERPT
A woman with a white-blonde pixie haircut
backed out of the shop and dammit if he couldn’t stop himself from gawking. She
was slender, but not in a bones-pressing-skin kind of way. She had a figure
that could only be toned with good nutrition and rigorous activity. Oh yeah,
she was built for stamina.
She locked the door, and turned toward him,
tipping back her head.
The bluest eyes he’d ever seen stared up at
him. They were ringed with navy and glimmered with silver flecks. They were
also wide with...fear? No, that couldn’t be it if her smile were anything to go
by. Her beautiful face seemed to swallow up the glow of the streetlamps, the
passing headlights, the goddamned moon.
“Hi.” Her smile wavered. “You look lost. Can
I help?”
Oh Christ, her voice. It was the complete
package, like the full-bodied Fsus2 chord humming from the hole in his Martin
Acoustic. Gentle, cool, hypnotic—
“You’re lost, right?”
She had no idea. “Just found what I’m looking
for.” Smooth, Jay. What the hell was he doing?
PLAYLIST
Punk Rock Girl by The Dead Milkmen
Swing Life Away by Rise Against
Paparazzi by Lady Gaga
Running Up That Hill by Placebo
Nothing Else Matters by Metallica
Drive by Deftones
Where Is My Mind by Pixies
Lebanese Blonde by Thievery Corporation
Waiting Room by Fugazi
Just Like Heaven by The Cure
Forty-Six & 2 by Tool
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pam Godwin
lives in Missouri with her husband, their two children, and a foulmouthed
parrot. When she ran away, she traveled fourteen countries across five
continents, attended three universities, and married the vocalist of her
favorite rock band. Now, she resides in her hometown, earning her living as a
portfolio research analyst, and living her yearning as a writer.Java, tobacco, and dark romance novels are her favorite indulgences, and might be considered more unhealthy than her aversion to sleeping, eating meat, and dolls with blinking eyes.
GIVEAWAY
Thanks again for the rock star review, Erica. And thanks for participating in the blog tour. I love your site!
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