StacyHgg

Carnage by Lesley Jones
Series: The Story of Us #1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Group: Adult
Release Date: February 14th 2014
Length: Full-Length Novel
Format:Kindle eARC
Source: via tour host
Review Date: February 4th 2014
Steam Rating: 4.5/5 Scorcher
Overall Rating: 4-4.5 STARS

→ This is a preliminary review. May be changed for blog tour on 2.19.14
Review:
It's been a full twenty-four hours since I finished this book and I still am at a loss for how I want to do this review. I had a love/hate relationship with it for about half the book. There were times when I wanted to scream and throw my Kindle against the wall (or at the heroine), and then there were times when I loved the story so much I had happy tears in my eyes. To say it was a roller-coaster ride would be a HUGE understatement. It literally chewed me up and spit me out and by the end I was exhausted. The angst level was so high I felt like I needed a nap after every few chapters.

But don't think I am saying I didn't like it, because I did. I really did. If I was not pulled into the story it would not have affected me so much. I felt like I was on a journey that was so freakin beautiful at times I had to weep.

So what is it about?

It is the story of Georgia Rae "G" and the love of her life Sean "Maca." They meet when she is eleven and Sean is thirteen. They have an immediate sort of connection. Sean is the new lead singer in G's brother's band Carnage. They hang out a lot because of this, but don't go further because, well she's eleven. However, when she is fourteen they have their first kiss and they become inseparable and madly in love for the next few years. Their young love is so beautifully written and I loved going through that with them. It is told entirely from G's POV but we can tell that Sean is MADLY in love with her even at his tender young age.

But it is young love, and they are naive and make some mistakes. Sean and G's brothers band makes it big around the time G turns seventeen. This causes a lot of stress on the couple, and in time tears them apart. But this is where I had a problem with G. I know she was young so in turn naive, but she seemed to be unable to communicate with Sean even though they were extremely close. As close as a couple can get. And this frustrated me to no end → grrrr... I just wanted her to talk things out with him!!!! It just came off as unnecessary drama.

"...what we got, blows all of the others out of the fuckin water, Romeo and Juliet, Bonnie and Clyde, Sandy and Danny, even Baby and Johnny, they can't touch us." ~Sean

And I believed that. I believed they needed each other to breath. When they were apart they were each extremely depressed. Their love was so all-consuming and I could FEEL it as if it were my own love. Now as you see there is a mention to Baby and Johnny from Dirty Dancing. Their story starts in 1980 when they are eleven and thirteen, and goes through decades of their lives as the synopsis says.

And Sean, oh Sean... He was so flippin HOT, sexy, loving, sweet, I mean I could go on and on and on. He was every girls dream come true. And G knew it. She knew she was lucky to have him, but she was also very insecure because she knew as their band became more popular, more and more women were showing interest in him. She didn't handle this well, actually she didn't handle much of anything well. She wasn't the strongest of heroines. But I still liked her, even when I was mad at her ;-)

I wish I could go into the storyline more but I just can't and not spoil it for you. There is SO much more to the story. There was Sex, Drugs, Rock n Roll, LOTS of HOT as Sin men, and even gangsters. And it was really steamy sex which of course is always a plus :-D

It is set in England so there is some slang I did not quite get at first but it didn't hurt the flow of the story if you don't know it. Most of the time it actually made me laugh. The guys would call women "birds" and of course underwear is called "knickers" which always makes me giggle. Oh yeah and "spunk" ;-) which is self-explanatory (I hope).

Overall, I highly recommend it if you're in the mood for a HIGHLY EMOTIONAL tear-out-your-heart kind of novel. I was completely SHOCKED at how it ended (don't worry no spoilers). I didn't know if it was part of a series and I just HAD to know "some" things. So I messaged the Author via Facebook and asked her if it was part of a series and she said yes. *sigh* THANK GOD... I mean it could have ended where it did, but I really wanted more closure. There were so many loose ends. Book two cannot come soon enough!!!

"I love ya Georgia Rae, show us your tits." ~Sean

~StacyHgg
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