Three Chicks and Their Books: Blog Tour: Reprieve by AE Woodward

Title: Reprieve

Author: A.E. Woodward

Genre: Dark Romance

Release Date: September 29, 2015

My drug of choice was heroin.

Until they put me here against my will.

At the time it was my only viable choice.

I preferred stumbling through life numb to it all.

But now I’m here, and every sound and every emotion is heightened to a level I never knew existed.

Then somehow, in a moment of weakness it became all about him.

He makes me feel things I never thought possible.

I thought he was my antidote, but it turns out that he’s just my new drug of choice.

4 Star Review by Jen Skewes

After reading Kismet by AE Woodward a year or so ago I quickly became a huge fan of hers. You never know what you are going to get. How is Ms. Woodward going to surprise you this time around? But that is what I love about her books. When I found out that she was going to be writing a book about drug addiction I could not have been more excited. Some people love the angsty books that had tons of drama, some being unnecessary. While I do enjoy the angst I really love the books that deal with real issues. The books that make you feel and go through the heartache and pain with the characters but at the same time feels real and true to life. Reprieve is exactly that book. It deals with the real life struggles of heroin addiction.

Tatum is at the point in her life where nothing matters other than the high. She has completely hit rock bottom and if the next thing that came was death, she would be ok with that. But her family is not ok with watching her kill herself. After her family intervenes she decides to go to rehab and get help.

Asher is her counselor and a recovering addict himself. He understands better than anyone what she is going through. He too has had it rough and wants to do everything that he can to help Tatum through it all. But when Tatum signed up for rehab she didn’t expect to feel something every time she saw Asher. She didn’t expect him to be her new addiction. But he is her counselor and crossing that line would be wrong. But she needs him and in some way he needs her as well. Will taking their relationship to the next level only cause them both hurt in the end? And how will this affect her recovery process?

Repreive is a heartbreaking and emotional story that deals with addiction. This is not just about the recovery process either. Ms. Woodward takes us back to the past, alternating between the present and the past. And this is the part that I loved. We see Tatum’s later teen years first. The moments where she really starts to hit rock bottom. We see what lengths she would go for that next hit. We see just how much she needs it to survive, how much she depends on it and how she has no regard for herself at all. And slowly we go back in time to the beginning and see where it all started. We see the how and why. I loved that every time we went back to the past I kept wondering what caused her to get to this point. What happened in her life that caused her to turn to drugs. And in time we do see that and when you do your heart will just break for her. Over the course of this book I felt Tatum’s pain, I understood her fears and felt her heartbreak. I was rooting for her to get through it. To be able to see that there is life on the other side. That it would take a lot of time and opening up to be able to move past this. I truly loved her character and was taken on one emotional journey with her.

I really enjoyed this book and as mentioned earlier I loved Tatum. Ms. Woodward did a fantastic job with the writing and bringing out the emotions. I loved how she wrote her past, it was like this build up to the beginning. Each time you got another piece to the puzzle until it was all revealed. And finally you see what started it all. I think my only issue with this book and the reason for the 4 star rating is that I had a really hard time with Asher. I felt no connection to him at all. I was honestly not a fan of his actions. I have no issue with a taboo relationship between a counselor and their patient but there was something about him and the way he went about things that just did not sit well with me. At some point you see his side and understand his actions but I am not sure if at that point it mattered to me. I honestly felt so bad for Tatum at times because of Asher. Because of the dependency she felt when it came to him. I wanted to see her become her own person without the help of him.

Overall I really did love this book, regardless of my issues with Asher. I loved Tatum and in the end I admired her strength. I loved watching her grow and find the strength to confront her past and be able to move on. Definitely a book I would recommend.

A.E. lives in Vacationland with her husband and two children. Between her real job and writing she finds little time to enjoy life's finer things. However in the free time she does manage to steal, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, and reading. A.E. is the co-author of CAUGHT and the author of Kismet, Working Girl and A Series of Imperfections: Imperfectly Perfect, Imperfectly Real, and Imperfectly Bad. Reprieve is her latest release.