Title: From These Ashes
Series: Haven Hart: Book Four
Author: Davidson King
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 204 Pages
Category: Contemporary
At a Glance: This series has me hooked and like many of its fans, I cannot wait to see who will star in the next installment.
Reviewed By: Sammy
Blurb: A product of his past, Black spends half his time saving lives and the other half taking them. Every day, a hard choice must be made and he’s the man to make it. Long ago, he vowed to never love again; one-night stands with a willing body was all he ever needed. But along came Quill, and Black’s life is irrevocably changed. He never expects something as simple as Quill’s persistence to alter the way he not only sees the world, but how he lives it.
Quill has bad taste in men and equally horrible luck. Growing up wasn’t easy, surviving is even harder. When his past and present collide, he’s convinced he’ll finally witness his own destruction. But when an unlikely antihero steps in to protect him, his life is turned on its head. He’s spent months flirting with the man of his dreams and hoping he’d take notice. But it turns out, being on Black’s radar isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and his idea of protection varies greatly from Quill’s.
Unknowingly sharing the same goal—burying their own pasts deeper than the fires of hell can reach—they’re both unaware that jumping into that fire will do more than ignite their feelings, it could lead to their own demise. Will Black and Quill be consumed by the flames, or from these ashes, will they find their own happily ever after?
Review: Quill works three jobs in order to have a little insurance that the day his past comes storming back into his present, he will have enough to make it go away and then he can go back to hiding in plain sight. Or, at least that’s the plan. What he doesn’t account for is a current ex who can’t take no for an answer and uses his fists to prove his point. This time that encounter has landed him in the hospital, a place familiar to poor Quill. Unfortunately, this visit also causes him to miss a pickup on the one job he never meant to fail at—courier for the very magnetic and dangerous Black.
Black still can’t figure out how the little flirt behind the local coffee shop counter ended up in his employ rather than six feet under. After all, he saw things and now knows things none other than Black’s most carefully vetted hired guns should know. But Quill, with his audacious behavior, has somehow gotten under Black’s skin, and when he doesn’t show up to complete his job, Black doesn’t know if he should be worried or make the guy fear the wrath of, well, Black. Worry proves dangerous for a man like Black, whose own past life and current profession preclude him from ever allowing himself to care too much about someone, forget about building a relationship. After all, men who make others disappear permanently are hardly boyfriend material.
I have loved the character Quill since he was introduced in a previous book in Davidson King’s Haven Hart series, so imagine my delight to finally get his story in the latest release, From These Ashes. As usual, this author has pulled out all the stops in pairing an innocent victim with a man who one could say luxuriates in murder. ‘Vengeance’ should be Terrance Blackrose’s middle name, and ‘gleefully meting out’ should be the phrase that precedes that apt moniker, but when we finally learn of what happened in his past, we begin to understand what really motivates the man, and it will pretty much break your heart.
While we’re on the heartbreaking theme, let me also say that I think the creation of Quill and his backstory was near genius by this author. Not since the original novel in this series and the introduction of Snow has there been a comparable main character, who has done nothing to deserve being the victim of such a horrid past and present. Yet, the beauty of Davidson King’s imagination is that these men still survive and are able to love and hope despite all they have been through. Quill is right up there with Snow as a young man you will want to wrap up and protect, and so it’s certainly no stretch for the reader to believe in Quill squirming under the iron-clad walls Black has built around his heart.
If you are expecting a complete redemption for Black via the lovely Quill, think again. The last few chapters of this novel are brutal and fitting; after all, Black has never said that loving him would be easy, and we discover just how much Quill has endured and how it has shaped his acceptance of the darker side of Black’s profession. Once again this author allows for brutally flawed men to find love and hope in another person, and frankly, it is a beautiful thing to see unfold.
Yes, there are a few holes here and there in this novel’s plot, but you cannot escape the compelling men who populate Davidson King’s Hart Haven series. I continue to be intrigued by the mysterious Poe and his relationship to the even murkier heir to the Hart Legacy. This series has me hooked and like many of its fans, I cannot wait to see who will star in the next installment. Until then, I cannot help but recommend From These Ashes to you with the caveat that these dark and dangerous men do not necessarily change their stripes but do indeed deserve the love they find.
You can buy From These Ashes here:
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