Damien (Stark Saga) by J. Kenner-Review & Excerpt Tour

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DAMIEN (Stark Saga #6) by J. Kenner-Review & Excerpt Tour

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 8, 2019

I am Damien Stark. From the outside, I have a perfect life. A billionaire with a beautiful family. But if you could see inside my head, you’d know I’m as f-ed up as a person can be. Now more than ever.

I’m driven, relentless, and successful, but all of that means nothing without my wife and daughters. They’re my entire world, and I failed them. Now I can barely look at them without drowning in an abyss of self-recrimination.

Only one thing keeps me sane—losing myself in my wife’s silken caresses where I can pour all my pain into the one thing I know I can give her. Pleasure.

But the threats against my family are real, and I won’t let anything happen to them ever again. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep them safe—pay any price, embrace any darkness. They are mine.

I am Damien Stark. Do you want to see inside my head? Careful what you wish for.

••••••••

REVIEW: DAMIEN is the sixth instalment in J.Kenner’s contemporary, adult STARK SAGA erotic, romance series-a spin off from the author’s STARK Trilogy focusing on billionaire businessman Damien Stark, and his wife Nikki Fairchild-Stark. DAMIEN can be read as a stand alone but for cohesion and back story I recommend reading the series in order as there is a continuing story line throughout.

NOTE: If you have not read the previous instalments there may be some spoilers in my review

Told from first person perspective (Damien Stark) DAMIEN picks up shortly after the events of book five –LOST WITH ME- wherein Damien’s family life spirals out of his control attacking his hard fought sense of peace and happily ever after. Continuing threats against his children and his wife find our hero pulling in his security team, friends, and the people he can trust to ensure his family’s safety, once and for all. But all does not go according to plan when Nikki’s life, once again, hangs in the balance because of sins from the past.

DAMIEN is an emotional, heart breaking and erotic story of life, love, friendship and family: a story of betrayal, vengeance, obsession and passion: of past sins, and the fall-out of rejection and lust. The premise is engaging and revealing; the characters are familiar, energetic and charismatic; the $ex scenes are provocative and intense but I continue to struggle with the author’s use of a certain four-letter word I believe has no place in any romance story line. DAMIEN is another fantastic and intriguing addition to Damien and Nikki’s continuing journey.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Anchor Me
Play My Game
Seduce Me (novella)
Unwrap Me (novella)
Hold Me (novella)
Please Me
Lost With Me
Damien

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

NOTE: Excerpt intended for readers 18+ due to strong language.

 

He started to lash out. To pound his fist against the door frame. But he pulled back, not wanting to wake Nikki or the two little angels curled up next to her in their bed. His wife. His precious little girls.
His family.
As much as he loved Nikki, he hadn’t truly understood how full his heart could be until he’d held Lara in his arms for the first time. And though he hadn’t expected it was possible, his heart had expanded even more when he watched Anne’s birth two years ago and saw her draw that first breath.
Every day, his daughters looked up at him with wide, guileless eyes. And every day, he felt that punch in the gut. A fear that he couldn’t live up to the trust he saw there. That somehow, someway, he would fail them. Not in the way his own father had failed him. But in some other, fundamental way.
And that’s exactly what happened.
He thought of Rory, that fucker who’d taken his child. Of Nikki, broken and huddled in the closet with a blade, blood streaming down her fair skin, cutting for the first time in years. The first time since he’d demanded that she come to him—to him—when she needed the blade.
So many times, she’d done exactly that. Gone to him when the burden of the world had been too much to bear. When she needed the pain to find her way back. And he’d always been there for her, his need as potent as hers. Because he had to be the one to take her there. To slide down with her into that sweet place where sensual pleasure crossed over into pain. Where need and desire meshed, merging into euphoria. Where they could both cling to that one small measure of control in a world that was spinning off its axis.
How many times had they saved each other? Their needs meshing as perfectly as their desire?
How many times had he held her close as they fought their demons together? And yet this time—when the worst parts of hell had swallowed them whole—she hadn’t come to him. Instead, she’d put a razor-sharp length of stainless steel against her own flesh, and she’d drawn her own blood for the first time in years.
All because he’d failed her. Because it was his mistakes that spawned the demons.
Because for the first time in their relationship she hadn’t trusted him to save her. And why should she, when he’d already failed so spectacularly?
He thought of that. Of the scars on her legs. Of the fresh wound that mocked him still.
He thought—and his stomach twisted with pain and self-loathing.
Mostly, he thought of Anne. His precious girl, who’d been alone and scared for days.
They’d gotten Anne back. They’d talked about Damien’s choices. The risks he’d taken to find their daughter and her kidnapper. They’d worked it out, and they were back on keel. And he knew in his gut that Nikki was strong enough to survive the whole ordeal.
But that didn’t change the simple, basic truth.
He’d failed.
Roughly, he massaged his palms over his face, then looked again at his girls, curled up together, safe and asleep.
Safe.
For now, at least.
But for the first time in a long time, Damien felt as if the shadows that had plagued his past had returned to haunt him, bringing harsh recriminations and fresh dangers.
He squared his shoulders, steeling himself. He was strong. More than that, he had resources. He had means. And he damn well had the determination to keep those encroaching horrors at bay.
Most of all, he had a life—a family—worth fighting for.
He was fucking Damien Stark.
He’d failed once.
He wouldn’t fail again. 


 

J. Kenner (aka Julie Kenner) is the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal and #1 International bestselling author of over seventy novels, novellas and short stories in a variety of genres.

Though known primarily for her award-winning and international bestselling erotic romances (including the Stark and Most Wanted series) that have reached as high as #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, JK has been writing full time for over a decade in a variety of genres including paranormal and contemporary romance, “chicklit” suspense, urban fantasy, and paranormal mommy lit.

JK has been praised by Publishers Weekly as an author with a “flair for dialogue and eccentric characterizations” and by RT Bookclub for having “cornered the market on sinfully attractive, dominant antiheroes and the women who swoon for them.” A five time finalist for Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA award, JK took home the first RITA trophy awarded in the category of erotic romance in 2014 for her novel, Claim Me (book 2 of her Stark Trilogy). Her Demon Hunting Soccer Mom series (as Julie Kenner) is currently in development with AwesomenessTV/Awestruck.

Her books have sold over three million copies and are published in over twenty languages.

In her previous career as an attorney, JK worked as a clerk on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and practiced primarily civil, entertainment and First Amendment litigation in Los Angeles and Irvine, California, as well as in Austin, Texas. She currently lives in Central Texas, with her husband, two daughters, and two rather spastic cats.

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