Sick Heart by J. A. Huss – Review, Excerpt & Giveaway Tour
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 30, 2021
DARK MMA FIGHTER ROMANCE
Cort van Breda has won 35 death matches as a fighter in an MMA circuit so deep underground there are no rules and only the winner gets out alive.
They call him the Sick Heart.
They say he’s a shameless monster.
They say he’s a ruthless killer.
They say he’s as twisted as the man who owns him.
They say a lot of things about Cort van Breda.
But in our world violence is money, and money is winning, and winning is life, and life is the only thing that matters.
Except… he wasn’t meant to win that last fight.
And I wasn’t meant to be his prize.
But he did.
And I am.
And now his sick heart owns me.
WARNING: This is a sweet love story adrift in an ocean of evil. It is about two survivors dealing with their darkest secrets while they fight to change their lives. It is for mature readers only and has descriptions of deeply disturbing situations. There will be pearl clutching.
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REVIEW: SICK HEART by JA Huss is a contemporary, adult, dark, romance stand alone set in the author’s work of Rook and Ronin, and The Company. This is twenty-seven year old, underground MMA fighter Cort van Breda aka Sick Heart, and Anya’s story line. SICK HEART is a stand alone but as yet, has no direct connection to the other series.
WARNING: Due to the graphic nature and content of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.
Told from dual first person perspectives (Cort and Anya) SICK HEART is a tragic story of ultimate survival in a world of permeating evil. Cort van Breda has been trained from a young age to kill in a world of illegal fight clubs involving children and child slavery. His last fight was meant to free him from a twenty-two year bondage but Cort never expected to meet another warrior, another survivor, a young woman, whose own life was fodder for the corrupt and malevolent. One month together in virtual silence meant one month of watching the other persevere but all was about to come crashing down when someone else had plans to destroy them all.
SICK HEART focuses on survival and endurance; on child trafficking and slavery; on power, control, malevolence and death. J.A. Huss pulls the reader into a dark and brutal world of illegal underground fights to the death, a world fuelled by breeders and killers, perversions and control. SICK HEART is also a story of, not only existing but, of consciousness, viability, and the mortality of life. A dark, gritty, raw and haunting story that is dramatic and intense in both presentation and back story.
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
I already did.
She shakes her head and makes a sign for ‘whisper.’
And now it’s my turn to go tense and just stare at her for a moment.
Because she got it right. The sign is ‘talk,’ but if your other hand is cupped on the side of your mouth, it means ‘whisper.’ Like you’re gonna whisper in someone’s ear.
Did she just… I squint at her and she frowns in response. Has she taught herself sign language?
That’s not possible. Not this fast. It hasn’t even been a week.
Then whisper to me, I sign.
She shakes her head again. And then she touches my lips with the edge of her fingertips and slowly drags them up my cheek before pulling away.
‘Kiss.’ That was the sign for ‘kiss.’
She wants me to kiss her.
I know this is a distraction. I know who I’m dealing with. A girl who has been silent so long, no one remembers her last spoken words. A girl who should be dead, but isn’t. A girl who should be anywhere but here with me, but is. A girl who four days ago didn’t know a single bit of sign language, and now knows enough to stun me silent.
So I should really know better.
I should push her. Keep going. Because I could make her talk. I know I could.
But then she leans towards me. And we’re not that far apart, so that kiss she just asked for is now an absolute guarantee.
Our lips touch and just… linger there for a breath.
And so many things go through my mind in that breath. I want to resist her offer. Push her down, roll over, and forget where I’m at and who I’m with.
But that’s just fucking stupid. I like this girl. A lot.
I want to kiss her.
And all those other thoughts earlier about not wanting sex… well. This seems like more than sex. So that’s something I am interested in.
When our lips touch everything that happens next—whether it’s today, tomorrow, or next year—everything that happens next is preordained. And there’s no way to stop it.
I cup my hands around her face, my thumbs caressing small circles on her cheeks as her mouth opens and her tongue touches mine.
There is maybe one more moment. One more chance to stop the car crash that’s coming, but it’s such a small moment, so short and tiny, it barely exists.
And what comes next is pure lust.
I open my mouth, kiss her hard. Bite her lip, grab her breasts as I drop my full weight over her.
She kisses me back. But her kiss isn’t urgent, like mine. It’s soft. And even though we’re stained with salt water, and sweat, and the wind, she tastes so sweet, I want this kiss to last forever.
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J.A. Huss never wanted to be a writer and she still dreams of that elusive career as an astronaut. She originally went to school to become an equine veterinarian but soon figured out they keep horrible hours and decided to go to grad school instead. That Ph.D wasn’t all it was cracked up to be (and she really sucked at the whole scientist thing), so she dropped out and got a M.S. in forensic toxicology just to get the whole thing over with as soon as possible.
After graduation she got a job with the state of Colorado as their one and only hog farm inspector and spent her days wandering the Eastern Plains shooting the shit with farmers. After a few years of that, she got bored. And since she was a homeschool mom and actually does love science, she decided to write science textbooks and make online classes for other homeschool moms. She wrote more than two hundred of those workbooks and was the number one publisher at the online homeschool store many times, but eventually she covered every science topic she could think of and ran out of shit to say.
So in 2012 she decided to write fiction instead. That year she released her first three books and started a career that would make her a New York Times bestseller and land her on the USA Today Bestseller’s List eighteen times in the next three years. Her books have sold millions of copies all over the world, the audio version of her semi-autobiographical book, Eighteen, was nominated for a Voice Arts Award and an Audie award in 2016 and 2017 respectively, her audiobook Mr. Perfect was nominated for a Voice Arts Award in 2017, and her book, Taking Turns, was nominated for an Audie Award in 2018. Johnathan McClain is her first (and only) writing partner and even though they are worlds apart in just about every way imaginable, it works.
She lives on a ranch in Central Colorado with her family.
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Fantastic review and excerpt.
Looks great, thanks Sandy
Excellent review, Sandy. Another dark story line.
Great review, Sandy. Looks like a very good read.
Thanks for another wonderful review and excerpt.
Great review, Sandy. Sounds very good. Thanks.
great review, sandy. thanks
Terrific review, thanks.
I would love to go on a vacation, somewhere other than my house!
Very nice review, thanks Sandy. I want to be able to eat at a restaurant without having to worry about COVID.
Terrific review, Sandy. Another good looking storyline.
Great review, Sandy. Looks interesting.