Still Beating by Jennifer Hartmann.

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This book is not written for the faint of heart. I wouldn’t suggest this one to anyone under age at all. I would also check ALL the trigger warnings because this book deals with a lot of hard horrible topics. 

This book is about the relationship between our heroin Cora and the hero Dean. When we first meet them they are at Cora’s sister's birthday party at a bar. Mandy Cora’s sister is happy to have her and her fiance Dean both there. Since Cora and Dean admit they don’t like each other and are constantly insulting each other and pulling pranks on the other one. After Mandy and Dean leave the bar Cora stays behind to finish drinking and her wallet is stolen. So she has to call someone for a ride and that someone happens to be Dean. When Dean shows up a man who has been bothering Cora asks Dean if Cora was his girl and he yells NO! As they are going home they get pulled over and before they both know it they wake up handcuffed to poles in a dark basement. They slowly realize what is happening. When the man from the bar boots hit the stairs and then they see his face they know they are going to suffer. And without giving any details they become each other’s lifeline. They are tortured for three long weeks in that basement and are so sure this will only end in their deaths. Thankfully that didn’t happen!

As they get free and are rescued from the basement life starts forcing them apart. Neither is ready for that to happen because they really became so much to the other. Dean has to deal with his relationship with Cora’s sister Mandy and how that affects him. Cora has to deal with feeling alone and scared without Dean. They both have an attachment to the other that is unhealthy and they have to heal. This is a powerful, traumatic, surprising, and unstoppable love they have developed. Just when you are sure what is about to happen it doesn’t. I will tell the Happy Ever After comes but not without a whole lot of pain for all our characters. 

Jennifer Hartmann writes characters that are so raw and real that you have to see them through. This book has been called a slow burn but it’s more like a non-rushed timeline. This book gets 5 stars from me.