Eliza's Review: Come Back (Dirty, Dark & Deadly, #2) by J.A. Huss

Title: Come Back (Dirty, Dark & Deadly, #2)

Series: Yes

Author: J.A. Huss

Release Date: July 21st, 2014

Rating: 5 "Bulletproof" Stars

Cliffhanger: Yes

Dirty, Dark, and Deadly, #2 This is a SERIES. This is BOOK TWO. “Secrets keep the darkness alive,” Harper tells me. But that’s not how I see it at all. Secrets keep me alive. The truth is overrated. Honesty is never the best policy. And everything you know absolutely can hurt you. The contracts I fulfill are just agreements. Death is a business deal. Secrets are currency in my world. I pay my debts with them. I feed on them. They ground me in the present and they promise me a future. I’ve lived a life filled with secrets for so long—I forgot what it’s like to… feel. Until I saw Harper. Until I saw how beautiful she’s become. How perfect, and pure, and innocent of all the ugly that goes on around her. And that dirty promise I refused the night her father turned me into a killer twelve years ago is suddenly on the table again. Harper can be mine. No—Harper will be mine. All I have to do is complete the mission. Death is a business deal. And I just shook his hand.

My immediate reaction after reading this was "Fu*k me." Closely followed by feeling of Hope. Maybe a little naively but I hope for everything to work out perfectly. For James and Harper to be free of the her father and The Company, for James' debts to be repaid and for them to have some sense of normality.

"You take away the emptiness, Harper. You take away all the years of indifference and dissociation and right right now" - I cup her face again- "right now, this is more real than anything I've felt in years. Maybe ever. This feels like something new. Something apart from what I was and a way forward into what I can be. This feels like hope, baby."

But I know there is a long way to go before (if) that happens. In the already complicated weave, another thread is added in the form Sacha. By all intents and purposes she should be another victim of The Company orphaned at 13, looking for answers and revenge; never quite trusting of James' intentions she is a new member of the fold.

I was endeared to Harper straight away, she has a steely strength to her but there are also a few moments of vulnerability that show once in a while - in these moments I want to hug her, even though the I'm sure she'd kick my ass. There were quite a few times I wished Harper could channel some of sasha's strength, luckily she has James:

The history of how James came to know her is unfolded in this instalment and he's feelings for if taken without suspicion are pure, Harper however holds back emotionally as much as she can. Sexually however it's all guns blazing:

The way in which this instalment is left was brilliant, not because I can handle the wait (I can't) but because I appreciate the layers to this story and if I have have it right I'm clinging onto James' words:

I can't promise you we'll never be apart. It wouldn't be honest. But I can promise you one thing. If I leave you, I will come back."

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