Wrong to Need You by Alisha Rai (Forbidden Hearts #2)
Released: November 28, 2017
Contemporary Romance
Avon
Reviewed by Mandi
Sadia pressed her hand over her heart, hating the swirl of emotion in there.
I think I did the same thing, while reading this book, Sadia. Alisa Rai has definitely tuned into the angsty market. If you like forbidden love, some guilt thrown in and overall fretting about choices you have made in your life, this is the book for you.
Blurb: He wasn’t supposed to fall in love with his brother’s widow…
Accused of a crime he didn’t commit, Jackson Kane fled his home, his name, and his family. Ten years later, he’s come back to town: older, wiser, richer, tougher—and still helpless to turn away the one woman he could never stop loving, even after she married his brother.
Sadia Ahmed can’t deal with the feelings her mysterious former brother-in-law stirs, but she also can’t turn down his offer of help with the cafe she’s inherited. While he heats up her kitchen, she slowly discovers that the boy she adored has grown into a man she’s simply unable to resist.
An affair is unthinkable, but their desire is undeniable. As secrets and lies are stripped away, Sadia and Jackson must decide if they’re strong enough to face the past…and step into a future together.
If you read book one, Hate to Want You, this book has a similar feel. We revisit the same family drama and the overall tone is very much the same. I wouldn’t call them dark – but maybe complex? And not to use angst again – but a lot of angst. They read well as stand alones, although there is a family connection between the characters. And for some reason I have a hard time keeping the in-laws and grandparents straight…but maybe that’s just me.
Sadia’s husband died and she is working two jobs and raising their young son. She has a lot of help from her sisters and has moved past the grief stage. Her husband and her were basically staying married just for their son, so he wasn’t the love of her life. When she sees a very sexy man sitting in the bar she tends, she makes him a special drink and uses all her charm and flirtation as she walks over to him.
As she grew closer to the man in the booth, he shifted, his arms bunching and releasing. On another guy, she might suspect that he’d bought his red Henley a size too small. On him, she wondered if he could even find a size that fit him. Getting dressed was probably a daily battle of him versus fabric.
That was a battle she would pay to see.
She gets the shock of her life when he lifts his head and it’s her former lover, Jackson. AKA brother of her deceased husband. AKA the man she loved with all her heart as a teenager. AKA OMG.
There is a lot of dark, and deep family drama with Sadia, Jackson, her late husband and other sisters and parents. Bad things happened, feelings were hurt, relationships became estranged. If you read book one, you know all about it. If you haven’t, you learn again in this one. It’s a lot to get into so I’m just leaving it as general drama. Jackson got blamed for something bad, left town and has been traveling ever since, setting up pop-up kitchens and showing off his chef skills around the world. When he left, Sadia started writing him emails…almost like a diary or a daily journal – and Jackson never responded. But he read every word. It takes events that happen in book one, to finally bring Jackson home.
“Why don’t I calm down? Because what’s there to be upset by? You only disappeared from the face of the earth for ten years. Ignored every single e-mail I sent you. Ignored your nephew’s birth, your sister and mother’s pain, your own brother’s funeral.”
[…] She wasn’t saying anything but the truth. Only a monster would have ignored every word she’d written to him over the past decade. Only the most uncaring of people wouldn’t have at least called her when her husband – his brother – had died.
That’s what he was, what he’d aspired to be. Alive, but unfeeling. His heart beat, his blood pounded, his organs functioned. That was it. That was enough.
Do you feel the pain?? Do you feel the ANGST??
He offers to help Sadia out in the cafe she owns, and he stays in her spare room above her garage. He gets to know her son. He rekindles the flame they had when they were younger. And they move past the guilt, and the bad memories and all the reasons they shouldn’t be together – and start a passionate relationship they can’t deny.
He bit at her lips, pulled them deep. He felt like a kid jumping from couch cushion to couch cushion, unable to touch the floor. If he touched the floor, lava would get him. If he stopped kissing her, he’s start thinking. Or she’d start thinking. Either way, they’d both stop feeling.
He never wanted to stop feeling this, not in a million years. He’d waited so long for it. His whole life, or so it felt. He stroked his thumb over the arch of her throat.
It takes time for Sadia to come to terms with Jackson back in her life. It’s not necessarily guilt that he is her late husband’s brother, but the fact Jackson abandoned her during so many of her major life events. Will he leave again? Does she let her son get close to him? What about the secrets and blame that he his holding onto from his past? Alisha Rai doesn’t rush their relationship. It slowly unfolds and builds up as she learns to trust him.
There is a lot of lovely family time too – and even the young son is written well for his age.
If you liked book one, you will definitely like this one too. Next up is Eve (sister of Nick from book one) and Gabe (the housekeeper’s son growing up)….I’m ready!
Grade: B+
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