The Truth About Him by M. O’Keefe (Everything I Left Unsaid #2)
Released: November 24, 2015
Erotic Suspense
Random House

Reviewed by Mandi

A few months ago I read, Everything I Left Unsaid and loved it. The Truth About Him is book two in this duology. This can’t be read as a stand alone. I highly recommend these two books! I gave the first one a B+ and this one gets a solid A from me. The romance, the suspense, the erotic darker edge – so well done.

I don’t really want to go into a lot of detail about what happens in this book because I’m afraid it will spoil things. Annie has escaped her abusive husband, or so she thinks, by moving to a trailer park in North Carolina. By answering a cell phone she happens to find in the trailer, she meets Dylan. Dylan is a rich man who builds specialized race car engines. He has a very scarred face from being in a fire, and lives a reclusive life. But Annie will change everything for him. He helps her explore her sexuality as she has lived a very closeted life with her controlling husband. And Annie brings Dylan back to life with love and laughter. They weren’t ready for the happily ever after in book one for a few reasons. One, Annie’s husband has tracked her down and shows up at the trailer. His creepy, disgusting abusive ways are on full display and Annie is in a lot of trouble home alone with him when this book starts. Meanwhile, while Dylan knows his feelings for Annie are becoming intense and real, his family life is a mess and his past demons make him feel like he isn’t worthy of Annie’s love. Dylan is estranged from both his father and brother. Having gone to jail for his brother, and then killing someone in jail, he feels dirty and sullied. His father, Ben, lives at the trailer park where Annie lives, and Annie and Ben have become friends of sort. This greatly frustrates Dylan, who wants nothing to do with the frail, elderly man who treated him horrible as he was growing up. On top of that, Dylan’s brother, part of a dangerous motorcycle gang shows up and causes more terror in Annie’s life.

The journey Dylan and Annie go on together to find love and peace is done so well – but the author also doesn’t forget their individual journeys. Annie grows some balls. She gets away from her abusive husband and starts to learn how to make her own decisions. It’s  hard because she is so used to someone controlling her every move, but her freedom is very important to her. Dylan of course wants to wrap her up and carry her miles and miles away from every bad thing coming at her in life, but she won’t let him. I adored her spirit, her kindness, her big heart.

Dylan holds so much anger over his family A horrible childhood, going to jail to cover his brother’s mistakes, and then being abandoned by them all – he is hard to love. He doesn’t want anyone to love him or coddle him or feel sorry for him. But Annie is stubborn – and she very delicately starts to peel away his tough defense and gets down to his mushy heart which is in there somewhere. Dylan’s journey in this book with his father and brother made my heart hurt. His shame and embarrassment for still being upset over it all is raw. So. Well. Done.

And there is also really hot sex. Sometimes angry, always emotional and raw sex.

He sucked in a deep breath through his nose, like he was about to go underwater, and kissed her. Hard. With all his force and confusion.

And she met him with her own.

His hand clenched the back of her neck. She squeezed his face.

“You are seriously fucking with my life,” he said against her lips and she arched against him, feeling him getting hard.

“I seriously want to fuck you.” She bit his lips. Sucked on his tongue. And he growled, clamping a hand in her hair, twisting her head until he had her where he wanted her.

“Show me,” he said. “Show me how you want to fuck me.”

Ok, ok, one more.

“I’m not scared of you,” she said. “I’ll never be scared of you.”

Every breath they took was pulled from the same air. Their bodies nearly fought for the same space. She felt a sudden need to bite and claw and rip and tear and as if he saw it too, he grabbed her. He held her head still in his hands.

“Well, I’m sure as shit scared of you,” he said.

“Good,” she whispered, all bravado and lust. “You should be.”

He kissed her with a barely restrained mean edge that didn’t bother her in the slightest.

Yeah, she thought, show me. Show me everything.

Raw, erotic and emotional. With an amazing heroine and a cast of characters that give this book an exciting edge.

Grade: A

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