* REVIEW * - Destroyed by Pepper Winters

Reviewer : Kaylene

Rating : 5 Stars

To say I am a true Pepper Winters fan would be an understatement, 

I loved this book ... 

Destroyed is another fantastic book by the very talented Pepper Winters.  This book is deep as it is unnerving, its full of secrets, dark pasts and very damaged characters.

I’ll start with Obsidian Fox who’s a dark, scared, battered, unemotional, untouchable, beyond help, conditioned killer who’s a product of his very dark past.  He cannot touch or be touched without his conditioning coming to the surface.  He’s a trained assassin and beyond redemption.  He lives as a recluse in a black world full of gargoyles and ugly creatures which are the product of his making.   His conditioned moto is “Kill. Sever. Bleed. Devour”.   Brutality is his friend, and he craves pain so to fill this need he owns  a not so legal  secret fight club.

He meets Hazel (Zel) Hunter a woman who for the first time in his life he feels a pull toward.  Can she possibly show him the light and lead him to redemption.  But can this really happen, is she truly able to help Fox out of the shadows.   He absolutely craves to be normal, to be touched, but he is totally incapable of bearing it without reverting to his conditioning and becoming a crazed killer.  Zel struggles with this, she wants to help him and he really wants redemption but the conditioning is so ingrained that it feels impossible.

There are some serious plot turns and twists in this book and the last forty percent  I found hard to read at times.   It’s just so amazing, I had to read the last part of this book in one sitting and as such I was still reading at 2 am because I just had to finish it.  The words to describe this book... floored, shocking, wonderful, emotional, redemption,  utterly gutted, brilliant, perfect, twists and turns, I could go on and on but the review would be full of just words. So what I will say is that I'm truly a Pepper Winter’s fan.  I love her work, I crave her work and I honestly cannot wait until the next Pepper Winter’s book is out.   Of course, and without a doubt this is a five star book, if I could give it more I would.

She has a secret.

I'm complicated. Not broken or ruined or running from a past I can’t face. Just complicated. 

I thought my life couldn't get any more tangled in deceit and confusion. But I hadn’t met him. I hadn't realized how far I could fall or what I'd do to get free. 

He has a secret.

I've never pretended to be good or deserving. I chase who I want, do what I want, act how I want.

I didn't have time to lust after a woman I had no right to lust after. I told myself to shut up and stay hidden. But then she tried to run. I’d tasted what she could offer me and damned if I would let her go.

One secret destroys them.