Kristie J’s review of The Mad Tatter by J.M. Darhower
Contemporary Romance published by Amazon Digital Services 12 Apr 15
I’m not sure if I’m the only one this happens to, but this book called to me. I noticed it in a GoodReads update and I’d never heard of the book or the author before, but I was curious. And, before I knew it, I found myself doing the ‘buy with one click’ thing. And as with many a book that calls to me, I’m glad I listened to its siren call.
Reece Hatfield is the hero. He doesn’t have much of a life these days and doesn’t seem to have much to live for, really. We learn throughout the book that he’s an artist who has hit his wall and can’t seem to move past it and it’s haunting him. He’s spending his days working as a tattoo artist, and, while he’s wildly talented, still he’s doing what other people want and not really expressing the artist inside him. His life is pretty basic. Work all day, stop off at a local bar for a drink or two after he’s done, go home, go to bed, and repeat the next day. The only thing that makes things bearable is the amount of meaningless sex he’s getting.
But when Reece meets Avery Moore, he’s smitten right from the get-go, but he would NEVER use the word smitten because he’s quite the hard ass and, up until he meets her, has had no lasting relationship of any kind with a woman. But she ‘gets’ to him and he’s like a starving man being offered food.
Avery couldn’t be more different than Reece. She’s a dancer attending Julliard and comes from a wealthy and influential family. He can barely make ends meet and lives on the rough side of town. She is full of life and light and he is dark and full of painful shadows. She is young and he is experientially too old for her. But they are like magnets that can’t help but be attracted to each other, and I think this book is different and great.
Oddly, if I had to use one word to describe it, that word would be minimalistic. There isn’t a lot of descriptive narrative and that really works, especially with Reece. We don’t get very much information about him at all, except that he disgraced his parents and they want nothing to do with him and he is banned from his most important form of art. And this style works very well with this book. Though there is a HEA – this is a romance after all – I get the feeling their lives will always be a struggle; but as long as they have each other, they are whole and they will make it.
Grade: A-
Summary:
Reece Hatfield has just one rule when it comes to falling in love: don’t fucking do it. There’s no room in his life for another person. He can barely keep a handle on things as it is. A shadow of the man he used to be, Reece spends his days tattooing, the artist inside of him longing for the chance to do something different.
Avery Moore is all dance, all the time. Ballet is all she’s ever known, and she’s damn good at it. Her body is her art, a living canvas that captivates Reece the first time he lays his eyes on her.
He yearns to leave his mark on her body… in more ways than one.
The tattooed degenerate with a shady past. The beautiful ballerina with a bright future. They live in different worlds, yet somehow, they fit. But just because they fit doesn’t mean they belong together. Cracks sometimes form. Two pieces don’t always make a whole. The course of love never did run smoothly. Things get messy.
And Reece doesn’t do messy.
Not anymore.
No excerpt available.
