Devil You Know

Title: Devil You Know
Series: Butcher Boys Book 1
Author: Max Henry
Publication Date: February 2, 2015
Add to Goodreads

*Synopsis*

Love.

How do you define it? I guess it’s up to the individual. Love can be a sweet gesture of flowers on your anniversary. Love can be a meal waiting at home after a long day at work. Love can be a gentle caress. Or the unspoken words in your lover’s eyes.

Love isn’t a backhand, given because of a warm beer. Love isn’t wearing long-sleeves to hide bruises from the ladies at the supermarket.

I thought I’d never experience love. Such emotion didn’t seem to fit with what I had—who I was.

But he stepped in, and showed me his.

He pulled me from the dark abyss I had lost myself to, and showed me the simple things which could bring such joy. Sun on my face. The smell of fresh coffee. Colours in the autumn leaves. All the little things.

He shows me these things, but he doesn’t share in them. He knows happiness, but he doesn’t feel it. He will give love, but never accept it.


He saved me. Now it’s my turn to return the favor.

~BUY LINKS~

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Jane has been going through life at her husbands beck and call, trying to survive his abuse. She's at a point in her life where she doesn't care about her life and only wants to avoid the beatings her husband dishes out whenever he deems necessary. When her husband goes after their dog, Rocco, in a fit of rage she fights back, and gets the attention of her next door neighbor. Saving Rocco, the neighbor beats up her husband and then leaves, telling Jane that he will be there when she needs help. Soon after she knows she needs to take him up on his offer for help, or she may not survive. Malice takes her away from the abusive household and vows to protect her. 

This is a really hard book for me to rate because my overall reaction to the story is mixed. It was an okay book with a good story but while I was reading it I just felt meh.

What I did like: The story itself was really well written and kept me interested to find out what would happen with Jane's husband and Malice's oh so secret job. I liked that a lot of the story focused on Jane's abuse and what she dealt with after getting out of that situation, and how she got help for it. It wasn't just passed over like I've read in a lot of books that have abused heroines.

Wake up, Jane. Nobody's going to save you. Knights in shining armor don't exist.

What I didn't like: I couldn't feel the connection to Malice's character. There was a lot about him that was only skimmed over and didn't go into a lot of detail. When we finally find out about his job it's mentioned a lot and he explains it to Jane but we never actually get to see that part of his life, which is actually a huge part of the story, at least to me. There wasn't any chemistry between Malice and Jane that I could feel. There whole relationship felt pretty rushed and didn't feel real to me.

Overall, it was a good story it just could have been better. There were serious issues that were dealt with throughout the story that I feel made the story more realistic but I just couldn't connect to the story as a whole.