The second half of the story begun with Connected, earns a 3.5 star... adding the two ratings together doesn't quite make a five-start book, but it is close! Too bad readers have to acquire two books in order to read one story. Ms Karr's story is a good one -- full of love (not only the honeymoon happiness of a new couple in a new relationship, but also the love between parents and child, love (and hate) between siblings, the longing love of what was once and now is lost, the hopeful love of what could be though isn't guaranteed.

While I recommend this contemporary romance and while I will read Aerie's, Ben's and Xanders' stories, I am still smarting that Dahlia's and River's love story was split into two bindings. ( )

I was waiting so long for this book! I looked back at my review of Connected to see when I read it... April. APRIL!! I have been dying to see what would happen since April! I think I deserve a cookie for my patience. The last page of Connected had me twisted and turned and gasping from shock and then I had to wait 5 months for closure?? Obviously I adored Connected because I dealt with the wait and jumped on Torn the second I got my greedy little hands on it and didn’t put it down until I got my sigh of contentment at the end.

First of all, if you haven’t read Connected stop reading this, go buy Connected AND Torn and read them back to back. It’s ok if you stay up all night, to read them, I promise. If you need more convincing, read my review of Connected here.

Ok, on to Torn.

Ok, so Ben is back from the dead. And in my head I am screaming “No! Fuck you!! You will NOT ruin River and Dahlia!” Honestly, I just wanted him to stay gone. And he acted so entitled! Like, he would just come back and say “Hi honey! Sorry I faked my death, but I’m home now! How’s about you and me go back to our life now?” And he did it literally right when River and Dahlia were getting ready to ride off into the sunset to their happy ever after. No, Ben. Just...no. Especially after we learn more about him throughout Torn. Having said that, I did appreciate that Dahlia still loved Ben, and in his way Ben really did love Dahlia. They just weren’t meant for each other.

Thankfully Dahlia has now experienced true, unending, real love with River. She now knows what it’s like to be adored, connected, happy. She can’t give that up without losing herself in the process.

More-we say that to each other all the time, but it's not about who loves the other more, it's simply that we love each other more than words can possibly express. And nothing or no one can ever change that.

So, Happyeverafter Road has taken a detour down Mydeadfiancecamebacktolife Lane and said lane has some monster potholes. Everyone knows that potholes can mess with your alignment! So River and Dahlia have some work to do to get back on their Road to Happy. It’s hard work, but hey, no one everyone said that Happyeverafter Road was easy!

Initially I was worried. I was worried that this was going to turn into a love triangle (I have a tough time with those!) but Kim Karr did me right by not going down that road. Yes, there was a triangle, but not a love triangle. I really loved that this was River and Dahlia’s story.

Oh, you want an HEA? BAM! You get it! Yes, there are more installments in this awesome series, but River and Dahlia get their happy. Next up is getting Xander’s his! You can bet I will be first in line to read that one!

The Series will be:

Connected - River and Dahlia
Torn - River and Dahlia (and Ben)
Mended - Xander and Ivy
Frayed - Ben and Bell
Flawed - Zane and Aerie
Perfected - A giant epilogue with a twist of course
( )

I was waiting so long for this book! I looked back at my review of Connected to see when I read it... April. APRIL!! I have been dying to see what would happen since April! I think I deserve a cookie for my patience. The last page of Connected had me twisted and turned and gasping from shock and then I had to wait 5 months for closure?? Obviously I adored Connected because I dealt with the wait and jumped on Torn the second I got my greedy little hands on it and didn’t put it down until I got my sigh of contentment at the end.

First of all, if you haven’t read Connected stop reading this, go buy Connected AND Torn and read them back to back. It’s ok if you stay up all night, to read them, I promise. If you need more convincing, read my review of Connected here.

Ok, on to Torn.

Ok, so Ben is back from the dead. And in my head I am screaming “No! Fuck you!! You will NOT ruin River and Dahlia!” Honestly, I just wanted him to stay gone. And he acted so entitled! Like, he would just come back and say “Hi honey! Sorry I faked my death, but I’m home now! How’s about you and me go back to our life now?” And he did it literally right when River and Dahlia were getting ready to ride off into the sunset to their happy ever after. No, Ben. Just...no. Especially after we learn more about him throughout Torn. Having said that, I did appreciate that Dahlia still loved Ben, and in his way Ben really did love Dahlia. They just weren’t meant for each other.

Thankfully Dahlia has now experienced true, unending, real love with River. She now knows what it’s like to be adored, connected, happy. She can’t give that up without losing herself in the process.

More-we say that to each other all the time, but it's not about who loves the other more, it's simply that we love each other more than words can possibly express. And nothing or no one can ever change that.

So, Happyeverafter Road has taken a detour down Mydeadfiancecamebacktolife Lane and said lane has some monster potholes. Everyone knows that potholes can mess with your alignment! So River and Dahlia have some work to do to get back on their Road to Happy. It’s hard work, but hey, no one everyone said that Happyeverafter Road was easy!

Initially I was worried. I was worried that this was going to turn into a love triangle (I have a tough time with those!) but Kim Karr did me right by not going down that road. Yes, there was a triangle, but not a love triangle. I really loved that this was River and Dahlia’s story.

Oh, you want an HEA? BAM! You get it! Yes, there are more installments in this awesome series, but River and Dahlia get their happy. Next up is getting Xander’s his! You can bet I will be first in line to read that one!

The Series will be:

Connected - River and Dahlia
Torn - River and Dahlia (and Ben)
Mended - Xander and Ivy
Frayed - Ben and Bell
Flawed - Zane and Aerie
Perfected - A giant epilogue with a twist of course
( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Good read full of lots of sexy times but I got a little bored with it.

Opening Sentence: Close your eyes and you can imagine what it was like.

The Review:

This is the second book in a series and because of the way the first one ended it was really difficult not to have some spoilers. So if you haven’t read the first book then I suggest you not read this review.

Dahlia London can’t believe that she has found the man of her dreams. After losing her best friend and long time fiancée she thought that she would never be happy again, but then she reconnects with River Wilde. He is her soulmate and now that they are together there is nothing that can tear them apart. But then the one person that Dahlia thought was gone forever comes back into her life and causes a bump in paradise. Then Dahlia finds out that River has been keeping secrets from her and the trust she has in him has started to crumble. Will their love be strong enough to survive this test or will they be torn apart for good?

Dahlia was hard for me to connect with in this story. I actually liked her in the first book but in this one I found her kind of annoying. She always seems depressed and angry all the time. I realize she has had a lot of heartache in her life but it was frustrating to watch her push away the things that make her happy for no good reason. It made it hard for me to sympathize and connect with her story. Also, another thing that really bugged me (slight spoiler) was how she treated Ben. I get being mad at him and I understand that she moved on, but after reading the first book and seeing how his death affected her I thought it was unrealistic for her to act the way she did towards him. Overall, I just had a really hard time with Dahlia.

River had his good moments but he also really frustrated me throughout the story. I love that he is so devoted to Dahlia and would do anything for her. I understand that he would be insecure with Ben coming back but the whole jealousy thing got a little old. Also, the fact that instead of communicating with each other to solve their problems they would use sex to distract themselves and it caused way more drama than necessary. I will admit that I think River and Dahlia are good together and they have seriously hot chemistry. But I can only read so many sex scenes before I start to get board and I felt there were too many in this book.

Torn was very sexy but I was hoping for more. The end of Connected had so much potential and I felt that this really fell short for me. While I did eventually finish this book it took me weeks because I kept putting it down for something else that held my interest more. I’m not saying this was a bad book because it wasn’t there just wasn’t much substance to it. I was hoping that Karr would add more action and suspense to the plot instead of just focusing on the romance, but that didn’t happen. Also, I got board real fast of Dahlia and River because I felt that their relationship was slightly repetitive from the first book. But I will admit that I really love some of the secondary characters especially Ben, so I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series. I think that changing the POV will be refreshing and hopefully I will enjoy the other books better. I know that I ranted a lot in this review and it’s not that this was a bad book it just wasn’t what I was hoping for and I got bored with it pretty fast. Now with all that being said, I would still recommend this book if you liked the first one or if you are looking for just a steamy book full of sex and drama.

Notable Scene:

He cups my cheeks and says, “Beautiful, I made that promise to myself the first time I kissed you. I promised to love you always. How could I not?”

My tears spill over at his heartfelt words. I love him so much. He’s hugging me, not too tightly, but enough that I feel his love and I know he will always be mine. He kisses me again and says, “The instant you become Mrs. River Wilde I’m going to show you just how much.”

He grabs my hand and we head toward the door. “Amazing Grace” starts playing from my phone in the kitchen just as we’re about to leave and I turn back. “River, let me quickly grab that. I don’t want Grace to worry about me any more than she already has.”

I drop his hand and walk to the kitchen counter to answer my phone. “Hello?”

FTC Advisory: Intermix/Penguin provided me with a copy of Torn. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

5 Amazing Hearty Stars

Torn is Book # 2 in the Connections Series, if you have not read Connected yet I would suggest you read that before reading Torn and also before reading my review as it might contain spoilers of Connected.

After reading Connected I was dying to get my hands on Torn. Kim left us with a cliffhanger and I NEEDED to know what was going to happen with River & Dahlia

Torn Picks up right where Connected left off. River and Dahlia are set to leave for Vegas and get married when she receives a phone call. Yes Ben is alive. He has been living within the witness Protection program for the last three years for putting his nose in something he should have stayed out of.

My problem with Ben from the beginning was he had a choice and in my opinion he chose the wrong choice. So my dislike for him is warranted. He could have chosen to take Dahlia with him, but he chose not to. So to me He gets what he deserves.

“I thought Ben was my once-in-a-lifetime, but who knew a once-in-a-lifetime love could happen twice?”

Kim takes us on a rollercoaster of a ride with lies, betrayal, and what love truly means. Dahlia has finally put her grief and past behind her and moved on and has found love again in River. When things start to come to the surface of both of their pasts we see firsthand what a once in a lifetime love can be like.

While Dahlia Deals with Ben being alive and all her past grief being opened up wide again, we see River become more of the man she deserves when he sticks by her and helps her work through all the darkness.

“I do know that my intense connection with River is undeniable. The love I have for him is like nothing I’ve ever felt before; but Ben was my first love and that kind of love never leaves you – does it?”

River is amazing, although we find out that he also hid some things from Dahlia, we learn why he did it and I completely stood by his reasoning for what he felt was best for her. The love that these two have for each other is put through some very big tests, but in the end it will all be worth it. We watch River become very Alpha Male when necessary for Dahlia’s sake. I loved every minute of his compassion, his love, his continued support of everything Dahlia.

“I want to believe your love is only for me. That your lips are mine. That your kisses are meant for me. That your body belongs to me.”

We get so much more closure in this book, as well as some more surprises that even I did not see coming. But In the end Kim brought out the most amazing closure for River & Dahlia. I am sad to see their story come to a close, but I am very happy with the way things ended for them. I will be looking forward to the rest of this series from Kim with the next one being Mended which is Xander’s & Ivy’s story.

“Through everything, after all this time, you need to know…I have never ever stopped loving you, not for one second. And it scares the shit out of me to think that you don’t still love me. That you might actually love someone else.” ( )