In HARD TIME, Post Graduate student Annie Goodhouse has
just taken a job in Darren, Michigan as a librarian. She
is trying to escape a past from an abusive relationship;
and start over new in another town. Part of her job takes
her once a week to the local Cousins Correctional Facility,
a prison housing medium threat inmates. It is
there that Annie first comes into contact with Eric
Collier, an inmate serving time for aggravated assault.
One look at each other, and the air is electrified with the
attraction between them. Annie fights the pull of her
attraction to the prisoner, but soon falls to the
temptation in Eric's eyes.
The pair begin an illicit, secret relationship first by
virtue of
notes passed between them, and later sensual
letters. The letters quickly evolve into illicit and
steamy fantasies; and Annie revels in the freedom of them,
knowing that she will never have to see Eric face-to-face.
Months pass, and their intimacy deepens; until the day that
Eric writes Annie that he is being paroled, and wants to
know if their relationship can be continued on the outside,
in the real world. Both of them have abuse and pain in
their pasts, and don't know if they can maintain a solid
relationship beyond the sexual. They are definitely
willing to give it a try, until a threat from Eric's past
looms over them, threatening to end their romance.
HARD TIME is low-key story, and the setting appropriately
dreary to showcase the current state of Eric and Annie's
life. The first part of the story is told mainly from
Annie's point of view. Eric is only known to the reader
through the passionate, sensual letters he sends to Annie.
After his parole, Eric and his past begin to come to light;
letting the reader gain deeper insights into his
character. HARD TIME takes place in the same setting as
Cara McKenna's previous novel Unbound; but is a
completely standalone read. This is an excellent story
about hurting people who manage to find each other and work
through their pain. Cara McKenna has done a very credible
job of creating believable characters with real problems to
work through together; and a rich story that sucks the
reader in and refuses to let them go.
In this all-new novel from the author of After Hours and
Unbound, a woman with a rocky past finds romance in the last
place she’d ever expect...
Annie Goodhouse doesn’t need to be warned about bad boys;
good sense and an abusive ex have given her plenty of
reasons to play it safe. But when she steps into her new
role as outreach librarian for Cousins Correctional
Facility, no amount of good sense can keep her mind—or eyes—
off inmate Eric Collier.
Eric doesn’t claim to be innocent of the crime that landed
him in prison. In fact, he’d do it again if that’s what it
took to keep his family safe. Loyalty and force are what he
knows. But meeting Annie makes him want to know more.
When Eric begins courting Annie through letters, they
embark on a reckless, secret romance—a forbidden fantasy
that neither imagines could ever be real…until early parole
for Eric changes everything, and forces them both to face a
past they can’t forget, and a desire they can’t deny.
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