Havoc by Debra Anastasia

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I named myself. I took the word animal out of their mouths, wore it like a badge of honor, then shoved it down their throats. I’ve fought for what I have. I see you coming before you even know you want a piece of me. In a city riddled with warring families, I’ll rise up between them. My people, the broken souls I gather, will have power by the time I’m done with them.

I protect mine.

Him. My brother, Nix.

Her. The girl that is the only home I’ve ever had. She knows me.

I’m coming at you, sweetness. Stay ready.

Havoc

Lots of action and drama!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: ❤️💙💚💛
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌏🌍🌏🌎🌍
Character development: 😠☺️😋😉😍
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

The Hero: Animal (a.k.a. Havoc) – he is the best friend of Nix from Mercy. They were in foster care together and had been each other’s ride or die ever since. Animal knew Nix was screwed up but loved him anyway and wasn’t afraid to show how he always had Nix’s back. Animal is quite a ladies’ man, he can charm a girl out of anything and is known to often bring home two or more at a time, but the girls never stayed the night. They knew the rules from the get-go.

The heroine: Talon (a.k.a. T) – she was also introduced in Mercy. She was a homeless girl who hung out with prostitutes and carried a gun. She took on a few dangerous jobs for Nix and Animal for cash and wasn’t afraid to use that gun when circumstances required.

The Story: I absolutely loved Animal in the first book and T was a nice surprise as well, she was tough and ready for action. Animal was loyal, supportive and always helpful. He was described as a tall, muscular guy who tends to be the biggest man in any room, and he looked after his friends and would jump in front of a bullet for any one of them.

In this book, we find that Animal has known T since middle school, where she was a thief and people made up rumors about her like she was a witch or homeless. She was a runner, who hated locked doors. She said she had a mother, so Animal never mentioned her to his social workers. Animal had his own problems at the time, with foster parents that spent their money on drugs. She was homeless and he was hungry, they had a connection even back then. T didn’t talk much even then; she has always been quiet, but she was so fierce.

Like the first book, this one had some great supporting characters. We learned a lot more about Merc, the cop who helped Nix in book one. Merc also helped Animal quite a bit and had wanted to adopt him at one point, though his wife didn’t want to and when he threatened to divorce her, she threatened to ruin his career because he was having an affair (most likely with Nix’s mother, for which Ember was the result) and later the murder of Nix’s mother when his father found out Ember wasn’t his.

Though I had more problems with this book than the first. In the first book, I loved the fact that Becca was always the woman for Nix. I thought this would be the same since T and Animal had such a strong connection when they were younger, though even after they found each other again, Animal wasn’t in love with T and was still a huge player. I didn’t really like that, especially knowing that T had feelings for him. I almost stopped listening when there was a long steamy scene with him and another woman.

This book is told in dual points of view via dual narration and was narrated by Rose Dioro and Benjamin Charles. I like Rose Dioro quite a bit. She has a kind of small, feminine voice that is very pleasant, and she shows emotion through her voice really well. I don’t think I had ever heard narration by Benjamin Charles before, his voice matched Animal very well, though I sometimes had trouble since he talked pretty fast, but when he smiled, you could hear it in his voice. And Zachary Webber chimed in as Nix, which was great.

Blog|Goodreads|Facebook|Instagram|Twitter|BookBub

View all my reviews