Half the Battle by Elle Thorpe

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

At the edge of a cliff, in the pouring rain, the man I once loved attacks me. His fingers tear at my flesh, his breath hot in my ear as he spews venomous words of hate and promises of death.

My only hope is Scythe. The psychopath locked away inside the mind of another. Letting him out will only cause chaos and violence. And yet, I utter his name and free him to save myself.

Scythe is nothing like Vincent. He’s dark. Sarcastic. Sexy. The things he makes me do are wickedly sinful.

But secret.

Nash and War don’t know what I’ve done. If they knew Scythe’s true identity and the crimes he’s committed, they’d kill him in a heartbeat.

I can’t let that happen. The empire I’m building can’t crumble.

Not when I need it to save my family from the streets. Not when half the battle is keeping my head while my heart is split between three men.

Not when the real killer is still out there, ready to ruin it all.

Half the Battle is an adult #whychoose romance, meaning the main character has more than one love interest. This book contains romantic suspense/dark themes that may trigger some readers. It contains a male/male storyline. It is the second book in an ongoing trilogy and cannot be read as a standalone. Book 1 of this series is Start A War.

Half the Battle

Too steamy, I need more story.

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙❤️💜
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌏
Character development: 😊😘😟
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Duet Narration

The heroine: Bethany Melissa (a.k.a. Bliss) – she was born in the slums of Saint View. When she was five, her brother Axel and his friend Nash got her out of there and away from her mother and stepfather by contacting her wealthy father. After that she grew up in his world, but after Axel was recently murdered and left his bar and illegal sex club to Bliss, she has become the owner. She wants to find out who killed Axel and needs the money that the sex club brings for her family and her younger siblings since her father is bankrupt.

The Heroes: Nash, War & Vincent – the new men in Bethany’s life.
Nash – The manager of Saint View Psychos, a dive bar in the slums. He has known Bliss since she was very young. He was the best friend of her brother and though Axel is dead, he doesn’t want to disrespect him by hooking up with her.
War – he is the president of the Saint View Slayers motorcycle club, since his father was murdered by an assassin named Scythe. He is a bit obsessed with Bliss but doesn’t do relationships.
Vincent – he works as a bouncer at Saint View Psychos, he has dissociative identity disorder, and his other personality is an assassin named Scythe. He is very protective of Bliss.

The Story: Bliss is attracted to all three of the new men in her life and is slowly starting to get to know each of them. She is in a world of danger, secrets and lies now and is trying to find her way. Her junkie mother makes a comeback. She also gets to know Scythe, who I liked quite a bit. He was completely different than Vincent. Scythe was snarky and irreverent while Vincent was quiet and awkward.

The intimate scenes were super steamy and even included a budding romance between Scythe and War. Though there were too many for my liking. I like a bit more story along with my steamy scenes. I thought I may not go further to the next book because too many sex scenes were starting to bore me. I do want to find out what happens to these characters so I will listen to the last audiobook and just fast forward parts. I just wish a bunch of the steamy scenes would have been cut and then this could have been a duet instead of a trilogy. There was a really good cliffhanger at the end, so I am hoping the next book is better than this one.

This audiobook was done in multiple points of view via duet narration. It was narrated by Michelle Price and Gregory Salinas. Michelle isn’t one of my favorite narrators, though she is good at showing anxiety through her voice. Gregory Salinas has a deep, yet soft voice which I really enjoy.

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