Review: The Debt by Karina Halle

Her life changed in an instant.

And he’s the only one who could have prevented it.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Pact and The Lie comes a new standalone contemporary romance about those McGregor men.

Jessica Charles shouldn’t have even been in London when the unthinkable happened.

She should have been back at home in Edinburgh, perhaps hanging with her boyfriend, having drinks with her sister or doing yoga with her group of friends. She should have been going on in her normal, dependable life as always.

But on that fateful day in August, when a mentally-ill ex-soldier opened fire in public, Jessica’s world changed forever.

Now single and crippled from the gunshot wounds, Jessica finds herself scared and alone, losing faith in herself and humanity with each agonizing moment that passes.

That is until a stranger enters her life. A stranger who makes her live again.

Keir McGregor has always been the strong, silent type. Throw in tall, dark, and handsome and you’ve got pretty much the perfect Scotsman.

Except Keir is anything but perfect. He’s got a past he’s running away from and a guilty conscience he can’t seem to shed. But the more time he spends with Jessica, the more he falls in love with her.

And the more his secret threatens to tear them apart.

He may have been a stranger to her.

But she’s never been a stranger to him.

Pub Date: August 29th 2016 | Page Count: 264 pp | Publisher: Metal Blonde Books

Rating: 4 Stars | Romance, Contemporary

    

---

Review

If I have to mention just one thing I love about Karina’s style, is how her characters interact with each other, they’re raw and honest to their attributes, and it’s something I can instantly connect with and something that sets her apart from all the romance authors out there, she can always shape them and give them life in that unique way of hers.

“The last thing I want to admit is needing anyone. I am strong. I have armor. A bulletproof heart and resolve of steel. I don’t need anyone but me. But of course the truth is that my armor has chinks. My heart has cracks. And the steel is corroding at the edges. I do need someone. Maybe even him. My stranger.”

Keir and Jessica are proof that not all accidents are disasters. They meet in rather unexpected circumstances and hit it off almost immediately. Jessica is this resilient, brave woman who, after tragedy, finds strength within herself to cope with what happened to her and what’s still to come, her character is not only a testimony of accurate self-proclamation but also a demonstration that sometimes it’s good to partly rely on someone else to pick you up when you need it most, and that’s exactly what she finds in Keir.

“You are really sweet, you know that?” she says, trying another glass. I raise my brow. “You’re telling me I’m fucking sweet?” She grins at me. “Yeah. You have a problem with that?”

It’s not only solace she finds in him, although the start of their relationship was a bit suddenly, the development was rather unhurried and we got to experience how these two got to know each other as deeply as they allowed. Keir is battling his own inner war and that miraculously doesn’t keep him from being a gentle and caring man, willing to do anything for Jessica. Both are one another’s support but eventually they realize that that kind of connection they have might be the start of something completely new, something they couldn’t foresee.

In my book Karina is known for giving me serious wanderlust. I feel like I can see the world through her novels, we’ve been to New Zealand, Italy, Spain, and in THE DEBT we’re back again in beautiful Scotland. To me, it’s incredible how she describes every specific scenery, it’s absorbing, and it makes you experience the characters and story more vividly.

“Relationships are work, I know that. but the foundation of love and respect should always be there. You shouldn’t have to change your whole world in order to make someone realize they want you.”

Are you willing to lie to protect the person you care about the most? Keir and Jessica are like a storm you see from miles away, you know it’s coming, and you can’t prevent it. These two will grip and twist your heart in so many ways and when the tough moments are here after the blissful ones, you’ll see what they’re actually made of.

Thank you to the author who kindly provided an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

---

About The Author

Karina Halle is a former travel writer and music journalist and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of The Pact, Racing the Sun, Sins & Needles and over 25 other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.

Halle is represented by the Waxman Leavell Agency and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster and Hachette in North America and in the UK.

You can also visit http://www.authorkarinahalle.com and sign up for the newsletter for news, excerpts, previews, private book signing sales and more.

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page

---

Other Books by Karina Halle

   

---

Follow Fiction Jungle and Let’s Connect!