Hard Time by Cara McKenna

Hard Time
by Cara McKenna
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

My Review:
This story was so sweet and bent. Eric and Annie are so broken and vulnerable. I loved the letter writing and there was so much emotion and hotness in those pages. I think that was my favorite part of the book. Both characters tug at your heartstrings and Cara McKenna handled their issues with compassion and hopefulness.

Annie was quiet and reserved, but decided to hold on to the tension of seeing where her attraction went. While Eric's in prison, it's just a secret adventure for her – something safe and dangerous at once. When Eric's released from prison, the feeling of safety and danger is still there but the reasons have been completely reversed. Physically, she completely trusted him, but emotionally it took her a long time to open up. She doesn't want to stay closed, but she's not really ready for the disappointment that comes from a relationship. I felt like she was really understandable and relatable, but also very morose.

Eric wasn't evil, even though he committed a violent act to go to prison. He was a really caring, loyal, doer guy. He was the secret romantic, but he didn't let that interfere with the things that were most important to him. He didn't care what job he held, had no hopes or dreams, but he did what he had to for the people he cared about.

To start out with, I was a little creeped out by Eric's attention. He had a staring thing going on that felt a little too perverted. I think their relationship was build around being soul mates and you have to suspend some extra disbelief to allow them to like each other while he's in prison. I think part of my difficulty was that we don't get any of Eric's perspective. It's just all of a sudden he's looking at her and writing letters. They had an across-the-crowded-room zing, but I didn't get a good read on why Eric initially liked Annie besides she was available. Without his perspective, he felt a bit more one-dimensional – like each of his issues were just a part of the drudgery of life and he didn't have emotions to go with them.

Both characters skirted the law to interact with each other and it was an uncomfortable feeling to experience their attraction along with the anxiety of potentially getting caught. While the book was heartwarming and sexy, I also felt distressed by how much I could relate to these characters even through their bad choices. They were totally believable and it made me cringe each time they decided to stick with the attraction and let themselves stew in their discomfort.

At the same time, Eric and Annie were just so nice. They didn't see eye to eye all the time, but they both felt likeable and grown up. They found mature ways to work through their problems. Besides the whole am-I-ok-with-you-being-a-criminal issue, they didn't have a reason not to be together. They're relationship wasn't easy, but it did feel calm. They didn't have loud, angry fights or huge, emotional reunions. But they were happy together. They owned their choices and were accepting of their lives. Life wasn't all joy and roses, but they made the best of what they had.

This was another book from Cara McKenna that felt very constrained. We got a little more outside interaction than say Unbound, but neither person has a support system, neither person seems to have friends. They each have some family, but the real reason they found each other is fate or destiny.

I thought this book handled all of Eric and Annie's issues with compassion and a gratifying resolution. The writing is excellent. The emotion and perception was spot on. But I didn't completely believe their attraction was more than convenience and gentle personalities working well together. In most cases, that would be fine, but the constrained Insta-Love was hard to reconcile with their calm personalities outside the prison walls.