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.

Unbound

Unbound
by Cara McKenna
Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

My Review:
I started this book intending to read some of it for a half hour each day and then switch off to a different book during my other reading time. That only lasted for one day before I was too caught up in this story to let it go. Then after a while I had a different problem: I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened next, but I'd read a paragraph and then guiltily close the book and stop myself because I wanted to savor the rest of the story.

This was a poignant, narrowly focused, sex-filled story of two messed up people. The story is almost completely set at Rob's cabin, in the middle of nowhere. There aren't really any other characters in the book, except vague mentions for the sake of Rob and Merry's healing process. Merry is further along in the healing process than Rob. She's started taking ownership of her problems and her trek across Scotland is supposed to be the pinnacle of her journey. Her physical body has changed but she still has lots of work to do internally. Rob's physically taken himself away from the bulk of his problems but he really hasn't dealt with any of them.

This book didn't give any easy answers. The characters were working on themselves, but they will always carry the scars of their journeys. It made me think a lot about what we see has whole and healthy. It left some things rather open ended – what friendships turn into when people change, what end Rob and Merry found for themselves. I wouldn't call it a sad book exactly, the characters didn't dwell on their problems in such a way that it brought the mood down but it definitely left me thinking.

I'm still not too sure what I think about the bearded, scruffy hero. But if that's your thing, definitely read this book. I couldn't really line up Rob with his description, so I didn't worry about it and just left him pictured some other way in my own head.

The sex: well, these two were definitely kinky. Cara McKenna really knows how to write these scenes. She strikes a perfect balance between kinky and caring. I loved that they were able to be together without judgement and even when they were living out some fantasy, it was always based around their relationship without objectifying the other. I loved how Merry was able to step up and let go of her insecurities enough to own her sexuality. She was able to catch on empathetically to Rob's kinks and put herself fully into the role of dominant character. Even though she had only had passive sexual experiences before, she didn't let that stop her from being fully engaged and able to enjoy the power and explore with enthusiasm.

I really wanted to know where these two ended up in the other parts of their lives besides just “together”. They were both on a path that worked for them to be together, but they still felt like they were living in a vacuum. No real career path, no definite plan beyond “we'll see if we work out”. The story leaves it all rather open ended for your own thoughts to keep churning about what it means to heal and what long-term relationships can and should look like when you (like anyone) still have emotional issues to work through.

All that said, I think I'm becoming addicted to Cara McKenna's style. I've only read a couple of her books so far, but I've enjoyed each of them so much that I have to start searching the backlist. If you're like me and read the cover copy on these books and say “wow, that might be a little too messed up for me”, if anyone can take all that and make it a compelling, hopeful and satisfying read, it's Cara McKenna.