Review: Collide (Shades of Trouble Series Book 1) by Kitty Cox

Collide by Kitty Cox
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Beautiful Hopeful Messy Romance

Warning: This book contains references to self-harm, eating disorders, grooming for child abuse and violence. If any of these subjects cause painful emotions, you may want to avoid the book, though all subjects are handled with tact and understanding.

I knew I was going to like this book because I like the way Kitty Cox looks at the world. She’s optimistic with a side order of realism and a hint of despair. This is the first in a four-book series and I devoured it in one chunk, staying awake until 6 am because I couldn’t stop reading it. It was all the things I hoped it would be, beautiful, hopeful, messy, real and painful. It’s a wonderful start to the series and I can only hope that the rest of the series lives up to it’s introduction.

Violet’s beloved grandmother has died, leaving her legacy to her brilliant and determined granddaughter. Violet was raised from the age of 12/13 by her grandmother when her mother just left her there. It could have gone horribly wrong, but Violet’s grandmother was gifted with wayward teens and ran a centre for convicted teenagers, who committed crimes that could be seen as justified, such as stealing to feed a younger sibling, or defending someone physically which lead to assault charges. The centre did equine therapy, lead by Bea, Violet’s grandmother’s girlfriend.

Despite the love and care that Violet received she was still a troubled teen, but when she left the area she took with her friends that would last forever. She went into modelling with her best friend Ashton and they started a lingerie business together, with Ash designing and Violet modelling. When Violet and Ashton return to the the small community they are met with distaste and threats when they start to work towards opening the centre again. However, these two bright and strong personalities don’t care what people think of them and they have the support of their friends who were helped by the centre. They also get the help of Luke who has a 12-year-old daughter. He has a very low paid job and lives hand to mouth so his daughter doesn’t go without.

When Cy joins the staff as a psychiatrist for the young people who will hopefully be coming through the centre the four people connect in a way that they never saw coming.

This book may be considered part of the reverse harem genre but in reality it is a book about a polyamorous group of people. These four are strong, but flawed people, who have experience of life and think they know who they are, but are still accepting of their ability to change.

I love the way the group relate to Luke’s daughter, Faith. They all see her beauty and want her to flourish and do their utmost to make it happen. I love no matter what, Faith came first with all of them. Faith was written in a believable and relatable way and she had an important role in the book. She was the girl that Violet could have been if she had a parent who cared about her. She was the reason that Luke was stuck in a dead-end job supporting a woman he never loved, but she was also the reason he didn’t care. Through Cy’s eyes we see her beautiful spirit, intelligence and compassion and she gives Ash someone to protect.

All together they make up a crazy and unacceptable family, in small-town America. They are distrusted and verbally abused by the community in which they live and they fight because they know that what they have could be amazing, if only they can work through all the messy and painful problems that being in a polyamorous relationship can bring.

I can’t wait to see what the next book brings because as well as the relationship aspect of this book, there is a deeper and more sinister story being told. We leave this book on a bit of a cliffhanger and we have to wait until June for the next book in the series. I can’t wait and know I’ll re-read this book before starting the next one, because it’s such a fantastic and emotional rollercoaster of a story, with so many layers I know I’ll be unpicking them even after several read-throughs.

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