Review: Damaged and the Knight (Damaged Series Book 2) by Bijou Hunter

Damaged and the Knight by Bijou Hunter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Emerging From Darkness

This is the second in a series of interconnected books. There is no cliffhanger and you really need to read the first book to appreciate this one because there is a lot of crossover of information.

Tawny is one month away from her 18th birthday and her father has abandoned her in a very sleazy motel with no food. She’s too terrified to leave because of the very bad men waiting outside the room. She doesn’t even know where she is because he father won’t tell her. The only hope she has is her sister, Farah, who is safe in Ellsberg with her new boyfriend, Cooper, and his criminal family. When help finally comes she is almost too weak to aid in her own rescue but her knight in shining armour manages just fine without too much help.

Judd works for Cooper in an enforcer type role for the MC. He’s ten years older than Tawny and a pretty bad man. He’s violent and emotionally locked down. During the drive home with Tawny, he starts to melt around the beautiful young woman with an honest heart and wise soul. When he leaves her with her sister he knows that he can’t have Tawny because he’s too tainted by both his past and his present, so he tries to break his Angel’s heart by being cruel.

This book has some disturbing descriptions of sexual assault that happened to children. It also has casual violence and emotional abuse described. If these subject matters trigger a negative emotional reaction it may be best to avoid this book. Though the descriptions are not graphic in nature they will still probably cause a response to someone who has difficulties in this area. If you’ve read the first book, this one goes into more detail about what happened with Farah and Tawny when they were 13 and 12 respectively as Tawny didn’t block it out as much as her sister.

I really like Tawny, she faces things head-on, even when they are traumatic and difficult to handle. She’s brutally honest with herself. When she’s dealing with others she’s more gentle. She’s perceptive and capable of observing even the most minute of signals of human behaviour, but she only uses her powers for good rather than the cons her parents used their abilities for. However, she is incredibly insecure and damaged by the abuse of her parents and the traumatic incident that occurred 5 years ago. I really admire how she sees what she wants and goes for it with complete honesty.

Judd is damaged by his youth and doesn’t believe he is worthy of anything good and it’s only when he tries to stay away from Tawny and fails that he begins to accept that even if he doesn’t believe he’s worthy, she does and he gives her something no one else can. He can protect her and make her happy and this gives him purpose, despite knowing he’s likely to hurt her because he doesn’t know what he’s doing relationship-wise.

A lot of this book is quite emotional and difficult to read, but it’s handled well. This is not a light and fluffy romance. There is darkness and pain mixed with passion and love. The HEA feels more real because of the work Tawny and Judd do together to get there.

The book helps explain a lot of what happened to Farah that the first book edged around. It helps show the healing that both sisters experience in their new home and rounds off the two books nicely. However, it also makes me want to know what happens to some of the side characters who we get to know even better at the end of this book. Luckily the author has written more in this series so I don’t have to stop just yet.

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