Review

I don’t think I’ve ever been more frustrated by one of Bella Jewel’s couples like I was with Danny and Skye. It took them so long to get their shit together and stop fighting what they’ve always wanted to mean to each other and witnessing the pain and heartache they caused one another along the way, only made it worse for everyone involved…not to mention it about sent my iPad flying across the room.

I completely understood where Skye was coming from when she said being an old lady and part of the club terrified her. A lot of shit had gone down lately to make her question whether or not getting in deep with Danny was something she could handle. But she ran away without thinking of the repercussions…without questioning who she really was and how she truly saw her future. Everybody but her could see what Skye was denying, but she had to see it for herself, which cost her to lose a lot of herself and the love that Danny felt for her.

Danny’s not completely blameless in this situation. All he’s known is the biker lifestyle and it’s ingrained in his blood, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but he’s never truly stopped to see things from Skye’s perspective, so even though he’s not the one running scared, he’s pushing Skye away without even realizing how deep her fears go.

The most frustrating part about Danny and Skye’s story is the fact that they thought they could move on and start over with someone else. It didn’t make any sense to me, and it made me question how much they truly loved one another when they denied how they truly felt by having someone else fill a space that would never be anything but empty as long as they kept fighting and drifting apart.

For most of the story, Skye truly doesn’t see or understand where she belongs, but she’s bonded to the club – that lifestyle and all that goes with it defines who she is and it’s a link that will never be broken regardless of how much she thinks she needs it to be in order to be safe…in order to accomplish the things she wants to and see all that the world has to offer.

The kind of love that Danny and Skye share is not something that can instantly fade or be replaced with someone else; both of them were so blinded by the pain they felt from not being chosen by the other one that it led them both astray, but they kept coming back to one another, and even if it only added to the hurt and made things even more confusing, it proved that the soul mate kind of love is one that will never truly accept anyone else but the one it’s chosen from the beginning.

Manacle was an extremely frustrating read for me, but to be able to bring out those kinds of emotions from a reader speaks to Bella Jewel’s writing and character creation. I absolutely love the biker world Jewel constructs and the next generation of biker babes and alpha males continues to enthrall readers just as much as their parents’ stories did.

A complimentary copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

4 Poison Apples