Book Reviews — BREACH and DISSOLUTION by K.I. Lynn

“He took from my body, my heart, my soul. In return he gave himself to me the only way he knew how: with bruising hands, passionate kisses, and hard thrusts. His body was sin, his cock was sin, and I was a sinner.”

Buy BREACH (Kindle) – full length novel
Buy BREACH (Paperback)

4.5 stars

Both heart breaking and intensely passionate, Breach tells the tumultuous story of two broken and damaged people finding love, security and healing in each other. It’s a dark, gritty, captivating roller coaster ride from start to finish and will leave you eager to jump right into the next book!

Breach and Dissolution really go ‘together’ as a story so I’ve done a double review here. Breach is the first book in this trilogy and Dissolution is a small novella that retells the last three chapters from Breach in the hero’s POV. I’d originally been holding back on reading these books because despite them sounding so intriguing to me, they were part of an incomplete trilogy and I knew that the first book had a cliffhanger so I was planning to wait until all three were out before starting. But since book #2, Infraction, was recently released and I was told that it had a non-cliffhanger ending, I immediately dove in and WOW…

I. Am. Hooked.

The story follows Lila, a hardworking, career-driven lawyer who is hiding layers upon layers of hurt and sadness behind a happy facade. Her job gives her something to dedicate herself to and she throws herself into it with all her heart. But her law firm has a very strict non-fraternization policy and when Nathan, a gorgeous, confident new co-worker, is brought in to share her office, the sparks just flew!

“My mouth dropped open at the tall god-like man with light brown hair and seductive blue eyes that stood before me.” …
“Delilah, was it?” the God asked with a smirk. A smirk!

They rubbed each other the wrong way and yet at the same time were irresistibly drawn to each other. Forbidden to have an office romance and yet utterly incapable of ignoring the intense pull they both felt towards each other. And so began the breach…

But there was so much more hiding beneath Nathan’s polished, god like, smirking exterior. Inside was a deeply tortured, broken, and damaged man scarred both inside and out by the horrors of his past.

He was such an enigma. I wanted to know more about him. What had happened to him? What was he hiding? What were his secrets? Despite their relationship starting off as borderline hostile, he was the kind of guy who would follow her home from the bar just to make sure she got their safely. Somewhere inside was a gorgeous soul… he was just so beaten that he rarely let the world see who he really was and often, he didn’t even realize himself.

“You should stay away from me, Lila. I’m no good for you.” He placed a soft kiss on my shoulder blade with the tenderness of a lover. “Run while you can. Run away from me, and don’t look back. I’m not worth your life.”

*sigh* Can I hug him?

Tortured heroes really are my most favorite to read about. Something about them just calls to me, tugs at my heart strings and makes my heart ache with a desperate need to see them find happiness. And Nathan Thorne was about as tortured and damaged as you get. His story just broke my heart and filled me with questions upon questions. I still don’t know everything but what I know is just absolutely crushing.

Ok, now my one and only complaint was this… So, Nathan was a dirty talker in the bedroom. Now, that I am more than fine with. It’s hot. He was hot. And their chemistry was just scorching. But… he used two words which really just rubbed me the wrong way: slut and whore. Now, the only reasons that I didn’t let it bother me quite as much as it otherwise might were that a) Lila was clearly getting off on it and b) it was such a vast deviation from the kind, loving, caring person he also showed himself to be that I could tell he didn’t mean them in perhaps quite the same way I was taking them. I don’t know. I didn’t like it but at the same time, I also think (or hope) that it’s something that will be addressed in future books. I’d like to think he has a reason behind it.

Contrasting to the controlling, dominating person he was in the bedroom was a beautifully tender side of him that only Lila brought out. It terrified Nathan to see how much he was falling for Lila. Every time he got close, he broke down… haunted by his past. And when the few pieces of his back story were eventually revealed, it was just gut wrenching and utterly horrific.

“The sob broke from my chest, and it was painful and raw” ….
“What happened? What happened to you?”

He was so guarded in every aspect of his life and I loved watching his walls slowly come down the closer they got together. They had an unconventional relationship to be sure, but it was no less strong. And in their own way, what they had was extremely heartwarming.

“You know, that mask of yours is slipping a lot lately.”
“He shrugged, his smile faltering. “There’s no point in pretense around you.”

The sex was scorching. Erotic. Raw and also rough. They were crazy about each other and craved each other in an intense way that was borderline abusive but it was what they both wanted – what they both needed. Nathan was naturally hard, dominating, and possessive and didn’t hold back and Lila craved that connection and craved to be wanted. They were both driven by an all consuming need for each other and in the bedroom, there were no boundaries.

“I want your hands and lips on me. You’ve kept me waiting long enough, Mr. Thorne.”
“Fuck.” His teeth nipped at my jaw. “What about my cock?”
“I want it in my pussy where it fucking belongs.”

This is the story of a woman who has never known love and a man broken by the horrors of his past who were drawn to each other and despite being haunted by the demons of their pasts, somehow find a way to begin to heal each other. Away from the prying eyes of the world, the masks that they hold in place slip off and despite both being deeply tortured and broken, they were also perfect for each other.

“Nathan had scars on the outside to match the scars he held on the inside, where as mine were all inside… I could barely keep myself standing; how could I save him?”

Not all the questions are answered at the end and we are left on a huge cliffhanger that had my heart lodged firmly in my throat. Thank God I have the next book ready to go because I need to know what happens next!!

“What we have is fucked up.
“It may be fucked up, but it’s helping us both. We need each other.”

4.5 stars

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Mini-review for Dissolution
(companion novella to be read between Breach and Infraction. 29 pages)

Buy DISSOLUTION (Kindle) – novella

This short but essential novella retells the story from the last 3 chapters of Breach from Nathan’s POV and trust me, at the end of Breach, you will be dyyyyying for this!!

I was desperate for any tidbits I could get that would shine more light on this enigmatic, tortured character and while everything isn’t revealed in full, there are certainly some revelations in here that confirmed many of my suspicions about what his back story was.

This also really served to fully make you understand the sheer depths of this man’s pain. It was just heart wrenching. I felt for him and finally was able to understand him more. Truly such a broken man. Shattered into two parts. Aching to be whole again.

“She deserved more, so much more than me; an angry, depressed, broken man. I couldn’t give her what she needed – love.”

I read this in literally just a few minutes but felt that it gave a much needed sense of completion after Breach, a bit more of an understanding and most importantly, it gave me hope.

Ok, on to book #2, Infraction!