Review: A Pound of Flesh (#1, A Pound of Flesh) by Sophie Jackson

My Thoughts

Gripping and intense, enthralling and evocative—
this forbidden romance is an impressive debut novel from Sophie Jackson.

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Synopsis

Lose your heart to your new bad boy book boyfriend. Wes Carter – sexy, edgy, behind bars, with emotional scars as permanent as the ink on his skin, just waiting to be healed by love…

Their love is forbidden. But won’t be denied… Can true love heal the deepest scars?

For Kat Lane, teaching inmates at a New York prison is her way of upholding the legacy of her beloved father, murdered fifteen years ago. But when new student Wes Carter walks into her classroom, she’s shaken by the strength of her attraction to him. Carter is as handsome as he is dangerous, as mysterious as he is quick-witted – and he ensures people keep their distance. Yet vibrant Kat bypasses his defences and challenges him to reveal the real man behind the intimidating reputation. As their emotional barriers crumble, their inescapable but forbidden feelings cannot be ignored. But will Kat’s discovery of Carter’s role on the night her father died force them apart…or bind their hearts for ever?

A Pound of Flesh is a tale of loyalty, redemption and all-consuming love against the odds, introducing an irresistible bad boy hero…

My Review

“The pound of flesh which I demand of him Is dearly bought; ’tis mine and I will have it. —The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1”

From the very beginning, I was absolutely captivated by the story—this forbidden romance between an inmate and his tutor, between two people whose lives twined in an unexpected, but deeply profound way. Sophie Jackson’s writing style is engaging and fluid, and as the narrative took shape, I just couldn’t step away from it. Carter and Kat’s story is one of acceptance and redemption, of rising above the tension and the conflict and everything stacked against them. I felt their connection, something deep, necessary, and inescapable, and rooted for their happily ever after whole heartedly.

Wes Carter, however, is a tortured soul. A man broken by his past. A man whose never felt the warmth of love from anyone in his life. A man who at twenty seven years old has been in and out of jail many times. He’s arrogant. Reckless. Volatile. Combative. His defiance is his armor, as he pays his pound of flesh behind bars. When he meets Kat Lane, his tutor, she unnerves him in a way he never expected, but still, his ornery attitude prevails. Meanwhile, Kat is paying her own pound of flesh, giving back as a teacher… a long-ago promise to her father guiding her way. We learn Kat’s dad was brutally killed years back, while she watched as a child, her own life in danger until an 11-year-old stranger pulls her away. Since then, the hole her father left behind has been gaping, as she continues to grieve him. Her relationship with her contentious mother doesn’t help, but she’s determined to live life her own way.

Carter and Kat’s relationship is antagonistic. She pushes, he pushes back. Kat’s trying to help him, but Carter wants nothing to do with her it seems.

“She had no idea what it was about him. He was, after all, just like the other men she taught. Well, that wasn’t exactly true; he was a lot more combative and exceedingly more aggressive and — she winced at the thought — a lot more attractive, too. She tried hard not to see him in any other way than as her student, but it was too hard to ignore the man who drove her crazy.”

Yet with persistence, Kat’s disarming ways pierce Carter’s defenses, and begins to see him for the intelligent, intriguing and conflicted man he is. Trouble is, the more time they spend together, the more emotions come in to play, the more forbidden desires surge. And when Carter is approved for parole, and Kat sees him outside prison, their intensifying feelings threaten their new-found freedom.

“I want you,” he murmured into her ear, before placing another kiss in the hollow behind her ear. “God help me, I don’t care if it’s against the rules. I want you so fucking much.”

As the story continues to unfurl, we learn more about each as individuals… of how their pasts have shaped who they are. We also learn their lives are entangled in a way that changes everything. Their love story is anything but easy. It’s forbidden. Complicated. Contested. And real. Before too long, their need for each other becomes undeniable, and the love that’s taken hold an unstoppable, irrevocable force. But as their secret gradually comes to light and family gets involved, everything that Kat has accomplished with Carter is threatened. Carter’s broken past makes him exceedingly volatile, and now, Kat knows she can’t live without this complicated man she’s fallen in love with.

“You’re everything to me, Peaches. You always have been. Always. You’re the best thing I’ve ever had in my life…you’re my everything.”

The allure of a forbidden romance always pulls at me, but this story seemed fresh, unique and engaging. There’s wit, tension, sexiness, romance, suspense and more. The series is comprised of three books and I can’t wait to continue reading. The next book, Love and Always, is out August 3rd, but honestly, the way this book was written, it could even be read as a standalone. A Pound of Flesh is a definite must read.

Reading Order

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