Unlucky 13 Book 4: Damaged by Hayden Hall

 

Unlucky 13 Book 4

Welcome to Black Diamond Resort & Spa… I’m left on this strip of sand after my second round of rehab. Father says I should rest and build my strength back, but I know better. I’m a toxic asset. Father is launching his campaign of hate and bigotry in a presidential bid and I am the black hole for his reputation. And not because I’m an addict. Oh no. I’m radioactive because I like kissing guys in clubs and the paparazzi love catching me in the act. I am of such little importance that nobody bothered to find me a private house on this godforsaken island and I’m forced to share one with a dangerously handsome, self-proclaimed a-hole, and America’s eleventh luckiest lottery winner, Tiago Alvarez. I’m the kind of guy who likes flirting with disaster and there’s no bigger disaster than the self-destructive daredevil I’m forced to share the bed with. The attraction is instant, but the scars on my soul rip and bleed as soon as I have a chance to get closer to him. And Tiago is harboring dark secrets. Secrets that pull me in and won’t let go. He’s a handsome train wreck and I am a walking relapse. We’re a match made in the seventh circle of hell. Being near him is like leaning from a skyscraper. It’s the highest high I know. But any good addict will tell after every high, there comes a low. And us? We stand no chance against this bitter world. We’re just so damaged.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126897119-damaged

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My Review: 3/5 Stars

I’ve been liking this series, but I have to say this wasn’t my favorite of the series so far. This one was definitely darker in terms of our characters and what they are going through. It was a bit tough to get through and I will say it’s not like I have read stories without trigger warnings before. But this one just didn’t grab me like the previous books. So both are characters, Matthew and Tiago, are really broken. They are both in pretty bad places in their lives. And even meeting one another doesn’t drag themselves out of that place. It takes quite a lot to do that and even more to recognize the feelings they have for one another. For Matthew, he was shipped to Black Diamond by his very conservative father. Matthew is just out of rehab for a drug problem but the real “problem” his father likes to say (only to Matthew) is that Matthew is gay. Matthew has never had a stable person in his life to love him for who he is. Instead, he is abused emotionally and even a bit physically for loving men. And he is just so tired of it all. Any fight left of him is just about depleted. His father is a politician and a homophobe and just so many other awful things. Poor Matthew can just never seem to escape the hate. Then there is Tiago. Tiago who was always scrapping by in life. Then he wins the lottery and he is ready for his happily ever after with the man he loves. But things take a tragic turn when his boyfriend dies. And he has spiraled into a depression and an attitude that doesn’t care about anything anymore. When Matthew and Tiago share a home on the island, together they may be able to pull themselves out of the water that threatens to drown them.