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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
medium-paced
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“I was attracted to bad men.”
God This book was amazing! Even though I only read her work once a year, every time I pick one of Cara McKenna’s books I love them. The story, the characters, the mood, everything. She is truly a very talented writer and storyteller.
“His gaze was strong male hands cradling a baby bird – seemingly innocuous, but shot through with the potential for unbearable cruelty.”
The last book I read by her was After Hours and just like in Hard Time I fell in love with her very flawed but also very real characters.
“He watched me. But not the way the others did. If he was trying to picture me naked, his poker face was strong, though his attention anything but subtle. His entire head moved as I passed through his domain, but his eyes were languorous. Lazy and half-lidded, yet intense. A hundred looks in one. I didn’t like it. Couldn’t read it. At least with the horny jerk-offs, I knew where I stood. “
I loved falling in love with Eric along with Anne. I loved the letters they wrote each other. I want an epistolary romance just as much now!
“He spoke volumes with a few murmured words.”
“Selfishly, I wanted the letter for myself. And recklessly, I even hoped maybe he’d want to tell me more.”
I love how Cara weaves her erotic tales with such emotions and skill. I love that all her characters are flawed but you can’t help but love them for everything that they are.
“For the first time in months, my own hand slid low. Me and my hand in my lonely bed, in my lonely room, on this lonely night…wondering if a man was thinking of me and doing the same twenty miles away.”
Her stories are gritty and raw but also very emotional and they just work for me. They speak to me and the stories and characters stay with me long after I’ve turned the last page and read the last word.
“And his voice was in my head every night, saying whatever I scripted for him. Filthy things, romantic things. He called me tenderly by my name, nuzzling my ear. Called me bitch and forced my thighs apart with his. Called me darling, like in the letter, the word dark and charged and electric as the clouds before a summer storm.”
This book in particular felt almost delicate even though it tells the story of a convict and a woman falling in love.
“The idiotic risks people take in the midst of affairs made sense to me, suddenly. Nothing felt as good as this wanting. Logic was impotent. Flaccid. A pitiful, powerless thing.”
It’s hard to write a review for such a book. I don’t want to give too much away even though I highlighted a good third of it while reading. It’s a book that makes me gush over and ramble about it and want to make my friends read it because I liked it so much. It’s also hard to write a review for it because I want to do it justice. It’s probably not for everybody but I, for sure, consider it a must read (as well as her other books)!
“Would’ve been worth anything they took from me, just to hear you say my name.”
And just to give you a little taste of some of the stuff Eric and Anne write to each other, that’s for you my lovelies:
Eric - “PS: Wear your hottest underwear too. I don’t care if it’s a thong or granny panties. Whatever makes you hot is what I want to imagine you in. Say the word and I’d slide them off real sweet and slow or rip them right down the middle. Whatever you wanted.”
Anne- “I want to make you feel a hundred things at once – powerless and aggressive, needy and pushy, grateful and greedy. Everything a man can feel with a woman.”
I’ll stop here with the rambling because I could go on for a long while. I’ll just tell you to give this book, and its characters a chance to charm you as they did me.
“You will not speak to or touch any inmate in an inappropriate way. You will not encourage an inmate to speak to or touch you in an inappropriate way. Double check.”
“I was attracted to bad men.”
God This book was amazing! Even though I only read her work once a year, every time I pick one of Cara McKenna’s books I love them. The story, the characters, the mood, everything. She is truly a very talented writer and storyteller.
“His gaze was strong male hands cradling a baby bird – seemingly innocuous, but shot through with the potential for unbearable cruelty.”
The last book I read by her was After Hours and just like in Hard Time I fell in love with her very flawed but also very real characters.
“He watched me. But not the way the others did. If he was trying to picture me naked, his poker face was strong, though his attention anything but subtle. His entire head moved as I passed through his domain, but his eyes were languorous. Lazy and half-lidded, yet intense. A hundred looks in one. I didn’t like it. Couldn’t read it. At least with the horny jerk-offs, I knew where I stood. “
I loved falling in love with Eric along with Anne. I loved the letters they wrote each other. I want an epistolary romance just as much now!
“He spoke volumes with a few murmured words.”
“Selfishly, I wanted the letter for myself. And recklessly, I even hoped maybe he’d want to tell me more.”
I love how Cara weaves her erotic tales with such emotions and skill. I love that all her characters are flawed but you can’t help but love them for everything that they are.
“For the first time in months, my own hand slid low. Me and my hand in my lonely bed, in my lonely room, on this lonely night…wondering if a man was thinking of me and doing the same twenty miles away.”
Her stories are gritty and raw but also very emotional and they just work for me. They speak to me and the stories and characters stay with me long after I’ve turned the last page and read the last word.
“And his voice was in my head every night, saying whatever I scripted for him. Filthy things, romantic things. He called me tenderly by my name, nuzzling my ear. Called me bitch and forced my thighs apart with his. Called me darling, like in the letter, the word dark and charged and electric as the clouds before a summer storm.”
This book in particular felt almost delicate even though it tells the story of a convict and a woman falling in love.
“The idiotic risks people take in the midst of affairs made sense to me, suddenly. Nothing felt as good as this wanting. Logic was impotent. Flaccid. A pitiful, powerless thing.”
It’s hard to write a review for such a book. I don’t want to give too much away even though I highlighted a good third of it while reading. It’s a book that makes me gush over and ramble about it and want to make my friends read it because I liked it so much. It’s also hard to write a review for it because I want to do it justice. It’s probably not for everybody but I, for sure, consider it a must read (as well as her other books)!
“Would’ve been worth anything they took from me, just to hear you say my name.”
And just to give you a little taste of some of the stuff Eric and Anne write to each other, that’s for you my lovelies:
Eric - “PS: Wear your hottest underwear too. I don’t care if it’s a thong or granny panties. Whatever makes you hot is what I want to imagine you in. Say the word and I’d slide them off real sweet and slow or rip them right down the middle. Whatever you wanted.”
Anne- “I want to make you feel a hundred things at once – powerless and aggressive, needy and pushy, grateful and greedy. Everything a man can feel with a woman.”
I’ll stop here with the rambling because I could go on for a long while. I’ll just tell you to give this book, and its characters a chance to charm you as they did me.
“You will not speak to or touch any inmate in an inappropriate way. You will not encourage an inmate to speak to or touch you in an inappropriate way. Double check.”
So I initially tried this book out in spring of '22. I DNFd before Eric even got out of prison. After seeing dozens more recommendations and raves about it I thought I'd give it another chance, hoping I might be able to up my 2⭐ rating. I'm DNFing again at 56% (or just after their first sex scene).
The sheer volume of Annie's internal monologue is mind melting. I was so tired of being in her head. Half the book was her not interacting with anyone, just daydreaming and worrying. A few letters interspersed and a few three-word sentences between MCs was not enough to bring forth any excitement. If the story was dual POV it probably would've added some life and saved it, but we were stuck with Annie the whole time.
I was also under the impression from the gushing I heard about Cara's steamy writing that I'd be in for some satisfying spice. I forged through the monotony to get to their sex scene and was entirely underwhelmed. I won't waste more of my time finishing the book.
The sheer volume of Annie's internal monologue is mind melting. I was so tired of being in her head. Half the book was her not interacting with anyone, just daydreaming and worrying. A few letters interspersed and a few three-word sentences between MCs was not enough to bring forth any excitement. If the story was dual POV it probably would've added some life and saved it, but we were stuck with Annie the whole time.
I was also under the impression from the gushing I heard about Cara's steamy writing that I'd be in for some satisfying spice. I forged through the monotony to get to their sex scene and was entirely underwhelmed. I won't waste more of my time finishing the book.
Loved this. Hard Time was a sweet and sexy read in quite an unconventional setting. Annie is the Cousins Correctional Facility outreach librarian, and meets Eric, prisoner 802267. What begins is Eric writing Annie really romantic letters.. And man, those letters. <3 Ms. Mckenna's writing is just so captivating, I can't quite explain it. Eric was so sweet to Annie. When he calls her 'darling', it just gets me every time. ;)
I like how it doesn't take a zillion pages to get together. Sometimes relationships can begin as naturally as plants grow, though some books can make the road to getting there in the first place as bumpy as can be. I relished the fact that despite her job and Eric as an ex-convict later on, it was so easy for them to be together, and they were secure enough to admit their feelings for each other early in the book. They also worked towards maintaining their relationship, which wasn't easy when it came to the place of Eric's family in his life.
I know some probably don't like how it seems to end so abruptly, but I don't mind these endings. Sometimes epilogues bring me so far to the future it makes me a little sad, because I'd like my last memory of these characters to be how they were, the ones I've grown to love in the course of the book.
I wish there was a novella for meeting the parents. I also would've liked to delve deeper into their relationship. More conversation, perhaps more of that stage of getting to know each other. That being said, Hard Time definitely won't be the last book I'll be picking up from this author.
I like how it doesn't take a zillion pages to get together. Sometimes relationships can begin as naturally as plants grow, though some books can make the road to getting there in the first place as bumpy as can be. I relished the fact that despite her job and Eric as an ex-convict later on, it was so easy for them to be together, and they were secure enough to admit their feelings for each other early in the book. They also worked towards maintaining their relationship, which wasn't easy when it came to the place of Eric's family in his life.
I know some probably don't like how it seems to end so abruptly, but I don't mind these endings. Sometimes epilogues bring me so far to the future it makes me a little sad, because I'd like my last memory of these characters to be how they were, the ones I've grown to love in the course of the book.
I wish there was a novella for meeting the parents. I also would've liked to delve deeper into their relationship. More conversation, perhaps more of that stage of getting to know each other. That being said, Hard Time definitely won't be the last book I'll be picking up from this author.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Romantic and hot by equal measure and takes what could have been a deeply exploitative trope to a place of actual empathy.
First book I read by her and it was so different (in a good way) than other romances. Nice surprise.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Annie is a librarian working at a medium security prison, where she meets an inmate named Eric. I blame Prison Break for my obsession with the convict romance trope. I don't usually like insta-lust, but the forbidden romance makes it work here. The epistolary element adds an unexpected layer of tension between Annie and Eric 🔥
Eric's letters to Annie are my favourite part about this book. I absolutely adored Eric 😭😩🥺 His letters. His words. His everything 😩 I wanted to give him a hug. I'm starting to think that sweet Alphas are a whole category of their own and Eric definitely fits the criteria.
I loved Eric, but I had a harder time liking Annie. Some of her beliefs and thoughts didn't sit right with me. For instance: when she refused to believe that the system is broken because her dad is a state trooper. Or when she kept downplaying Eric's sister's trauma. Or when she always found a way to say something hurtful to Eric about his time in prison. Little things like that, here and there, bugged me and these little things just kept accumulating...to the point where I just plain disliked Annie.
Annie's conflict with Eric's sister does get resolved. But I still didn't really like Annie by the end of the book. Maybe if we had an actual scene where Annie reveals to her parents that she's dating an ex-con...maybe she could've earned some good points in my book.
This book is also character-driven, so don't expect much of a plot. Even the conflict and the climax are character-driven. The drama with Annie and Eric's sister was very repetitive and I couldn't be bothered with it. While I was 100% invested in the beginning of this book, my interest in the story and the romance unfortunately diminished toward the end.
Eric's letters to Annie are my favourite part about this book. I absolutely adored Eric 😭😩🥺 His letters. His words. His everything 😩 I wanted to give him a hug. I'm starting to think that sweet Alphas are a whole category of their own and Eric definitely fits the criteria.
I loved Eric, but I had a harder time liking Annie. Some of her beliefs and thoughts didn't sit right with me. For instance: when she refused to believe that the system is broken because her dad is a state trooper. Or when she kept downplaying Eric's sister's trauma. Or when she always found a way to say something hurtful to Eric about his time in prison. Little things like that, here and there, bugged me and these little things just kept accumulating...to the point where I just plain disliked Annie.
Annie's conflict with Eric's sister does get resolved. But I still didn't really like Annie by the end of the book. Maybe if we had an actual scene where Annie reveals to her parents that she's dating an ex-con...maybe she could've earned some good points in my book.
This book is also character-driven, so don't expect much of a plot. Even the conflict and the climax are character-driven. The drama with Annie and Eric's sister was very repetitive and I couldn't be bothered with it. While I was 100% invested in the beginning of this book, my interest in the story and the romance unfortunately diminished toward the end.