24-year old Pax Tate is an asshole.
Seriously.
He’s a tattooed, rock-hard bad-boy with a bad attitude to match.
But he’s got his reasons.
His mother died when Pax was seven, leaving a hole in his heart filled with guilt although he doesn’t understand why. What he does know is that he and his dad are left alone and with more issues than they can count.
As Pax grew up, he tried to be the kid his father always wanted; the perfect golden boy, but it didn’t work. His dad couldn’t overcome his grief long enough to notice and Pax couldn’t keep up the impossible perfect façade.
So he slipped far, far from it.
Now, he uses drugs and women to cope with the ugliness, the black void that he doesn’t want to deal with. If he pretends that the emptiness isn’t there, then it isn’t, right?
Wrong.
And it’s never more apparent than when he meets Mila.
Sweet, beautiful Mila Hill is the fresh air to his hardened frown, the beauty to his ugly heart. He doesn’t know how to not hurt her, but he quickly realizes that he’d better figure it out because he needs her to breathe.
When memories of his mother’s death resurface from where he’s repressed them for so long, Mila is there to catch him when the guilt starts making sense. Mila is the one…the one who can save him from his broken troubled heart; from his issues, from the emptiness.
But only if he can stop being an asshole long enough to allow it.
He knows that. And he’s working on it.
But is that enough to make her stay?
Book: If You Stay (Beautifully Broken 1) by Courtney Cole
Published: February 7th, 2013
Pages: 351
Genres: Romance, New Adult, Tattoos/Piercings, Swoony Males
Format: Kindle
Date Read: February 10 to 13, 2013
Rating: 5 Potatoes 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔
Love love love this book! For a good portion of it I just wanted to hug Pax and take all of his pain away. Poor kid.
Ahhh Pax. He truly was an asshole (especially in the beginning). He was also funny, sexy, romantic… Pax was everything all rolled up into one effed up ball. But, you couldn’t stop yourself from rooting for him and wanting him to get his act together, for his sake as well as Mila’s!
As I write this I still have tears in my eyes from the feelings this book brought out in me. Pax and Mila are the epitome of the phrase, “opposites attract” but it worked for them! Such chemistry! I loved this book so much, it had it all – a couple who truly are two halves of a whole, a fascinating storyline that wouldn’t let me put the novel down and flawless editing that made it such an easy read.
Wonderful book from start to finish. Awesome job Miss Cole! Brava!
🥔 The Book Potato 🥔 