Harder
A Novel
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4.7 • 56 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY LIBRARY JOURNAL
In Robin York’s provocative new novel, two young ex-lovers find themselves together again in the shadow of tragedy—and an intense, undeniable attraction.
Caroline still dreams about West. His warm skin, his taut muscles, his hand sliding down her stomach. Then she wakes up and she’s back to reality: West is gone. And before he left, he broke her heart.
Then, out of the blue, West calls in crisis. A tragedy has hit his family—a family that’s already a fractured mess. Caroline knows what she has to do. Without discussion, without stopping to think, she’s on a plane, flying to his side to support him in any way he needs.
They’re together again, but things are totally different. West looks edgy, angry at the world. Caroline doesn’t fit in. She should be back in Iowa, finalizing her civil suit against the ex-boyfriend who posted their explicit pictures on a revenge porn website. But here she is. Deeply into West, wrapped up in him, in love with him. Still.
They fought the odds once. Losing each other was hard. But finding their way back to each other couldn’t be harder.
Praise for Harder
“York’s beautiful prose and vivid descriptions enhance the realism and impact of Caroline and West’s story. Deeper and Harder are sensual and profoundly moving. The books are told in first-person from both Caroline’s and West’s POVs, and I sat on the emotional roller coaster right beside them as West learns to hold tight to Caroline and embrace life to the fullest. . . . They are books I will cherish.”—Lea Franczak, USA Today
“[York] again brings exquisite writing to contemporary New Adult romance with Harder, the sequel to her much-acclaimed Deeper. . . . As with all this author’s work, the prose itself is on a higher plane than readers of New Adult have come to expect. With searing metaphor and visceral descriptions of love and all its attendant pains, Harder will be loved by many . . . and talked about by everyone.”—New York Journal of Books
“Part two of Caroline and West’s story will really evoke emotions from readers, once they get past the steam factor included in this powerful novel.”—RT Book Reviews
“Bursting with chemistry, emotion, and heart, Caroline and West’s story will take your breath away!”—Katy Evans, New York Times bestselling author of the REAL series
“Robin York writes exceptionally real characters in achingly real situations. Harder had a hold on my heart and didn’t let go until the very end.”—New York Times bestselling author Cora Carmack
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The bestselling physician/author is in top form as he revisits the love/hate relationship between New York City medical examiners Laurie Montgomery and her lover, Jack Stapleton (last seen in 1999's Vector) in this gripping medical chiller. Childless and facing her 43rd birthday, Laurie moves out when Jack, still traumatized by the accidental deaths of his wife and children over a decade ago, refuses to talk marriage and babies. They've still got to work together at the office of the chief medical examiner, though, and it's there that Laurie's charged with autopsying the bodies of two people who died after minor surgeries at the same Manhattan hospital. As similar deaths mount up, Laurie struggles to convince Jack et al. that something's fishy. (Early on, a shadow plot introduces homicidal hospital employee Jasmine Rakoczi and Mr. Bob, the mastermind of a sinister but undefined plot to "sanction" selected patients using an undetectable medical agent.) Laurie's superiors forbid her to discuss her suspicions with anyone outside the OCME, but she disobeys these orders when she meets the dreamboat chief of medicine at the hospital in question and successfully engages his interest in her theory that a serial killer is on the loose. The body count climbs as another hospital is involved and political pressure mounts to suppress information. True love runs a rocky course, and the plot thickens before the denouement crackles to an electric edge-of-the-seat finale.
Customer Reviews
Great read
I downloaded this book after I picked up the first book and flew right through it. I quickly got attached to the characters and wanted to find out what happened next. I couldn't help but to download the next book to find out. Very enjoyable read. I hope the author finds a way to spin off on another character from this book. She could easily write about the sister or even the friend's POV and it would still let you see what was happening in everyone's lives still and keep everyone happy. 😃 Fingers crossed.
Heartbreaking, flawed, painfully beautiful... Incredible!
It's been three months since West left Caroline behind, three months during which the hope that they would last dimmed away. But with one phone call, she's on a plane to see him, to find him angry, all hard edges and cold eyes that show no matter how she tries to get to him, he'll only push her away. The pain she felt when Nate exposed her online is nothing compared to the raw agony of knowing her life with West over, that he's moved on, that she can't have the person who carried her through the most difficult time in her life, who she fell in love with when she wasn't looking. But as impossible as he tries to make things, now that she's there in his hometown, she's determined to see through the bitter armor he's put up.
The Verdict: Pretty sure I am just wrecked. Harder cracked open my chest, ripped everything out and shredded me, only to put me back together in a jumbled mess of emotions I can't even explain.
When West returned home to Silt, he crawled back into that inescapable darkness that told him life would never get better, that he didn't deserve someone like Caro, and that she was certainly better off without him. His loss and grief, frustration and desperate attempt to act unaffected displayed itself in cruel anger and a callousness I didn't think he was capable of. But Caro was nothing if not devoted, and while she couldn't completely hide the hurt, she showed a strength we never fully saw in Deeper. But Harder isn't a typical torn apart and found their way back to each other love story.
Caroline's still dealing with the revenge porn pic disaster and trying to get out from under her well-meaning but heavy-handed father's thumb. And West… Well, there was a while there that I really came close to hating him. But the more I saw into Caro's mind, the more I understood that her patience didn't make her a door mat; it made her stronger than he ever was. And once I got a look into West's mind, my heart broke for him. He'd been given a pretty awful start in life, managed to claw his way out, and then been pulled back into that hopeless place with a disaster of a family and no light at the end of the tunnel. It's no wonder he was so angry and convinced that life for someone like him was never going to stop sucking.
I thought Deeper was an incredible read, but Harder is beyond any kind of praise I can dish out. It's an emotional roller coaster that takes a long detour through hell and doesn't let you go until you're safe on the other side, trying to wrap your head around all the intense feelings that still have you by the throat. And Robin York's writing is simply amazing. There's a poetic twist to the way she describes things, bringing everything to life — from the characters to the tension in the air to the snow on the ground. Her words don't just describe scenes; they inject you with the sights and smells and sounds until you're standing right there in the story, picking at the peeling laminate of an old kitchen table.
If you love feeling stories as much as reading them and want a story layered in emotion from every corner of the spectrum, grab these books and get comfortable. The situation is heartbreaking, the characters are flawed, and the entire journey is painfully beautiful. You're in for an incredible read.
Great book
It's not out yet, but i know it's fantastic, still in progress, but it's too expensive for an e-book. i only read online because i read so much and its much cheaper. $10.00 is the price of some brand new books.... lovely book though