How do you keep existing when your heart is so splintered, so completely torn to shreds, your pulse is fading?
You’re…broken. How do you move forward when every breath is nothing more than a constant ache? Living becomes an insidious reminder that you threw away the single largest part of yourself. Your…soul. No amount of distraction can pull you from the torture of losing your…life.
Now that Emily Cooper has walked away from her first love, she finds herself running toward her only love. Unraveling fast, but clinging to hope, Emily risks all she has left on the man that has consumed her every thought and dream since the day they met. Will Gavin take her back? And if so, will their reunion be a collision of two hearts destined to complete one another and rekindle a love that knew no boundaries? Or will scars from their past rip open, tearing slowly at what each of them was meant to be? Can fate, the ultimate game changer, mend the shattered road it laid out from the start?
Only time will tell…
Tick-Tock…
By Cindy
I’m not sure really where to begin with this review. It’s been days since I finished the book, and I’m still processing it. To call “Pulse” a romance novel is selling it short. This is a book about fear and about finding the courage and strength it takes to face that fear, no matter the cost. It’s a book about understanding and acceptance; about trusting your instincts. It’s about loving so hard and so deeply that NOTHING can break you apart. It’s about wanting, “the good, the bad, and the in-between,” and being willing to fight for it with everything that’s in you. That’s “Pulse.”
Let me start by saying if you haven’t read “Collide,” it’s a must before reading “Pulse.”
When I said in my “Collide” review that at first I liked Dillon, I really meant it. Author Gail McHugh very cleverly gives her reader the Emily character’s perspective of Dillon. We experience him as the loving and caring man who has supported her through the loss of her mother to cancer and who’s remained by her side through her grieving process. He’s brought her to New York, and wants to care for her. He talks of love, commitment, and forever. He wants her to move in with him, and seems understanding when Emily says she just needs time to heal before such a huge leap. Emily is grateful for his patience, and I felt it too. She’s a clever one, that Ms. McHugh. It was intentional on her part, giving her more leverage to screw with my head for the majority of “Collide,” and well into “Pulse.”
“Pulse” picks up right where “Collide” leaves off – with me holding my breath wondering whether Emily is really going through with her wedding despite what has transpired in the last 10 hours. Fortunately, Emily seems to have had some extreme moments of clarity. Decisions seem so much easier, though, when they’re not ours to make, and some decisions have consequences that only our worst nightmares could foresee. I’m never a proponent for violence, but there were honestly moments in “Pulse,” – more than one – where I thought that may be the best and only answer.
This book had more angst, more ups and downs, more highs and lows, than anything I’ve read in the recent past. It had me in a perpetual state of unrest. Actually, this book even sparked a conversation between the ladies in my reading group about the difference between drama and angst. I didn’t want a book with angst – just a little drama and a nice, steamy romance. That’s all I was looking for. Well, let me at least admit that it certainly, undeniably delivered in the steamy romance department!
Gavin Blake is everything you could want in a book boyfriend. He’s rich, smart, sexy, and most of all, he’s thoroughly and completely in love with Emily. He’s the kind of guy that’ll slay her dragons during the day, and lay her bare at night. I mean, who doesn’t want that? I also loved that the author told this story in such a way that it not only gave the reader Emily’s perspective of what Gavin’s love means to her, but it also shows us how much loving Emily means to Gavin. “What I can promise is you’ll always mean more to me than my next breath, and it’ll always be you in my life. No one else.” Did you hear that thud? That was me swooning into a faint.
“Pulse” is a love story, without a doubt. While the characters travel a road fraught with hurt and pain, the destination is forgiveness, acceptance and unconditional love at the end of the journey. “Pulse” is also a story of strength and courage. Gail McHugh explores the difficult and very real topic of domestic violence. Through her characters, she offers us insight into both the emotional as well as the physical impact of this complex and disturbing situation, and the far-reaching effects it has not only on the obvious victims, but on those around them as well. She challenges us to ask what makes a woman stay, while daring to confront the responsibility of those around her who look the other way or remain silent. If you, or someone you know, has been (or is) a victim of domestic violence, I encourage you to get this book into your/their hands.
I close with the Dedication from “Pulse:” “Dedicated to women out there who have yet to find their voice, strength and courage Never let them strip you of what you were born with. Take it back.”
MORE than five **** courageous stars!
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