Book Review: High Risk Love by Shannon Mayer

To Add to Goodreads Click HERE

High Risk Love
By:  Shannon Mayer
Published:  July 1, 2013
Source:  Author
Mature Content:  18+


GR's Summary:

Photographs.

Images. Snapshots in time.

This is how I experience my life. I’ve hidden behind my camera and viewed the world through the lens. I watch other people live their lives. I’ve given up on my dreams, and sheltered my heart from love; because both have given me nothing but pain. Even thinking about opening myself up, sends my fears into overdrive. It’s better to be safe, than to take a risk and have your life shattered into pieces alongside your heart. This is what I believed.

Dangerous.

Risks. Fear Nothing.

I live for the rush of adrenaline I get when I work my stunts. Nothing else matters but the feel of my heart pounding when I challenge the line between life and death. Women are nothing more than a distraction; they use me for my connections, as I use them to escape the pain of my past before moving on to my next adrenaline fix. My life is consumed with excitement, danger and risks—it’s all I needed.

Denials.

Fear. The complete wrong time.

Jasmin and Jet will face off over photos, stunts and the truth hidden in their hearts. The last person Jasmin wants to be with is a man who takes life for granted. Jet wants to give his heart to no one; especially one who might not understand the secrets that haunt him. Despite their protests, Jasmin’s and Jet’s lives tangle; the threads of love and fear bind them. Between their passions and their pasts, they fight to hang onto each other . . . but will the stakes be too high when faced with the ultimate sacrifice?

** 18+ for adult situations, sexual situations and language.

Before I began reading High Risk Love by Shannon Mayer, I was hoping for a good story.  However, what I got was a great story that exceeded my expectations!  This New Adult Contemporary Romance was told from the dual perspectives of Jethro (Jet), and Jasmin (Jazzy).  I was equally horrified, and mesmerized by what I read from the very beginning of this story.  Jet was beaten as a kid by his father.  By beaten, I mean mutilated, sustaining scars all over his body, broken ribs, cuts, bruises, and extensive trauma.  His mother tried to escape with Jet, and his younger brother Jasper.  However, Jett's father found them and brought them back home.  Jet's mother makes him promise to take care of his younger brother, and then disappears, leaving the boys with their sadistic, and alcoholic father.  Jet tries his best to protect his younger brother, and to keep his promise to his mother, by taking the brunt of the beatings.


Jasmin's life hasn't been much easier.  Her parents were killed before her eyes when a man committed vehicular manslaughter and crashed in to their car head on.  Jasmin, and her older brother Ryan performed CPR on their mother, but she did not survive.  Their father was killed instantly.  Jasmin and Ryan were best of friends and were inseparable.  They leaned on each other, sold their parents home to try to pay some of the large debt inflicted upon them, and start their lives over again.  Then, two years later Ryan is diagnosed with Cancer, and is only given 6 months to live.  Jasmin is devastated.  She never leaves her brother's side, along with their very close friend Lily, who has been in love with Ryan for years, but never told him.  Lily also had a tragic past where she went from foster home to foster home, and the only family she has ever known has been Ryan and Jasmin.  The day Ryan dies, he tells Jasmin not to let fear stop her from loving, and living her dreams.  He also tells her that he's been in love with Lily, but he thought he would have enough time to tell her himself.  Ryan asks Jasmin to tell her when the time is right.  Jasmin and Lily are left with only one another to lean on, and are in deep mourning for Ryan, a wise, loving, caring, and compassionate young adult, who will forever be in their hearts.


Jasmin is desperately drowning in debt, and finds a job working for a magazine that photographs, and interviews stuntmen.  Her very first assignment is Jet, who is working on a movie in Mexico.  When these two meet, their is instant chemistry.  However, Jet comes off as a cocky man, who knows he can get what he wants.  Jasmin isn't looking for a relationship, or even a fling with anyone at this time in her life.  Besides, her new boss informed her that she is not to fraternize with any of the interviewee's or she will immediately be fired.  Jasmin also meets Hugh, Jet's best friend since childhood.  She notices that  Hugh is tall, dark, and handsome, but she feels zero attraction towards him.  Yet she can't take her eyes off of Jet, who has sandy blond hair, blue eyes, a great body, and a charming personality.  In fact, she's sure that he can get any girl he wants, and has charmed the panties off many women.  As Jasmin gets to know Jett, she lays down the rules, and let's him know that she will not be sleeping with him, they can be nothing more than friends.


I loved how these two were drawn so strongly to one another, and couldn't fight there feelings for one another, no matter how hard they tried.  They developed a friendship, and really got to know each other on a deep level, where they shared secrets, their pasts, their dreams, and had a lot of fun together. Jet and Jasmin were two very broken people, but when they were together, they healed one another, brought laughter, playfulness, and fun in to each other's lives.  It was an amazing thing seeing Jett let down his facade, as he showed Jasmin who he really was.  She became a support system for him, and was the first woman who didn't want to use him for his connections in the movie industry.  The sad thing was that Jet didn't feel like he was good enough for her.  Jasmin had constantly lived her life in fear, and Jet helped her to loosen up, take chances, have fun, and live again.


I recommend High Risk Love, and give it 4 heartbreaking, healing, and Steamy Stars!  It was a book that I devoured!  I loved the main character's Jet and Jasmin.  They were well-rounded, and I felt like I knew them inside out.  There voices stood out, and I got a clear picture of who they were.  They were both realistic character's with flaws, and unique personalities.  I cried for both of these characters--literally.  My heart broke for all that they had gone through, and how it continued to effect their lives.  I became attached to their best friend's Hugh, and Lily as well.  They were great secondary characters, that I enjoyed reading about.  High Risk Love was a character driven story, and those are my favorite type of stories!

"Some moments in life should never be remembered, the horror and the pain eradicated from your mind for all time.  Yet those are so often the moments that define you, and make you who you are.  They make you stronger than you ever would have been otherwise.  At least, that's what I told myself."  (eARC, Loc. 21)

~Jet

"Everyone has a past, some of it's bad, some of it's good.  It's what we choose to do with those parts.  Do we let them rule us, or do we use them to better ourselves."  (eARC, Loc. 937)

~Jasmin

"He wasn't the man he showed to the world.  So much more, so much depth, and no one would ever see it, know it.  It lurked right below the surface, but how many people would take the time to look past the stunts and the goofy behavior?  Not many.  It was a perfect mask...one he'd let me see behind."  (eARC, Loc. 1183)

~Jasmin

"Jasmine wasn't like the other girls.  She wasn't the girl you took home for a night.  She was the girl you took home forever."  (eARC, Loc. 1340)

~Jet

"Yet here she was, open with me in a way that left her exposed, showed me how very raw she was under her facade.  I knew her secrets, knew her desires, knew she wanted me.  Fear was all that was holding her back.  Fear I understood, had to learned to conquer.  Even if that same fear was circling around my head, waiting for me to give into it."  (eARC, Loc. 1370)

~Jet

Amazon (Paperback) | Amazon (Kindle) | Kobo

Reading and writing from a very young age I learned early on that stories built in a fantasy world were where the fun was at. Reading books by Robert Jordan spurred me on and it was the first real epic fantasy that I fell in love with. After that came Piers Anthony, Melanie Rawn and into my older teen years, Anne Rice.

It was in Rice’s novels that the idea of urban fantasy really bloomed for me and it was about that time that my grandmother was letting me read her Harlequin Historical novels. (Okay, actually she was slipping them to me when my mother wasn’t looking, but let’s not get picky.)

The combination of love stories and darker fantasy stuck with me and it’s now not only what I gravitate towards to read on my off time (Kelly Armstrong, Laurell K Hamilton, Kim Harrison), but has become the style I love to write in.

Besides writing, I love to spend time with my family and animals, horseback ride, garden and hike with my husband.

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest