Afflicted Review

Book Review June 7

Afflicted (Battlescars #2) 

by: Sophie Monroe

1.5 Stars ★☆

Blurb: Fresh off tour Blake Potter, the sexy bassist for Battlescars, is in Smithville, Ohio to work on their next album ‘Coming Clean’. Still pining after Aubrey’s best friend, Piper, it’s going to be harder than he expected to see her back with her long-­‐ term boyfriend, Cole. He’s trying his hardest to forget her, but not matter how hard he tries to stay away circumstances keep bringing them together. Being burned before, he refuses to let it happen again. He’s still struggling to let go of Rowan, the girl that made him the way he is.

Piper is fighting an uphill battle of her own. She’s working her ass off trying to make a name for herself as a tattoo artist. Her long-­‐term boyfriend, Cole, was recently discharged from the Marines turning her world in a way that she never expected. When he begins leaving for days at a time Piper starts struggling to help him pick up the pieces. She calls the one person that might be able to help, Blake. He becomes the friend that she needs no matter how much it’s killing him.

What will happen when one phone call changes everything for both of them leading them in a path that neither anticipated? Pasts will come out of the shadows and threaten to ruin everything.

Review 

So I loved Battlescars. It was fantastic. Even Blake and Piper were a bunch of fun times. But Afflicted … I don’t even know where to start. Did I like it???? Not so much. In fact it’s like Blake and Piper weren’t even the same characters we met in Battlescars. I cannot believe how often I wanted to give up. Mostly given the fact I could not walk up to them both and smack them upside the head. All I kept thinking, since about 20 pages in was how stupid they both were. Even the way they spoke seemed ridiculous to me. 

Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe I wanted Blake and Piper’s story to be too perfect. Considering things that happened in Battlescars  I also found myself confused at times because Blake and Piper had hooked up before yet in Afflicted its suddenly like a new thing. And the kinky fuckery I was expecting since Battlescars hinted at their naughty nature, was nowhere to be found.  The way they spoke annoyed the hell out of me and Blake seemed more like a toddler than a grown ass man in a band no less. I mean he calls his dick Bam-Bam, gets a ladder piercing on said dick mostly because Piper brings it up, he says things like he wants to ‘bang,’ which only made me think of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs,” and even heads to the bathroom to make himself look ‘banging.’ I mean really, what guy wants to look bangin?  I guess then I should mention that Piper’s language is not much better, when she tells Blake she wants him to impale her, I almost choked to death. But then Blake makes it so much better when he thinks to himself, “I had been with enough girls to know how to use my tool."

What really bothered me was how different these two characters are from who we meet in Battlescars. I mean sure the story starts off with Blake and his ex Rowan who helped initiate him into the man-whore club but it’s like his former self is gone because of course he sees Piper as his future and I just didn’t get this turn-around. 

Piper is weak now and gone is the brazen outspoken scandalous Piper I loved in Battlescars. Left behind is a weak doormat that lets people run all over her and makes her feel obligated to them. It was beyond frustrating. The old Piper never would have let someone, hell, anyone treat her the way she is treated by Cole, her bf of eight years, especially not for as long as she deals with it. 

I also did not like the story starting off with Rowan and Blake’s relationship. I think this could have been easily explained (or at least the restaurant scene) instead of having to see them together, having sex, yada yada. I mean at the end of the day it had no precedence to the story aside from Blake’s personality which in Afflicted is absent. 

Also OMG he has sex the same way with every girl. Each sex scene was practically copied and pasted and didn’t even spark a flame in me. From the beginning with Rowan it all seemed too generic. Not what I expected from these two. 

 I really wanted to like it so bad. I tried very hard. But every word that came out of their mouths sounded stupid and I couldn’t take it. 

The only thing I like is the cover... Even the title now that I finished is a bit much, sounds like a disease. Which considering Blake's promiscuity over the years and Piper's as well, I'm surprised these two aren’t Afflicted. Made my stomach rumble... I didn’t really feel much when this ended. Considering I wanted to periodically kill Piper throughout it was more of a relief. 

Honestly I was frothing at the mouth waiting for things to get better and for the sex to knock my socks off. At one point I was so ready to be done that even the use of this Bon Jovi lyric, “when you breathe I want to be the air for you,” turned out awkward and bothered me. 

Overall

Really disappointed in this story. It wasn’t bad enough I couldn’t finish it, but I will not be reading this again. Battlescars I would read over and over so hopefully more stories in the series will be as good as Battlescars because for me Afflicted turned out to be more Atrocious than anything… 

HAPPY READING!!!