Cement Heart - Book Review

By Beth Ehemann

Synopsis

Lawrence Finkle, known simply to his die-hard Minnesota Wild fans as Viper, isn’t used to hearing the word “no.” He lives his whole life just a little on the reckless side. After all, life is just one big game, right?

Wrong.

When what was supposed to be an innocent bet goes horribly wrong, he’s left to deal with the aftermath—and the guilt. In an effort to make things right the best way he can, he ends up falling for the one person on the planet he never should have.

The old saying goes that two wrongs don’t make a right . . . or do they?

Review

WOW. Seriously, just WOW!!! This is not how I envisioned Viper’s story playing out. Not at all. I expected CEMENT HEART to be a really funny and dirty read about a rough and tumble manwhore getting knocked on his arse by some scrap of a woman. Instead I was hit with a story that reduced me to tears too many times to count. It had me crying all the way until the very last paragraph. And I mean that literally. That last paragraph? Ripped. My. Heart. Out. Just thinking about it makes me tear up.

I am struggling with writing this review. I want to include spoilers just so I can talk about them and include some beautiful quotes, but then I don’t want you to know what happens because it’ll be so much better when you read it for yourself. Sadly, I’m going with option # 2 which means that as I write this paragraph, I’ve already deleted about a quarter of my review already.

We were introduced to Viper, Brody’s foul-mouthed friend and teammate, in The Cranberry Inn series. Viper is a manwhore, there’s no doubt about it. He doesn’t do relationships, only one-night stands and as frequently as possible. Life is one big game to him, until one game goes horribly wrong and the consequences are devastating. Wracked with guilt over what happened, he spirals and cuts everyone out of his life. With his place on the team threatened, he’s forced to make some changes. One thing he does is to finally honour a promise he made to his best friend. But when he starts having feelings for a woman he shouldn’t, the guilt just keeps on coming.

While this book has quite a lot of sad moments, you’ll also see a good amount of humour and happiness. I loved reading the banter, from between teammates, to Viper and his therapist, to Viper and his grandmother. Viper’s relationship with those people was also amazing to read, especially his grandmother. You really see a different side of him when he’s with her. And she’s a feisty old thing.

“Lawrence, I’m nearly ninety years old. Just waking up is exciting.”

While I don’t think you need to read The Cranberry Inn series to read this book, I would recommend it because they are really great reads as well. You’ll get to meet Brody and Kacie which are mentioned in this book. You’ll also get a good feel of who Viper is before he grows up.

I think the only thing I didn’t like about the book was the cover. And I have a question: What happened to Viper’s piercings??? Finally, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to see a pack of Lemonheads without tearing up just a little.

I avoided crying women like the fucking plague. Except for one. When she cried, I ran toward her, not away.