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It had been six years since my world was turned upside down.
\nHe exposed me to the darker side of life and I could never go back to the person I was.
\nI had been through more things the average person couldn\u2019t even relate to.<\/p>\n
If I had the chance to go back and do things differently though?
\nNot a chance.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d pick him a thousand times. A million times. For eternity.<\/p>\n
I guess not much has changed.<\/p>\n
My name is Alexa Ballentine, and I am still in love with my stalker.<\/p>\n
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4.5 dark, dirty, and beautifully emotional stars!<\/b><\/p>\n
OMG, what a read! This! THIS is the book we\u2019ve been waiting for! The dark, thrilling, steamy, emotional and gorgeously romantic ending to the story that began five years ago in Raw<\/a>. Twitch and Lexi are fighting for their HEA, and what a wild ride it is!<\/p>\n Be warned that this book is not a standalone. It absolutely needs to be read after Raw<\/i> and, even better, after Dirty<\/a>. There are a lot of characters (old and new), multiple POVs and story threads, and a whole lot of backstory that you need before going in to this one, so make sure you\u2019re all caught up before diving in. And beware spoilers for the earlier books in this review.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been six years since Twitch and Lexi saw each other. She believes him dead and has been raising their son alone, drowning in her grief and knowing that she\u2019ll never love anyone the way she still loves him. Twitch is actually very much alive and has been working hard in secret to destroy his enemies and make the world safe for his family. Now that\u2019s all done, and he\u2019s home to finally reclaim his place with the people he has sacrificed so much for.<\/p>\n I\u2019d found my religion. Lexi was my bible. And with her mercy, I would be reborn.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n It\u2019s intense from the very beginning. You can feel Lexi\u2019s sorrow, and you can feel Twitch\u2019s need<\/i> to be with her and their son again, and Aurora takes time to build all of that emotion before we get to the big reunion. When it comes, it\u2019s nothing like what I was expecting, and I was glued to my kindle as the story takes a turn I really wasn\u2019t expecting. Lexi is pissed, Twitch is desperate, their friends are feeling it all with them, and in the middle of it all is their remarkable, adorable five year old son, AJ. It\u2019s an epic clusterfuck, but OMG it\u2019s so freaking good!<\/p>\n That beautifully crooked smile hit me like a punch to the face. He leaned in. \u201cMiss me?\u201d Twitch and Lexi\u2019s relationship has always been a bit twisted. They clash and argue, and there\u2019s a bit of a dom\/sub thing going on and they are all kinds of filthy, but their passion for each other is off the charts and the emotion between them is all-consuming. But now they have six years of lies between them. Twitch has a lot of making up to do to heal Lexi\u2019s broken heart and restore her trust in him, and he goes about it in grand Twitch style.<\/p>\n My glance firm, I met his eyes and told him, \u201cI don\u2019t belong to you.\u201d I shook my head. \u201cNot anymore.\u201d It\u2019s not the most conventional of relationships, but it works for them, and it creates all sorts of dirty hotness, and the emotion of it all fantastic!<\/p>\n \u201cWhat makes you think I still want you, Twitch?\u201d I wasn\u2019t expecting to feel as much as I did while reading this one. While we\u2019ve seen the emotion between these two, it\u2019s never been as freely expressed as it is now, and I was in a world of swoon as Twitch lays it all out, showing his vulnerability and fighting hard for his family.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything I did, I did for us, so we could be a family.\u201d Gah! I love it!<\/p>\n And if you think that all of this emotion comes at the cost of their filthy sexy time, rest assured that they are just as hot as ever, and there is nastiness aplenty!<\/p>\n \u201cSpent six years without you. Six years thinking about everything I should have done when I had the chance. Six years of guilt. Six years of regret. I left one way and came back another. I\u2019m a changed man.\u201d They have a hard road ahead of them as they work through their issues and find their way forward again, with Twitch finding his place in his new family. But their lives are made even more difficult with the return of a threat from the past. Yes, Ling is on the rampage, and holy hell she is one deranged, psychotic bitch. Seriously, the woman is disturbed, and parts of her storyline are actually hard to read, but I did like that she had an actual storyline that we got to explore with her, that was cleverly done. And her madness, combined with Twitch and Lexi\u2019s reconnection, all of the drama going on with their family and friends, and the scary badassery of the criminal underworld that they can\u2019t quite escape makes for a really exciting read. There are ups and downs, twists and turns, and though it\u2019s a long read, it moves at a great pace with a fantastic blend of dark, gritty, humour, heat, sweet moments, intense emotion and a sexy, heartfelt second-chance-romance.<\/p>\n I loved being back in this world, I loved seeing all of the characters that we have come to know and love (and hate) throughout this series, and I loved seeing Twitch and Lexi work through their issues and fight for the happy ending they so desperately want. And shout-out to little AJ who is an absolute scene stealer and who brings so much to the story. There\u2019s an epilogue which finishes everything beautifully, and though it\u2019s definitely a dark read, I finished this one with a big smile on my face.<\/p>\n I loved it. 4.5 stars.<\/p>\n An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.<\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Raw (#1)<\/strong> Dirty (#2) Raw: Rebirth (#3)<\/strong> <\/p>\n Belle Aurora is thirty-something year old and was born in the land down under. Belle Aurora is a USA Today best-selling author.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Facebook\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Twitter\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Goodreads<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Amazon US\u00a0 |\u00a0 Amazon UK\u00a0 |\u00a0 Amazon CA\u00a0 |\u00a0 Amazon AU\u00a0 |\u00a0 B&N\u00a0 |\u00a0 Kobo Synopsis It had been six years since my world was turned upside down. He exposed me to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":4.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"Product","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88,47,49,9,24,29],"tags":[59,134,293,48],"class_list":["post-39463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-badasses","category-dark-gritty","category-feeeeeeels","category-romance","category-second-chance-romance","category-steamy","tag-arc","tag-belle-aurora","tag-raw","tag-review"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Raw-Rebirth.jpg?fit=150%2C225&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-agv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI shook my head, my throat thickening drastically. \u201cYou\u2019re an asshole.\u201d
\n\u201cI know,\u201d he uttered roughly. \u201cBut this asshole adores you.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nHe didn\u2019t even flinch. \u201cYeah, you do.\u201d His arrogance was maddening. \u201cThe fact that you felt the need to vocalize tells me just how much ownership I have over you. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nHe leaned into me then and I pulled back at the intimacy in that small move. And when he spoke, the words hit me with the force of a thousand orgasms. \u201cBecause I\u2019m your motherfucking king, and you are my beautiful queen. So be good, bow down to me–\u201d His voice lowered a notch. \u201c\u2014and let me love you.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n\u201cI know. But it hurts to love you, Twitch.\u201d I spoke through a shuddering exhale. \u201cIt always has.\u201d
\nReaching over, he took my hand in one hand and took my chin in the other, turning me to face him, and what he said made my stomach clench. \u201cRide this out with me and we\u2019ll make it out of this together.\u201d Lowering his head, he pressed his lips to my knuckles and spoke against them. \u201cRide or die, baby. Together for always. You\u2019re it for me. I know I\u2019m it for you.\u201d He peered up at me through his lowered gaze. \u201cLove me forever?\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nWhen my brow furrowed, I whispered, \u201cBut you still like what you like.\u201d
\nClearly, his bedroom tastes hadn\u2019t changed.
\nI stated this meaningfully and his eyes laughed. \u201cI said I\u2019ve changed, baby, not that I\u2019m a fuckin\u2019 saint.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe RAW Family<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Raw\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Raw.jpg?resize=80%2C122&ssl=1\")
\u00a0 ![\"Dirty\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Dirty.jpg?resize=80%2C122&ssl=1\")
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\nAuthor Bio<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nAt an early age she fell in love with reading. Boredom one summer had her scouring the bookshelves at home. She stumbled across Sandra Brown\u2019s Breath of Scandal and fell in love with romance.
\nHaving been brought up in a loud and boisterous family of Croatian descent, she developed a natural love for dramatics and laughter. Only some years ago had she discovered a new love.
\nHumorous romance novels.
\nSo many authors had opened a brand new world where she could lose herself yet feel safe and at home in their stories. Belle has been known to become a screeching banshee while anxiously awaiting their newest titles.
\nBelle never thought she would write. It had never interested her until recently. Friend-Zoned began to form and in February this year Belle typed the words Chapter One. And she fell in love.
\nWith words.
\nWith writing.
\nWith a creative imagination she never knew she harbored.<\/p>\nFor similar reads, check out our Dark & Edgy Recommendations<\/a> page<\/strong><\/h4>\n