No More Booklikes, BYE

The Story of a young woman severely abused for years by her husband, and her reuniting with her first love. It is a story of rebuilding trust, communication and strength.
This started out rough, it was a hard to read beginning. Abuse, extreme and demoralizing had me just about to delete it from my Kindle. It quickly jumped ahead to the aftermath of the horror and to a new chapter in this woman's life. It was necessary to the story, to understand her reactions and fears. I hate reading about abuse, but there was something about these characters that made me stay and see where they went. I'm glad I did, I enjoyed the story and loved the flawed characters.
Iz, was left alone at a young age when the love of her life. Axel joined the Marines with promises of returning. She was left alone again when her parents died suddenly a short while later. This double loss was deepened by yet another great tragedy that would haunt her. Finding herself unable to contact Axel she learned of his death from his foster mother. This devastating blow set in motion a desperation for connection that drove her into the waiting arms of her arsewhip husband who took it upon himself to break her in every way possible.
This was not the end of her story, she did not dwell in broken bones and dreams. Her friends stepped up held her up and walked her toward a future that could include happiness. The rebuilding if her missed life was sweet, heartbreaking and had some steamy sex.
Holt, the amazing man with muscles on his muscles, is angry and shocked to she his Iz, acting so crazy. His life has never been the same since she ran off an married another man. When the pieces start coming together his vision turns to red and nothing will ever hurt his Iz again.
This was a nice slow realistic build up relationship story. Every step had to be earned and it didn't come easy. I couldn't help but cheer for the characters and a few of the side ones too. Good people bad situation stories always work for me.
** Trigger warning there is a lot of physical abuse
I already ordered the rest of the books in the series