To my siblings, Jane was a friend. A pseudo-sister, the girl we grew up with.To me? She was everything.Our passion consumed us.When our world fell apart, I thought our love would be the thing that held us together.She was the love of my life. But she abandoned me when I needed her most.And I’ll never forgive her.For years I’ve been planning my revenge against the people who took everything from … the people who took everything from me.
Jane won’t be an exception. I’m coming for her.
She knows it.
She says she wants to help me serve my version of justice on the people who hurt me.
I’ll let her.
She probably thinks it will save her from me.
It won’t.
*This is a complete standalone. The Play On series are books connected by the theme of the arts industry, not by characters.
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I received this free eARC novel from the author. This is my honest review.
Jane and Jamie’s story gutted me. I went through every emotion and it was intense. Every emotion made me FEEL. Every happy thing made me fly through the roof. Every sad thing brought me to tears. And every part that angered me made me livid. I am emotional drained after this book.
I have read every book in this series and I can honestly say this is my favorite by miles. I can’t explain why. The connection between Jane and Jamie is phenomenal. The friendship and then relationship was of the walls and I just FELT everything.
I have an immense hatred for Lorna. I appreciate that she befriended Jane when they were younger, but that is the ONLY good thing she did. Otherwise she was a downright selfish biatch and she got what was coming for. Actually she deserved worse, but it is what it is. And Skye… my heart broke when everything happened and I am so glad she accepted Jane into the family when Jane had no one.
Jamie is INTENSE and I loved every minute of it. I love that he is very manly, but also has a soft side where he loves to read and write. Bit many guys I’ve met are like that, and I find it very appealing!
I loved loved loved this book and I can see myself rereading it many times. Part 1 was sweet and part 2 was intense and everything was just fantastic. Thank you Samantha Young for letting me read this eARC and also for writing an amazing novel that I got sucked into!
A heartachingly beautiful book about first love and second chances.
Ms. Young has been quite adept at taking my heart out and stomping on it in the past, and Black Tangled Heart is no different, but the writing takes you on such a journey, you never want to leave. Jamie and Jane meet at the tender ages of 13 and 15, and this begins an epic love story that spans over a decade. These two have had to grow up with some heartbreaking circumstances, Jane in the foster system, and Jamie just lost his mom and moves in with his two sisters when they meet through Jamie’s sister Lorna. The universe continues to hold these two down with many trials and tribulations, but their love is steadfast, or is it? I do not want to give any spoilers, but trust me when I say this book will rip you apart, and then put you back together, but better than ever. It makes me believe in the power of love, and how to never underestimate people. I loved the entire book, and it definitely makes me want to go back and read the first two standalone novels in the Play On series.
Awesome, Incredible, Amazing, Phenomenal. Just to name a few. This story grabbed me from chapter 1. Jane was abandoned as an infant and has gone through foster home after foster home. Now at thirteen she meets Skye, Lorna, and Jamie. She doesn’t have many friends but from the minute she meets Lorna they become instant best friends. Jane finds a family with Lorna, Skye and even Jamie. They all become close. It is something she has never had. Jamie sees her as his little sister’s best friend when they first meet. But a few years pass and feelings start to develop as well as his attraction to her. She is no longer the little girl he first met now she is a beautiful young lady he wants to get to know. But he will take it slow since she is not eighteen yet. Their relationship slowly blossoms and what an incredible thing to see. Jane is finally experiencing a love she always dreamed about. But unfortunately sometimes in life not everything lasts. Their breakup is heartbreaking.
Now 4 years later and Jamie is back for revenge. Jane is also on his list for revenge. As she becomes involved in his plan for revenge his feelings he thought were dead and buried start to resurface and he cannot ignore them. Her feelings too return but she was so heartbroken can she trust him again. Their journey back to one another is filled with so much emotion you can’t help but to get sucked right in. They have such a beautiful love story. You cry for them, you hurt for them, and you cheer for them. Samantha Young has done such an incredible job with this story. Tears of sadness, tears of joy and everything in between. A book that will be impossible to put down. So many emotions. A 5 star read and a top 10 book of 2020.
Oh my god what a ride! This book is by far one of my top reads of 2020. I could not put it down, I stayed awake all night to finish it. Such an emotional, heartbreaking story. Beware, you will need tissues!
Black Tangled Heart was one of those all-consuming, read every chance you get, stay up all night books. I didn’t want to put this book down as I was immediately sucked into the world of Jane and Jamie. The storyline and characters were excellently developed. I love how Young built Jamie and Jan up, rip them apart, and then put them back together again. Samantha Young truly is a creator of art and I can’t wait for her next story.
Wow! What an incredible story! Every aspect written to absolute perfection!
I am trying to articulate my thoughts and feelings — I am so in love with this story and characters that have left me reeling — I think I will just could sit and savor the total contentment I am left with. Gah this is without a doubt one of my favorite reads of the year. I have had a hard time getting engaged in any book during our covid-19 stay home orders and this upside down version of my life the last couple months. My attention span has been terrible, my concentration even worse. So I have to hand it to Samantha Young – her writing has brought me a level of enjoyment and entertainment that I was completely desperate for! This is why I have been an avid reader for so many years. I am so grateful because this book provided just the perfect distraction and break that I was so hungry for.
I read and loved this author’s work years ago when I got my first Kindle. On Dublin Street *sighs* was legit amazing. And I am so glad Black Tangled Heart popped up and I jumped right in! These characters were all so multi-faceted and brilliantly developed. I felt like I knew each and every one of them personally. This storyline was layered, complex and woven so beautifully that as events unfolded and things got twisty and suspenseful – I was so consumed I didn’t want to come up for air. I just wanted to tune out the world, kids can feed themselves because Momma has got to read what happens next. Everything about this book is magnificent.
Wow, what a story. This was intense and it was well written. This author never disappoints.
I recommend, this book, this series, and this author.
Oh, my heart. This book ripped it out and repaired it again all in a matter of hours. What a wonderful story of love and redemption, not to mention second chances, revenge, trauma, growth, and healing.
I loved this beautifully crafted journey. I couldn’t put the book down, Samantha Young’s eloquent words spun such a web around me. I felt so deeply for Jane and Jamie as they grew from traumatized adolescents to broken adults and their path to healing was just magical.
It was sweet and sexy, hopeful and heartbreaking – everything you could want in a novel. This one is going to stick with me for a long long time.
4.5 Stars!
Jane grew up in the foster system in California. She’d had no one since she was seven. She was an introvert who enjoyed her books and drawing, and tried to make the most of what she had. Then she meets two sisters and a brother from Boston who feel like home to her. The McKenna’s had also experienced a hard start in life, and they become family to her. Even the gorgeous, moody teenage brother Jamie who gave her butterflies and eventually made her believe she might have a promising future.
Jamie McKenna saw his little sister’s best friend Jane as a shy annoyance, until he didn’t. Suddenly he was noticing her in a whole different way. He couldn’t deny his attraction to her, but it was her kind heart that really hooked him. When they were together it just felt right. Soon she becomes his everything, and they share a once in a lifetime love. When their world falls apart they are left broken and feeling abandoned. Jamie is angry and has plans for vengeance. This even includes his once precious Jane. He is coming for everyone who wronged him, and he’d make them regret betraying him. He’s kept his emotions locked down tight, but just the sight of Jane has him drowning in memories. She claims she wants to help him get his justice, but he can’t let her close to his heart ever again. It’s a battle of wills, as each give as good as they get. Will this couple get a second chance at love, or will the past destroy the future?
Black Tangled Heart (A Play On novel) by Samantha Young is an emotional, heartbreakingly beautiful stand-alone second chance romance about loss, survival, friendship and soulmates. It goes from past to present and is told from both POV’s. It’s packed with angst, amazing banter, and explosive chemistry, and will keep you on the edge of your seat dying for more. This couple together was absolutely intoxicating. I loved these characters, and this story! Jane has a quiet strength and a kind heart, and Jamie is complex, intense, and there are so many layers to this passionate man. This is a book that will completely consume you. I couldn’t put it down!
Have you ever read a book that pulls you in from the start, the characters have been through difficult moments in their lives and yet they have a connection so strong it gives you hope, from that moment the story becomes all consuming that you have to pause before continuing because you know, the moment you keep going you will not put the book down? Well, that is Black Tangled Heart. In this captivating story, Jane and Jamie’s story filled my heart with their strong, emotional, relationship, broke it into a million tiny pieces, but then with the hope, strong-willed, and ever resilient Jane, rebuilt by heart with their beautiful journey they take you on. I don’t want to say anymore because you need to experience this amazing story yourself. Read this book, it will stay with you even when you’ve finished reading. Jane and Jamie make an impression on your heart.
“One word: addictive. Black Tangled Heart captured me from the very first page. Jane and Jamie’s love story kept me reading late into the night. It was seriously epic. Full of passion, angst, longing and heat.” – L.H. Cosway, bestselling author of the Hearts Series.
“Black Tangled Heart is AMAZING! So many twists and turns – this story is intense! I loved every minute of it!” — New York Times bestselling author Monica Murphy
“Readers are in for a thrilling and emotional ride with this one! The storyline is engrossing, the characters are complex, and the chemistry is off-the-charts palpable. It’s my favorite book by Samantha Young to date.” — K.A. Tucker, international bestselling author of The Simple Wild
Wow Wow Wow…
I don’t know how to describe how I’m feeling.
My heart feels like it’s was ripped out, and put back together so many times. I also felt all the Love. There is so many emotions that I felt while reading Jamie and Jane’s story. Each one just kept me wanting more, kept me wanting to read chapter after chapter. There was so many times that my throat felt all knotted. But there was also so many Hawt moments that it had me feeling all WOWZERS. I can keep going and going about the book. It’s better you Read it, so you can experience everything about this book. All the feels, just everything.
I really think that Samantha absolutely did an Ahmazing job with this book. I’m just in Awe!!
Wow. Just wow. This book left me full of emotions. I was happy and crying and anxious and then again happy.. and so on. I didn’t know what to do with myself. It is magnificent. It really is. Samantha really did a number with me on this one. It was unexpected. But that’s how books have to be. They have to get a reaction from you, and Black Tangled Heart really did!
This story is relatable. Those things can happen, so that makes a book really amazing. Pages were turning by themselves.
Jane is a shy girl, who troughout the book changes in a confident woman. Her experinences make her stronger.
Jamie also didn’t have it easy. When they found each other it was all consuming and they felt whole and I was feeling it with them. Their emotions were so pristine and incredible.
This book is a must read!!!
“That girl deserves to be loved. No one has ever loved her right, except for you. Not even Lorna. When a guy comes along, he needs to love her hard. To make up for all the times that people forgot to love her. I plan to be the guy who loves her like that.”
– Jamie McKenna
I received an earc from author and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
My heart!! This story is absolutely fantastic! I have enjoyed each book I’ve read of Samantha Young’s, but this book, blew them all out of the water for me. What a truly incredibly beautiful story! I am blown away. I am so overwhelmed with emotion. This story is everything!
This story held me captive from the start. The writing is purely stunning. Written with passion and heart, this story takes you on an emotional journey filled with heartache, loss, kinship, and immense love. It’s honest, raw, real and it seers your heart. The emotions are immense, and you feel everything each of these beautiful characters go through. The characters are flawed, vulnerable, and real. This is a story filled with many things: acceptance, survival, trust, loss, growth. Jamie, Jane, Lorna, Skye, and Asher’s journeys are filled with difficult times and the emotions Samantha Young draws from you are overwhelming. She dives in deep, makes you feel every possible feeling there is to feel, and make your heart both ache and flicker with hope.
This heartfelt, incredibly emotional story will steal your breath and warm your heart. It’s absolutely breathtaking and a must read!
Completely addictive page turner!
4.5 STARS
WOW.
I loved every standalone in the Play On Series, each one for very specific reasons.
But BLACK TANGLED HEART is the darkest of all.
This love story is so full of tenderness and love, and then, as the events unfold, darkness, hate and revenge outshine all the beauty Jamie and Jane created in their bubble.
And that is the core of this book.
How hearts can fall in love, and when tragedy strikes, how they bleed and sometimes fall into darkness.
A poignant story, with wonderful characters… And a character I particularly despised and loathed.
AND.ALL.THE.FEELS!!!!… All of them: friendship, generosity, selfishness, betrayal, vengeance, hurt, redemption, but above all, love.
A powerful love story to close this awesome Series!
***ARC kindly provided by the author in exchange for an honest review***
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It has taken some serious consideration to write a review that gives Black Tangled Heart the justice it deserves.
It is an intriguing mix of all consuming love, revenge seeking and deep seated hatred… or is it?
From beginning to end you’ll be swept along in this story of love.
Yes, this is a story of two people who fall in love but to tag this as ‘just’ a romance would be a mistake.
Quite simply it’s a story that celebrates all kinds of love. The kind of love that requires stepping up to the mark to make wrongs right, to buoy up the emotionally drowning, the kind of love that is unconditionally given AND received.
Black Tangled Heart totally consumed me. I can’t tell you the last time I saw time move from one day to another but, with this newest creation from Samantha Young, I HAD to keep reading!
J’avais hâte de découvrir ce nouveau tome de la saga Play On. Black Tangled Heart est un tome complètement indépendant car cette saga se déroule tout simplement dans le milieu artistique et c’est là le seul lien entre tous les tomes. Préparez vos mouchoirs car l’histoire de Jane et Jamie, de Skye et de Lorna ne nous laissera pas intact. Samantha Young signe ici une romance dramatiquement magnifique et c’est un coup de coeur absolu.
Nous découvrons Jane Doe alors qu’elle n’a que 13 ans. Elle vit chez Willa et Nick Green qui sont sa famille d’accueil. C’est une jeune femme qui a donc besoin d’affection et de stabilité émotionnelle et qui a peur de ne pas pouvoir être aimée. Elle a vécu des drames et c’est une jeune femme déjà très mature pour son âge. Quand elle découvre Lorna McKenna , sa vie va changer du tout au tout car elle va avoir une famille de coeur et elle vivra de belles années avec les McKenna mais quand un drame va les frapper , la rupture n’en sera que plus douloureuse. J’ai adoré le personnages de Jane car elle ne renoncera jamais , elle a le coeur sur la main et elle ne supportera pas l’injustice. Déjà au lycée, elle va refuser de traîner avec des personnes populaires qui prennent plaisir à harceler les autres. Si Lorna a été dans un premier temps sa meilleure amie, j’ai eu beaucoup de mal à apprécier ce personnage car elle est toxique à de nombreux égards. Elle aura des attitudes égoïstes et même si on peut comprendre les sources du mal, on ne pourra cautionner ce qu’elle va faire vivre à nos deux héros. Skye quant à elle fera office de figure maternelle voire de grande soeur. J’ai apprécié le lien qu’elles vont tisser au fil des années. Cette amitié et cette relation seront la cause de tracas qui auront des conséquences plus ou moins graves. Jane a donc un lien très fort avec eux et quand l’inévitable va se produire , elle fera un choix qui va tout changer.
Sa relation avec Jamie sera donc très fusionnelle et ira en s’intensifiant au fil des années. Il est un peu plus âgé qu’elle étant donné que 18 mois les sépare mais ils auront des discussions d’adultes et entre artistes aussi. Car oui Jane est une grande artiste qui gagnerait à être connue. Elle aimerait en faire son métier et elle en sera tout à fait capable. Ce livre étant divisé entre le passé et le présent , nous la verrons évoluer . Sous des apparences fortes, c’est une jeune femme brisée qui aura se jeter dans la gueule du loup quand l’heure de la revanche aura sonné. Leur relation sera donc unique et d’un point de vue extérieur , elle peut faire peur et sembler toxique. Il est vrai qu’éprouver des sentiments aussi forts à un si jeune âge n’est pas anodin mais il ne faut pas oublier que nos héros n’ont rien à voir avec des adolescents classiques. Les soirées, les excès, les fêtes , tout cela n’est pas pour eux et ils vivent dans leur monde mais quand leur bulle va éclater, la vérité va éclater et leur vie ne sera plus jamais la même. Quand nous la retrouvons adulte, nous savons qu’elle n’a pas changé mais a t-elle vraiment tourné la page? Que fera t-elle quand son âme soeur va recroiser sa route?
Jamie McKenna est un héros que j’ai aussi aimé découvrir . Toute sa vie il sera sans cesse tiraillé dans les décisions qu’il va prendre car il sait pertinemment qu’elles auront des incidences plus ou moins dramatiques. Ce jeune homme est aussi un artiste dans l’âme et on espère qu’il pourra percer et vivre ses rêves. Son départ dans la vie n’a pas été facile mais il pourra compter sur ses soeurs Lorna et Skye pour lui faire oublier ces moments chaotiques . J’ai adoré la maturité qui se dégage de ce personnage et on également souffrir à ses côtés. Il aura des choix à faire, des décisions lourdes de répercussions mais quand il aime il s’investit pleinement. Il va vivre des moments très difficiles qui le marqueront à jamais et il deviendra au fil des années un homme qu’on risque de ne plus reconnaître. Il était gentleman, il pourrait être odieux, il était adorable mais il deviendra imbuvable. Il a choisi de mener une vengeance qui fera des ravages sur son passage mais il est prêt à tout pour obtenir ce qu’il veut. Il a perdu sur de nombreux fronts et il est hors de question que cela reste impuni. Il va être aveuglé dans cette mission par cette haine qui va tout ravager sur son passage. Pourtant peut on espérer retrouver celui que nous avions découvert? A t-il vraiment toutes les cartes en main? N’a t-il pas tiré des conclusions trop hâtives?
Bref, ce roman est le genre de romance qui vous prend aux tripes car les émotions sont pures et intenses et il n’y aura pas de demie mesure. On va souffrir aux côtés de nos héros en attendant le dénouement final et en espérant que tout finisse par s’arranger. Samantha signe un superbe roman qui nous montre une fois de plus l’étendue de son talent. Elle va jouer avec nos émotions avec brio à ne manquer sous aucun prétexte si vous lisez en VO