Six years on the inside gave a man a lot of time to think. And a lot of time to plan. When I got out, I was determined for things to go a different way. I never wanted to lose control and rage out again. The only way to accomplish that, though, was to shut it all down.Complete disconnect.That meant no family, no friends, no links to anything attached to the man I was before.Of course the problem … before.
Of course the problem was, I never factored HER into my plans. And try as I might, I couldn’t find a way to shut it down, to disconnect from her.
I had a sneaking suspicion she was going to take all my carefully constructed plans and toss them out the window, was going to force me to face up the demons inside and confront the ghosts from my past.
Those ghosts?
They wore the faces of my family.
And a confrontation with them, yeah, I had a feeling it was going to show me that I had spent six years taking action on beliefs about the demons inside. Demons that had never actually existed in the first place…
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I loved this books so much!! I had been dying for Eli’s book!! Eli was sexy AF! And I freaking LOVED Autumn!! The owner the the sexy toy shop! How amazing is that? And don’t get me started on Peyton, Autumn’s sister! OMG I laughed so hard at basically everything that came out of her mouth! I need a book for her!
This book was highly emotional. I totally needed tissues a time or two. It was heartbreaking but so so worth it! This is my top Mallick brother book although I’ve absolutely loved them all! I’m so in love with this entire family!
How could I possibly dismiss this broken hero? I’ve been getting hints and clues and innuendos galore since I started this series that something happened to Eli. What? I didn’t have a clue. And I know that there’s a certain reading order to the Navesink world, but I had to disregard all of that in order to get to the truth.
So what happened to the youngest Mallick brother?
unlike the other brothers, Eli and Hunter weren’t cut out for the violence of their family’s business. I already knew that Eli was the last choice, the one most likely to get lost in a rage, and that he needed someone on the job with him to pull him back.
Eli was softer, warmer, and had the heart of an artist. That was his passion, but he couldn’t find a way to make it his life.
He couldn’t see someone suffer, be it woman or animal. He was a hero, a knight in shining armor. Unfortunately, one day, he was in the right place, at the right time, with the wrong people. He served six years for doing the right thing 🙁
while serving his time, he cut out his family. He felt that he needed to control his rage and being a part of his family, it would stay at the surface. So he had to shut them out. Cut off his feelings. Kill his heart.
And then he comes out. All of the Mallicks couldn’t be happier, until they realize that he wants nothing to do with them. The only one he lets in is the woman who stole his dog – Autumn. Now this woman, she was an amazing character. After taking in Eli’s dog, she finds out where Eli is and keeps him updated. Those updates turned into conversations, and a bond was made. Those letters were Eli’s only link to the outside world, so when he gets out, it’s no surprise that she’s who he turns to.
However, the shining star of this book, the character that really stood out, was Peyton. This chick was a hot mess of awesomeness! I freaking loved her and I hope a book exists for her because she is a character that needs her own story. While this story was utterly heart breaking, it was livened up with Peyton’s humor and the incredible eroticism that existed between Eli and Autumn. These two were sexxxxxxxxy!
Eli is the one Mallick brother’s story that I was waiting for and it was as heart-breaking as I was expecting but I loved every page of it. A little disclaimer, I actually read this book back in September of 2017 (it is now May 2019), before I was actively writing reviews, I have been attempting to go back to some of my favorites and doing a little re-reading and actually submitting reviews. Besides Cyrus and Reeve’s story, Eli is another top favorite.
Even as a re-read, Autumn and Eli’s story still gets to me. The years Eli was in prison and all the anguish he felt and decisions he had to make to keep sane was gut-wrenching. Then with the appearance of Autumn, he slowly starts to feel alive again. Autumn is exactly the person Eli needed. Not only did she take in his dog Coop, and kept him updated while he was in prison, she also gave him a sense of peace. On the very day he was released, signs were out there that took him directly to Autumn. But after an intense encounter, Eli’s fears comes to the forefront and he decides he needed to stay away from her. It was actually Autumn’s fabulous sister, Peyton, that pulled him back in. And it was from here on out that the healing really began.
Autumn and also Peyton truly understood him and accepted him. In different ways, they were instrumental for him to forgive himself and make him realize he is not the monster he thinks he is. The connection and chemistry between Autumn and Eli is fierce and powerfully deep. I loved what they gave each other. And then to bring him back home to the Mallicks again was the icing on the cake. That first reunion with everyone was intense and so emotional.
I absolutely loved everything about this book, not only the relationship between Eli and Autumn, but just Peyton in general. She seriously made me smile in every scene she was in. And as a major dog lover, I can’t not mention Coop again. I truly see him as what really brought Eli and Autumn together.
5 Hollow and Dead Stars
Another fantastic installment in Jessica’s, Mallack Brothers series. Elias story was heartbreaking even from the first chapter where he is pulled from his loving dog coop had me tearing up. His ongoing need to protect his family at all costs even if it means being hollow and dead inside.
Autumn is a surprise to him he doesn’t expects her kindness or her letters. She makes his heartbreak of shutting his family out more tolerable.
I loved every bit of the story, I loved the feelings that Jessica betrays through Eli and Autumn. And I loved their story full stop. If you’re looking for a love story with all the feels this book is for you and I would highly recommend picking it up and reading it when you have plenty of time because you’re not going to want to put it down. I pulled an all nighter at this one.
3 years after reading Eli for the first time, I realized I hadn’t reviewed it.
Eli is my favourite of all of Jessica Gadziala’s men. Growing up in a family expecting Eli to be or act a certain way eventually almost brought the family to ruin.
When Autumn witnessed a tragedy she kept Eli’s dog Coop. The family looked for the dog for a long time, not knowing Coop was facilitating the beginning of a friendship between Eli and Autumn.
One of Jessica’s best books, she researched the topic involved and then layered it with her love of family, and hot, steamy romance. One of the best HEA’s ever, worth so many more than the 5 I’m allowed to give.
Eli has to be one of my favorite book characters ever. Tragic, deep, noble, and so so hot. I was so worried about him by the end of the third book in this series, and this book resolved those issues in the best possible way. Jessica creates these men that I want to know in real life.
To get through a painful situation sometimes you have to make sacrifices. When you associate certain people with shame, pain or grief you have to walk away from them (even if they are your family) until you are strong enough to face them again without old triggers being set off. These are the steps Eli Mallick had to make when he was arrested and sent to prison for 6 years for defending a woman being battered.
From this point things might be spoilerish if you haven’t at least read the other Mallick brother’s books. We were left in the dark on who the woman for Eli was going to be in the other books. We had met her sister Peyton in Cyrus book and knew she was a tattooed, piercing foul mouthed woman who worked at the library. She practically stole the show throughout this book. Autumn and Peyton were raised by uber conservative parents and as soon as they were of age they ran from that life. Autumn owns her own sex shop and is almost as crazy as her sister. We find out she was the one that had taken Eli’s dog when he was arrested on the street and cared for it while he was in prison. This is where their relationship began – with her writing him in prison telling him that he didn’t have to worry about his dog as she was taking care of him. Even though they had never personally met they formed a bond through those letters and when Eli was released he was drawn to seek her out and their chemistry was immediate.
Eli had a lot of demons to face when he got out – he wanted to just shove them aside and start a new life without his family. Autumn helped fill in some of the voids that in the end made it to where he healed enough to face the large loving family he had walked away from.