Untouchable: A Bully Romance

Breathtaking! Untouchable wasnt for the faint of heart! This Non-traditional romance really have blown my freaking mind. CARTER MAHONEY is Something.. Something that can turn into bad news and definitely not the guy you want to bring home to see your Parents..

Carter, you really made me angry and my thought of chopping and feeding you for Shark-moment.. This book was gritty..raw.. can push beyond your limit.. Call it a dink dink warning.. Does it feel bad? Yesss! This wasnt a highschool crush until Zoey Ellis..

I have never imagined that highschool romance can be this complicated. Mariano had captured the intensity of teenager personality with emotional rollercoaster. Teenager can be reckless, wild, hormonal, pride and crazy! UNTOUCHABLE had everything and beyond..
Carter and Zoey, your relationship was a statement.. was it sweet? Hell No!
Carter was a man with 1000 masks.. No one truly had seen his real emotions until Zoey.. The crazy dynamic.. the art of persuasion and negotiation.. I envy Zoey for the love.. Carter wasnt easy man but he love hard..

I cant wait to hear more.. Mariano, your book was a teaser.. A delicious appetizer waiting to be devour.. I am inlove with Anti-Hero

I’ve read some of Sam’s work before and enjoyed it so when I heard good things about this book I thought I’d give it a go.
I wasn’t disappointed, the dark content might not be everyone ‘s cup of tea but for me it was truly amazing. Carter takes stalking and intimidation to whole new levels when it comes to the girl he sets his sights on . Zoey until she unsuspecting puts herself in his radar was never visible to the likes of Carter and his friends, but once she was he would turn her life upside down to keep her by his side. The darkness that follows comes apparent the further you venture in to this story and learn that someone’s darkness always needs another’s light to balance them out. It was a wonderful read and can wait for more from this author.

“Does it turn you on to think of me as helpless?”
“For me.” he specifies. “Not helpless in general, only for me.”

I have a feeling I am going to sound like I’m talking out of my ass with this review because I have SO MANY thoughts to type out that I can barely keep things straight, but here goes nothing…

“I love his twisted ways. Carter may be difficult to maneuver sometimes, but he fascinates me.” (You and me both, Zoey. You and me both)

I just finished this book today…after being CONSUMED by it for the last 3 days. I would literally STEAL moments of privacy to read this book. I would read it in the bathroom (no shame), on my way to the mailbox, right before work if I showed up early. I woke up at 330 am to read, just another chapter. That ended up being a LONG day because of course I didn’t go back to sleep, I’m not a quitter. LOL. You get the picture, I would read this book any spare minute I had because I NEEDED to keep reading. I NEEDED to know what other twisted scenarios would happen.

I’m typically not a dark romance reader. Yes, I’ve ventured into that type of romance before, but I usually steer away from it. BUT after all the noise this particular dark story was making on social media (and among my book besties), I HAD to see what all the fuss was about. I decided that this book would be the one to “dip my toes back into the darkness”. Well…there was no DIPPING, I was PLUNGED into the darkness within the first 3 chapters and it took the entire book to work my way out! Sam Mariano didn’t just push the envelope with this story, she OBLITERATED it. This book truly puts “bullying” on a whole new level for me.

“With Carter, you can only tap out if you literally can’t take anymore. Anything before a hard limits fair game.”

Let me say this, this book is NOT for the faint of heart. If you’re looking for rainbows and kittens and a Prince Charming fluff story, this book is NOT for you. BUT…if you’re craving for something to test your boundaries. To explore a darker romance, one that is like no other. If you want something that WILL push your limits and have you twisted up inside while reading. Have your heart racing. Have your jaw dropping with “WTF” “Oh no that did NOT just happen” moments. Have you CONSUMED with the need to know what could possibly happen next. Then this is DEFINITELY the book for you. #AngstGalore

You MUST go into the story with an OPEN MIND and read it for what it is…a journey. A journey of finding THE ONE that speaks to and sees your darkness, and likes to play within that darkness. FInding THE ONE you’re allowed to drop your mask with. “I spend every day of my life with people who like the look of a mask I wear, Zoey. You’re the only person who likes what’s underneath better.” Finding THE ONE who can love you BECAUSE of who you are inside. Finding THE ONE who can challenge you and push your comfort zones because without high risks, there are no high rewards. Carter and Zoey do that for each other. “Carter’s exploration of my boundaries is hard, because he’s forcing me to be brutally honest–not just with him, but myself. He won’t let me have a comfort zone.” If you can look at their story and not compare it to real life, then you will enjoy this book for what it is, a boy finding a girl who loves him for who he is.

If you take my advice and go into this book with an open mind, you will hate to love Carter. TRUST ME! In the back of my mind, I kept asking myself, “Why don’t I hate him? He’s such an a**hole! And so arrogant! And MEAN! He’s just a motherf*cker!” LOL. He had me swearing a LOT in my mind. (I have little children so I had to sensor myself LOL). Carter isn’t looking for you to love him, he’s looking for you to SEE him and Zoey see’s him. He’s the type of character that gets what he wants and if he wants it bad enough, he LITERALLY takes it. But then there’s Zoey, she holds her own and meet’s Carter’s challenges with her own. She eventually shows him he can take what he wants from her, because she’s willing to give it. Zoey was such a fiercely strong character…I admired her and was glad she had a backbone and never wavered on her stance. She was a true match for Carter!

I’m not going to say that this book was an easy read, but it’s a journey…these two characters had a story to tell and they didn’t shy away from it, Sam didn’t shy away from it. You need to push past some of the tougher scenes and keep going. Their story is worth it!

This my first novel from Sam and she sure blew me out of the water. She did an extraordinary job of telling this sensitive story. This story was truly unexpected. I went into blind, living off of the high from all the enthusiasm surrounding it and I can wholeheartedly say that that enthusiasm is warranted….this book is the real deal.

“He might like to call me his plaything, but he doesn’t look at me like a toy. He looks at me like a treasure. Like the heavens opened up and dropped me into his lap, and he’s forever grateful for the gift, even if he doesn’t express it in words. Even if his way of loving is sometimes brutal and scarring, even if he is more predator than prince, somehow he is the perfect fit for me.”

6 stars

**AUTHORS NOTE AT THE BEGINNING OF UNTOUCHABLES:
Please, please take me seriously when I say this is a BULLY romance.
This book contains some dark sh*t, and if you have sexual violence/abuse triggers, this may not be a good fit for you. I know where the characters’ limits are, but you know your own sensitivities much better than I do.
Carter Mahoney is not a comfortable hero, and this is not always a comfortable love story. If you need safe, good-guy heroes in every romance you read, this is not the story for you. These characters have their own unique damage, needs, desires, and proficiencies, and they are seeking out partners who fit them as they are, not partners who need them to change and be something they’re not.
I have very much enjoyed Carter and Zoey’s story, so I hope you will too, but I want to make sure I’ve warned/prepared you adequately 😉 Carter Mahoney is not for the faint of heart.

Oh my! This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I was sat reading until 4am as I couldn’t put it down. This is definitely one of the darkest books I’ve read, but it’s well worth the 5 stars I’ve given it. I downloaded this book in KU and it was sat on my Kindle for a few days as I wasn’t sure if I’d like it based on the warning given by the author. I’m so glad that I gave it a chance, and I loved it so much that I’ll be buying the ebook so I can re-read it, which isn’t something I do with a lot of books. The story of Zoey and Carter was on my mind all day at work today and I wanted to jump right back in. I’ve read a few of the reviews for this book and some have commented on what happens at the beginning of the book and how it does a disservice to sexual assault/rape survivors. For me, as one of those survivors, I didn’t feel this way and was comfortable with reading the storyline. I think this is a book readers will either love and or hate, so my advice would be to give it a go and make up your own mind.

My first read by Sam Mariano and it did not disappoint. After hearing about it from readers I had to see for myself. I love dark romance and I knew going into it there we’re triggers. I have to admit, in the beginning I was a little uncomfortable with a certain scene and I can see where one would stop reading. If you can get past it the rest is so much worth the read.

You will hate Carter then grow to love him. No lie, I wanted to throat punch him several times throughout the book but once you find out why he’s the way he is it will all make sense.

He’s not the only one you’ll despise.

What I admire most about this book is how strong Zoey is. How she stands up to him and to others. She’s a fighter and a match for Carter. When they finally give in to each other their chemistry is off the charts!

“You really haven’t let anyone touch you before, have you? You’ve just been waiting for me to find you.”

Well my, my, my! Ok, first thing….the author tells you before you even read the book there are triggers, it’s dark, it’s a jacked up book. If you don’t like one of those things, I’m telling you right now don’t read this book. For those of you that don’t mind these things and realize it’s a BOOK, you’re good to go.

If you plan on whining and complaining that this book is bad because it’s dark, it’s jacked up, etc…. again, don’t read it. Seriously it’s not that hard to keep scrolling through the books.

The characters are in high school, definitely not like any high school I went to or heard of. They seem much more mature than their ages. I read through this with my eyebrows raised, my mouth hanging open, wanting to smack people and all the things that a book is supposed to do. It pulled me into the story and didn’t let go.

This story wasn’t pretty.

It was a hard pill to swallow at times. At 6%-7% I doubted continuing to read this book because I had a BIG problem with what was transpiring.

But I swallowed that pill and I kept going. Even when my mind, morals, and quite possibly my sanity, were screaming at me, “STOP! IT’S WRONG, ALL OF IT! STOP NOW! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?”

However, I’m SO glad I didn’t give up and finished the book. I’m not gonna lie, I *still* have issues with what transpired, and even though the anti-hero grew on me enough that at this point I adore him, I’ll always give him a kiss then a side-eye…hahaha

This was truly a journey. There’s no other way to describe it.
At the same time, I couldn’t put the book down. It consumed my soul for DAYS.

But I did it.

I went through the crazy as heck Zoey & Carter journey. And I got to the other side wondering what’s wrong with me and why I loved this book so much! LOL

Sam Mariano, I’ll be sending you a copy of my therapist bills 😉 But I thank YOU for putting me through the ringer, for stretching my mind and putting me in SUCH an uncomfortable place that I never thought I’d be able to get out of.

Guys, you’ll either love or hate this book. If you dare to pick this book up and read it, check your morals, your what-if’s, and real life OUT the door. You won’t need them 🙂

Was this absolutely everything I want in a book? Hell yes. Is this book everyone’s cup of tea? Oh hell no. I won’t give out trigger warnings because I don’t like them and believe them to be spoilers. But I will say that if you have anything that does trigger you then I urge you find, read, and heed those warnings. My best bookish friends that knows my taste so perfectly said this one would tick off all of my boxes and boy, was she right. I can totally get why some people would not power through the beginnings of this book but just like Carter is a high risk, this book is high risk but they are both high reward. This is a true bully romance story. It’s dirty and I was here for all of it. It’s a high school setting and our Hero is a bonafide asshole. The Heroine is quirky and weird but I felt like she stayed true to herself throughout the book. The ending did get a little cheesy given the tone of 95% of this book but I was okay with it. I felt like I had gotten my very healthy dose of angst so I was left feeling very satisfied. I wish more authors would write books with Heroes like this one. There just aren’t enough great bully romances, especially in a high school setting but what I call “steamy YA.” I am very curious to see what else this author has written and I have my fingers crossed that she will continue to write more stories similar to this one. But as I stated before, this book is absolutely not for everyone. But if you are open minded when it comes to your fictional romances then you should give this a chance.

I’m really not even sure what to write. It’s no secret I love my books dark. I can handle noncon, dubcon and pretty much everything in between. So it’s weird for me to say I struggled through the beginning of this book – it was that awful – and I don’t mean the writing. I mean the events that occur. Zoey is not a broken character – I honestly think that’s why she was able to handle everything that Carter did to her and threw her way. And it was brutal at times. The only conclusion I can come up with to make sense of it is his dark called to hers. Was it always there or did it come about from what was done to her? The same can be said about what happened to Carter early on in life. I almost don’t like myself for falling in love with Carter. He redeemed himself in my eyes the more I learned about him. And I do like my H’s to be possessive bordering on obsessive and he had that in spades. So would I recommend it? If you are a dark lover and can handle dubcon and noncon then I would. If you are unsure and thinking about dipping your toes into this genre, this isn’t the one you want to start with.

2.5 Stars

I knew going in that this had some stuff I was probably going to take exception to. I’d read the blurb warning as well as a couple of reviews. But I’d also had so many book friends recommending it that I decided to take a chance. I don’t mind dark romance but there is a fine line that I will allow my hero to step over and I was uncertain where Carter would stay in regards to that line. Well, it didn’t take him long to step across it and I almost just stopped at that early stage. Remembering the accolades my friends had shouted, I continued on.

If I set aside the unforgivable actions of this hero within the early pages of this book, I still did not love this story. I know I’m in the minority but it wasn’t even his actions that kept me from enjoying Carter and Zoey. It was the long drawn out introspection of the heroine. It just never seemed to quit. I wanted to get into the meat of this relationship but instead was stuck in her head as she dissected everything she could about the hero. While some of that was necessary, there was just too much of it and I actually became bored by it.

I was expecting a “bully” book but other than a few scenes, this was far from that. The hero does tend to bully a couple of secondary characters later but it was just too weak for this to be titled as such a story. To be honest, this is the story of a couple who are learning that they enjoy r@pe fantasy. The back and forth with the heroine regarding her yes and no’s was disturbing when all they needed was a safe word. I probably would’ve liked this more if I didn’t feel, even to the end, that her character was a bit inconsistent when processing this element of their relationship.

So yeah, I’m not going to low rate this based on the hero stepping over my line because I knew the warning and actually, I managed to keep pushing that part of the story to the very back of my mind when needed. I’m low rating because of being stuck in the heroine’s mind relentlessly, because that totally deprived me of the little enjoyment I might have been gearing up for before it struck again and again. I truly wanted to enjoy this one but before I read more by this author, I’ll be checking to see if these long passages are her norm or not.

Heroine POV – would’ve loved to had even a few minutes of the hero’s