Otherwise Occupied by Shay Savage

Otherwise Occupied by Shay Savage
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

*Received ARC from L.J. Anderson in exchange for an honest review

4.5 Uncomfortable, Mind-blown Stars





At least, not in the traditional sense. Maybe not even in the non-traditional sense. I hesitate to even put this book within the romantic genre. There is a girl. There is sex. However, the love story itself



But the story is riveting and worth the read. It's unique and mind-blowing with tons of holy shit...HOLY SHIT! moments.

Evan is a POW ex-marine who is the main hit man for the Moretti outfit of Chicago.



Between his battle with PTSD and trying to get back into his boss’s good graces, his life is complicated to say the least. Part two of the series is more of a character study into Evan. He struggles to treat his syndrome in the least harmful way (to himself at least) as possible. He drowns his nightmares in work and in sex. And never does he get emotionally involved. In his business, that’s just a death sentence.



The places where he takes comfort in, other people would find unquestionably immoral.



Trying to fit Evan in the role of the hero is next to impossible. So just accept him for what he is and move the fuck on.

The story had a slow build to the ultimate climax but with plenty of interesting and WTFs spread throughout. You are slowly treated to the harsh realities of Evan's world. With each chapter, the reader can see Evan's control slowly chipping away. I was increasingly horrified as the story progressed and at 80% I just knew...



This is a three part series. You will need to pick up the first book in order to understand the second. There were tons of flashbacks. You will get annoyed quickly without the reference.

And yes, there is the dreaded cliffhanger.



And it is a bit of a…



But I don’t mind it. I hate cliffies only because there are so many out there and I can’t remember which ending went with which book. They are all so interchangeable. Believe me when I say that I won’t be having this problem with this story. I don’t think I will forget it anytime soon.


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