Review: A Pound of Flesh by Sophie Jackson
A Pound of Flesh by Sophie Jackson is a perfect New Adult romance, check out my review below. I received an advance copy of the book from Headline Eternal in an exchange for an honest review. This in no way affects what I think about the book. Also enormous thanks to Sophie for making this happen.
A Pound of Flesh by Sophie Jackson
Category: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Publication: June 9th, 2015; Gallery Books/Headline Eternal
Purchase: Amazon
Orange Is the New Black meets Jennifer Probst’s New York Times bestselling Marriage to a Billionaire trilogy, featuring a strong-minded prison tutor who discovers that her sexy bad-boy student is far more than he appears to be.
Haunted by nightmares of her father’s street murder fifteen years ago, Kat Lane decides to face her fears and uphold his legacy of helping others by teaching inmates at a New York prison. There she meets arrogant Wesley Carter, who’s as handsome as he is dangerous, as mysterious as he is quick-witted, and with a reputation that ensures people will keep their distance.
As teacher and student, Kat and Carter are forced to leave their animosities at the door and learn that one should never judge a book by its cover. As Carter’s barriers begin to crumble, Kat realizes there’s much more to her angry student than she thought, leaving them to face a new, perilous obstacle: their undeniable attraction to one another.
Review:
[book rating=5/5]And now comes the hard part of putting my thoughts in a coherent review. But it’s hard when there are stories out there, like A Pound of Flesh. I’m just as lost when I was when trying to write my review of Leisa Rayven’s books.
I went into this book expecting one thing and got something entirely else, while giving me the same feelings that it did when I first read it. There are quite a few changes compared to the original one, but I think all was for the best. It was much shorter and with less characters, so much easier to get lost in the story.
Katherine “Kat” Lane is a literature teacher at Arthur Kill Prison. She lost her father sixteen years ago, and she feels the need to face her fears and also pay off her “pound of flesh.” She promised her father that she would become a teacher to help those in need, just like his father did. In the prison is where she meets Wesley Carter, and their meeting doesn’t go smoothly. But Kat feels the pull toward her hostile student and tries to help him in any way she can.
Carter is serving time in prison to pay off his own pound of flesh to his best friend, Max, who saved his life once. He’s rude, thinks he is better than others, sinfully good-looking, and all the while oh-so-intelligent. His love for literature and a shocking realization are what makes him accept Kat’s help so he can have a chance of getting out of prison and changing his life for the better. In a way, Kat and Carter both live by the same principle; that paying off your debt is the most important thing in your life. He’s arrogant and cocky, but underneath all his layers, he’s a sensitive, vulnerable, and damaged guy. A guy who made some bad choices in life. Oh and I love love love his love for Oreos.
I loved Kat and Carter’s relationship for a lot of reasons. It isn’t instalove, more like a slow burn. They build a friendship first and slowly get to the relationship aspect. It is all the while forbidden, which makes all their small moments together more precious and exciting. They have a really strong bond that comes from experiencing the bigger life changing moment of their lives together. They belong together from the first page to long after the last. Their connection is unbreakable, no matter what obstacles they have to face together.
“You’re the only person who treats me like I’m me, who makes me feel like what I’m doing is right and meaningful. There’s no bullshit, no hiding with you. And I began to see how hard it must’ve been for you to tell me about who you are. Carter, I know the only reason you didn’t tell me was because you were scared. You’re the only person on this planes who knows what I went through. And do you want to know something really ironic? My family, my friends, the cops, my fucking therapist, they all said you weren’t real, that you were a figment of my imagination, a result of post-traumatic stress. But you’re the most real thing in my life.”
It felt like except for a few characters, the majority of the minor characters are antagonists and all against Kat and Carter’s happiness. They mostly just act like they are better than our two lovers because they “know it better”. Try to separate them because their prejudices must be the truth and Kat can’t decide anything in her own life. That’s why I love the few characters who are Team Kat & Carter.
The ending changed the most, but it was all for preparing for book two. I kind of missed the big bang that I was expecting, but Sophie spared me from a heart attack. The last few pages draw up Max’s story perfectly and shows that he still has something good in him. I actually can’t wait for his book now that I read that little snippet in the ending and that’s the biggest turnaround, because I HATED Max all through A Pound of Flesh.
I don’t particularly like reading in third person, especially when there are more than two people’s POVs, but here it was needed. It helped connect with the characters easily and the story just flowed perfectly. Sophie’s writing was what actually made me fall in love with her stories years ago in the first place. I was happy to realize that since that time, it only evolved and become more sophisticated and poetic.
Kat and Carter’s is a beautiful story about facing your fears, finding love in the most unexpected place and how to better yourself for someone who means everything to you. I would recommend this book to everyone and won’t stop until I pushed everyone to read this beautiful gem. Sophie Jackson won my heart years ago with and I’m with her till the end of the line, pal.
