Megan Hart’s Hold Me Close is a journey through darkness and fear, anger and heartache, hope and love.  It is at once mesmerizing and appalling.  It’s not the type of story I usually read, and I will say it took me some time to get into it.  However, Ms. Hart’s writing is beautiful, and this story very quickly sucked me in.

When you loved somebody, you wanted to give them everything you could. You wanted what was best for them, no matter what. You wanted them to move beyond what was awful and terrible, beyond anything that had ever hurt them. She would never be able to do that for him, nor he for her. They would forever and always be a reminder to each other of all the things Effie wanted them both to be able to forget.

So begins the story of Effie and Heath.  Snatched off the street as young teens and held captive for two years under terrifying conditions, a unique bond grew out of their struggle to survive.  It was a necessary bond, but over time it grew into a love that only they understand. It is now many years later.  The incident is long behind them.  The scars are not.  Effie has made a decent living with her paintings; images created out of the memories that still haunt her. Heath accepts what happened to them as something that can never be erased, but he refuses to let it dictate his life.  His love for Effie has only grown stronger over the years, and he wants nothing more than to make a life with her.  Effie is unable to deny her love for Heath, yet she fears it is unhealthy for them both.

She loves him. She will probably never love anyone else, not like this. But how would she ever know if she could, if she doesn’t try? If this is all they have because it’s all they believe they can ever have, how is that good for either one of them? To never have even the illusion of a choice?

Throughout the years Heath hovers in Effie’s life, allowing her to set the limits and rules of their relationship.  He watches as she flits from man to man, searching for normal.  And he is always there when she comes back to him, disappointed and disillusioned, in need of the achingly intense sex no one else can give her.  The sex that defines them and absolves them of the past.  He even accepts Effie’s accidental pregnancy by another man, helps to raise Polly, and treats her as his own.

Effie and Heath are extremely complex characters and I loved them both. Ms. Hart conveys their emotions, motivation, and actions with such truth and clarity they become real.  Effie knows, deep in her heart, that Heath is it for her, she just doesn’t want to believe it. Why? Because it would mean those horrible memories would forever stain them.  A different man, a new relationship would erase the stain.  Heath patiently waits for Effie to realize no other man will ever know her, understand her, and love her precisely for having endured those awful years and prevailed.

I love that Ms. Hart gradually reveals the horrors Effie and Heath endured at the hands of a sick, twisted man by weaving that backstory into the novel.  This backstory is written in present tense from Effie’s point of view, which is sort of brilliant. I felt as if I were living it right along with Effie.
It also serves to move the story along, giving the reader more and more information as it cleverly pieces together their present day lives.
 
Even though I went into this novel with a lot of trepidation, I ended up enjoying it immensely.

Related Posts:

Excerpt: Hold Me Close by Megan Hart
Author Spotlight: An Interview with Megan Hart
Contest: Megan Hart Hold Me Close Tour Giveaway

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