Saswati's Reviews > Still Beating

4.25 ‘You feel like my lifeline’ stars ⭐️

He’s the only calm to my madness, the only light to my dark, the only sweet to my bitter remains.

Cora and her sister's long-time boyfriend Dean have been at each other's throats for almost fifteen years, constantly pranking and name-calling the other.

One night, after celebrating her sister's birthday and staying back for drinks at a bar, Cora's wallet is stolen. It's the middle of the night, and she's stranded all alone. After failing to contact everyone else, Cora calls Dean to come and rescue her. However, hardly do they begin their journey, when they're both knocked out and kidnapped. When they wake up, they find themselves chained up in the basement of a madman.

I don’t know if there is a sense of dramatic irony in the fact that I’ve been taken captive with the one person in the world I hate most, or if there is a semblance of relief in the realization that I am not alone in this.

Forced to go through terrible ordeals for weeks, Cora and Dean form a very deep and unexpected bond forged from suffering, pain and hope.

We are bound, chained, tied—to our trauma and to each other.
We’re in this together.

When they finally get out of that hell, they must adjust to the outside world once more, and face their unwanted feelings for one another.

We’ll never be friends. We’re no longer enemies. We can’t be lovers.
Where does that leave us?
Soldiers at war. Kindred spirits. Two lost, wandering souls with nothing, and everything, in common.
Or… maybe not.
Maybe we aren’t something meant to be labeled. We transcend titles.
And that, I fear, is the most powerful thing of all.

Even though this book is marketed as a dark romance, I didn't find there to anything dark in their love. Yes, there's some dark, fucked up shit that happens when they're held captive, but the romance itself is a journey full of heartache and healing.

“I’ve got you,” I whisper into her hair. “Always.”
She can pretend to hate me. If it diminishes even a fraction of her pain, she can fucking pretend all she wants.
But I know it’s love… it has to be, because if this isn’t love…
Then I’m certain it does not exist.

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TW: Rape, suicide attempt, death of a pet.