Never Hollowed By The Stare

Heaven and Hell Club: Forgotten – Colette Davison

Can he build a future, when he’s forgotten his past?

Jared has fought hard to achieve something close to ‘normal’. Needing to get away from his well meaning but suffocating family, he follows a message he wrote on a scrap of paper to a new city, hoping to find a missing piece of his past.

When Kyrone, a cocky pole dancer at the Heaven and Hell Club, saunters into the tattoo parlour Jared works in, his life is turned upside down again. A passionate one night stand turns into something unexpected for both men. But life is never simple as they work out if they can have a future beyond what has been forgotten.

Forgotten is an MM romance with hurt/comfort, a small age gap, and two men who need to learn to be true to themselves. It is the second book in the Heaven and Hell Club series and, whilst it can be read as a standalone, works better if read after Broken

Imagine waking up one day with no memory of your past. Your family and friends are strangers, your life a complete blank.

That’s what happened to Jared. He was in a car accident and suffered traumatic brain injury that resulted in retrograde amnesia. With his past erased, he had to start life all over again.

If I thought Jag’s book was angsty, Jared’s book was much more intensely emotional. Copious amounts of tears were shed and you got to hand it to Piers Ryman, his voice acting knocked it out of the park. He effectively wrung out all the emotions off every scene.

This was also a book where I felt the pain, literally. As a result of his brain injury, Jared suffers from recurring headaches and migraines. Something I also suffer from and was experiencing while listening to the audiobook. I never felt as in tune with a character as I was with Jared right at that moment.

I loved how strong Jared is. He had the courage to rebuild his life and try to live as normally as he could despite all the hurdles he had to overcome daily. He’s a talented tattoo artist. He’s also very conscious of the fact that he might have hurt other people because he couldn’t be his old self that they wanted him to be or he might have done something wrong in the past that he just couldn’t remember.

Kyrone was exactly the man for Jared. At first, I was kinda meh about him. I mean, who calls himself an adonis, for fuck’s sake? AND tattoos it on his chest! But Kyrone revealed a deeply nurturing side of his personality that endeared himself, the kind who’s ready to drop everything when his boyfriend needs him. And he’s ready to do it anytime, anywhere too. Attaboy!

It’s not all angst and tears. There’s a lot of fluff in this book too. Kyrone wins the award for the best date idea ever for his brilliant ‘let’s play spies’ game. It tops Michael’s indoor picnic/star-gazing date idea from Broken.

And speaking of Michael, him and Jag were in for a surprise at Jared’s appearance. It went down as a catastrophic mess but happily, in the end, poor Jag finally had his closure.

The supporting characters were really great too. There were more page-time for the other dancers of the club. The other characters present were Jared’s kind-hearted boss from the tattoo parlor and his family.

The latter one threw me in for a loop because I was expecting them to be the villainous antagonist. Initial impressions confirmed it to be so until it was slowly revealed they were much more than what they appeared to be.

Forgotten could be read as a standalone but I recommend reading book 1, Broken, to fully appreciate the connection between the characters. And most especially because Colette Davison writes outstanding people. They are what makes me come back to Heaven and Hell Club time and time again. They go through so much and your heart breaks for them. They emerge stronger, happier and their joy resonates with you.

Do read if you like stories featuring cocky tattoos, jumper cuddles and enlightened seagulls.

P.S.

Thank you to Gay Book Promotions and Audible UK for giving me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

review of Broken, Heaven and Hell Club book 1, here
Colette Davison books here.

Rating:
4 Stars – minor quibbles but I loved it to bits

Soundtrack: Clean Slate
Artist: TOKiMONSTA feat. Gavin Turek
Album: Clean Slate