The Darkness Within by Raquel Riley

My review

5 stars 🍩

This book just leaves you feeling like you are a better person for going through this journey with Nash & Brewer. Nash has gone to hell and back and is struggling to find his new place. When he hits his lowest, he is fortunate enough to have Mandy and the rest of the BALLS boys and, in particular the Bitches with Stiches men who immediately take him as one of their own and with humor and heart help him take the steps needed for his recovery. Brewer has a similar yet different past, so he gets what Nash needs to succeed even when he wants to hold him up and make it easier. But recovery is not about the easy way it's the long fought out road that has switchbacks, and if you keep fighting, it will all turn as you need to be able to move forward. These men have a connection you feel in your soul where they will be the others' solace and the tough love when needed. Truly an amazing work, the pain of this journey was more than worth it to see these men have their version of a hea.

Book overview

You can’t give your heart away until you first learn to love yourself.

Nash

A mission gone sideways. My world turned upside down on a dime.

Held prisoner in the dark tunnels below ground, cut off from the world, I was hanging onto life by a thread. Wanting to end my suffering, but afraid to let go.

And then I was rescued. Dragged into the light. My first breath of freedom in twenty-two days. But I was still trapped in my nightmare, inside my head.

A prisoner of war.

Brewer

His mind may be broken, but his soul is still intact, and it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. As his sponsor, I promised to help him find his way, to show him how to love himself again. I'm breaking all the rules of recovery by falling in love with him. But when you find the person you’re meant to spend the rest of your life with, you don’t want to waste another day apart.

The Darkness Within is the second book in the Scars and Stripes Trilogy. This hurt/ comfort MM romance deals with heavy topics such as addiction, mental health, PTSD, and a forbidden love that defies all the rules. A high-angst story that has a hard-earned HEA and cameos from Proof Of Life.

The Darkness Within: An MM Hurt Comfort Romance (Scars And Stripes Trilogy Book 2) https://a.co/d/fGGdm8C