Carnage 2 by Lesley Jones

Carnage 2, the story of Me by Lesley Jones

Like a boxer heading back into the ring, right after suffering his first defeat, I approached Carnage 2 with more than a little trepidation – when I finished the original book, I felt as if my heart had been torn out and stamped all over, it left me emotionally bruised and battered. But would all that have stopped me from reading this the most anticipated of sequels- Did it hell, I couldn’t wait to get stuck in!!!!!

And did it live up to my expectations – oh, yes.

I was in tears by the time my kindle had reached 7% but my heart held out hope that Georgia would make it to her happy ending.

Never far from her mind, Sean is ever present in the story but his place is required in order to balance the life that she carves out for herself.

We learn more early on of the pain and solitude that Georgia suffered following the death of not only Sean but her son Beau. Living held no meaning for her and having failed twice in her attempt to join them, her family take drastic steps to try and help her to come to terms with the tragic events.

 But when stories continue to surface about Sean and his supposed infidelities and children, Georgia does the only thing she can to save her sanity – she takes off.

We pick up the story with Georgia in Australia, staying in Byron Bay with her Aunt and Uncle and helping out at their bar. Her cousins are doing what they can to help her find her feet and make sure she can come to terms with what has happened and the constant scrutiny of the media.

Jackson (Jax), he cousin is the shoulder she leans on and slowly she is beginning to put herself back together. Then she meet Roman, a local drifter who is in town for a few months to earn some cash by singing in the local clubs. Inexplicably Roman draws something out in Georgia and she starts to accept that she is at least beginning to “feel” again – for the first time since Sean’s death, she may just be beginning to slowly move on.

Roman is just what she needs and whilst it is not all plain sailing – to be  honest, some of it is completely fucked up! Georgia, learns a little more about herself and what she really needs in life and after a drunken call, she phones the one man other than Sean that she accepts she has feelings for – Cameron King!

I was so chuffed that Cam was back – I loved him in the first book – he was the absolute dichotomy of what we would expect from such a dominant man – when it came to Georgia (Kitten) he was mush!

She owned him, heart and soul but she had completely broken his heart when she left him, but not being with her didn’t mean that he didn’t love her because he couldn’t not– his life stopped when she left and only with the help and intervention of his family and Benny had he put himself back together.

Drunk dialling a man like Cameron King was not the smartest thing she could have done but it meant that she was back on his radar and he was coming to get her – nothing and no-one would stand in his way and boy were they lining up to get between the pair of them.

Meeting unexpectedly in Australia, Cam didn’t know that she would be at the opening of his new club (he had intended to head to Byron Bay the following day!), Cam takes care of Georgia when she falls apart as it is the anniversary of Sean’s and Beau’s death, they spend the evening together ( mind out of the gutter, Ladies – this is Cameron we are talking about!) he would never take advantage of her in her emotional condition – they did nothing but talk and he held her while she cried herself to sleep.But when her cousin sees them together the following morning, she drops the bombshell about Cam that has a devastated Georgia resorts to her coping mechanism and runs!!!

Back in the UK, she knows that she can’t avoid Cam forever but this man never takes the easy path and when the path to Georgia puts in directly in front of her family (all of them) he does what he does best and confronts it head on! God, I love this guy – he is so bloody alpha!!!

Georgia knows that her relationship with Cam will never be the same.

Being with Cam is a big step but it is one that they embark up together and with a determination to handle whatever shit is thrown at them and no-one throws more their way than Tamara – Cam’s occasional fuckbuddy who is pregnant with what she insists in Cam’s child.

The circumstances of which are revealed later on the story – this crazy junkie is a real piece of work – I could have throttled her with my bare hands!!!

Cam and Georgia don’t hang about as they set about establishing their relationship, buying a home within a week of getting back together I think shows clear intension! The had waited a life time to get a chance to have what they might have always had, if Sean had not owned Georgia’s heart all those years ago.

Making it right, and being respectful of their past they actually are doing a really great job of getting on with their future.

Having a child is something that Georgia harbours an unbearable ache to do but following her hysterectomy- she knows that it may be beyond her, without a little help – up step two of the best friends a woman could ever want-  Jimmy and Ash, partners to her brothers Lennon and Marley – and they both agree to be surrogates!

Pregnancies confirmed at the infamous “pee on a stick party”, Cam and Georgia finally have what they really want, a home that they can raise their family in.

Tamara has other ideas and in what can only be described and a seriously WTF moment – she takes matters into her own hands and almost costs Cam and Georgia their future.

The epilogue gave me an opportunity to cry at will, it gave me the completion of what I have found to be the most enthralling of stories.

Georgia wasn’t always the easiest person to like or understand in book 1 but in this I found that she had me won over – I wanted her and Cam to make it, to have the perfect happy ever after – to make their family and cherish it. I absolutely adored Cam but that was easy to do, he fucked up but was man enough to make it right, he loved her unconditionally practically worshipped the ground she walked on and when they eventually have their children, I knew that his heart was happy – he was where we needed to be.

Georgia’s family came into their own, especially Marley – when he opened his heart about missing Sean, I was gobsmacked – I cried ugly tears and was unashamed when those around me looked at me as if I had lost my mind – friendship is tough and losing your best friend is heart breaking but trying to be strong for Georgia had cost Marley the opportunity to openly acknowledge his own grief -  She knew that he had refused to deal with his own grief in order to be the brother she needed and loved him all the more for it. The whole family (including her dad) had an opportunity at one point or another in the book to make themselves heard and I loved the fact that they were so bloody well down to earth.

This is the perfect anecdote, companion, completion, whatever you want to call it to Carnage –it doesn’t drag you screaming and kicking through a rollercoaster of emotions that Carnage did but it gently guides you unsuspectingly onto a never ending cycle of twists and turns that will have you spinning so far and fast that you will feel like you can’t see straight! Awesome!!!

Lesley Jones – you can spin a tale with the best of them – this epic!