No Angel by Tara Hart

There are some debut novelists that obviously do their homework and Tara Hart is one of those, this was more than I could have anticipated and for that I was truly grateful, it isn’t often as a blogger that you have the opportunity to have your expectations completely blown out of the water but this author did just that with a book that was definitely stepping forward with purpose!

Evan is Mr responsible having returned home to almost assume a responsibility for his brother Kyle but that isn’t to say he is whiter than the driven snow because he isn’t. But on a night out he is soon entrance by the free spirt that is Charlie.

Charlie is the girl with the reputation that precedes her. It almost defines her but is it justified or is she living up to the hype?

Are Kyles words of warning about Charlie not being good enough all Evan needs to hear or will he make up his own mind? I had my fingers crossed for the latter

When they eventually meet each other properly so to speak, there is without a doubt a connection between the two of them and it is Charlie that is on the back foot, not knowing whether or not to accept Evan at face value. I really felt for her to be honest she was so used to being the disposable girl, the pick up and put down date/one-night stand/whatever that she wasn’t sure that Evan was on the level with her but give him his dues he stuck with it and eventually his tenacity paid off and she agrees to a date.

Could this unlikely pair make it, I hoped so?

They were more alike that they possibly considered. Evan gave up everything for his brother, just as Charlie was doing on her own way for her little brother. Her home life was a lot to handle and it gave a great insight into why she was the way she was. The desperation she almost pursued being loved with. She needed to feel it in all it guises and was determined to do what it too to have that in her life, even though it was because of those vulnerabilities she was often taken advantage of emotionally.

Evan though was the antidote to her woes, it was as if he could see inside, see the lonely woman desperately trying to keep her head above water and her heart protected. She had a defence system built so high around her heart that he had to work so hard just to get through each and every layer. I loved the fact that he went out of his way to show her in small almost insignificant ways just how much he cared, small gestures that meant the world to a woman with a soul that was teetering on the edge.

But Charlie opened up to Evan she let him in and the author took her time with the two of them, allowed what they had the time it needed to blossom. The dialogue from Charlie’s journal was probably one of my favourite bits of the book, it was so insightful and cathartic that I couldn’t help but re-read on many occasions.

The author also should be commended on the fact that she loaded the book with some peripheral characters that were as impressive as both Charlie and Evan. Kyle took some warming to but he came good in the end but it was Charlie friend Grace that was a standout, she was just what Charlie needed and she rocked.

Oh and the Epilogue…thank you!