Unattainable by Madeline Sheehan
Unattainable by Madeline Sheehan
Book 3 and it is Cage and Tegen’s story.
Again, the background of the Hell’s Horsemen showers us with a rich array of characters and enough peripheral action going on to keep us all busy for the next decade but in this story we see the heartache for what it is, the pain that unrequited love can harbour and the anguish of youth that can follow us into adulthood when love is dismissed.
Tegen and Cage had grown up together. He the son of the Club President and she’s the daughter of a club whore.
Plain and simple they were never destined to be together but when Cage takes Tegen’s virginity and then dismisses her in the morning she harbours a resentment that begins to furnish her soul with nothing but contempt.
Tegen is not afraid to run her mouth off but Deuce is funding her life away from the compound following the incident in where her mother Dorothy is shot. She comes across as a spiteful witch of a girl – never really growing up and never really learning to deal with her own shit.
So what happened with Cage was not what she wanted but everyone know that he is little more than a Man-Whore – did she really expect anything else – naivety is no excuse. The environment she grew up in and knowing what happened with her mother – she shouldn’t have expected anything else.
Cage on the other hand , can barely remember the event but is sick to death of her attitude and mouth so when give an chance to either give up or shut up – he does just that.
Smart more or did the bitch bite back – well you will have to read the book to find out but let’s just say he’s smarter than some people give him credit for and not all his brains are in his pants.
Tegan got on my nerves but then again life is full of people who make it their life’s mission to be a pain in the arse. Cage came into his own at the end but he lacked a little substance in the early novel for me.
I enjoyed the secondary story that ran through the book – probably more than Cage and Tegan, I was enamoured with the relationship between Ellen and Dirty (although he ends up to be far from Dirty following a damn good scrub!!)
Their story was both compelling and heart-breaking – the events of Dirty’s past were harrowing (the events of his assault are probably some of the most difficult words I have ever read – it was so brutal) in the extreme and despite the unspeakable things that he had been involved in I felt a sympathy for him in that he felt himself so abhorrent that he denied himself the most basic of human rights, the touch of another.
The connection with Ellen was handled with aplomb, she is broken when he finds her and when he allows her to stay rather than go to the compound following her attack, and we know how difficult that must have been for him. He is happiest alone but he sees another person in the same place as he has been and in his own way he endeavours to help. This kindness, opens Ellen’s eyes to the fact that her hero, the man that saved her from the supposed good guy in town – just may be the one person that everyone would tell her to run a mile from.
Patiently she begins to break through his barriers she does it with both patience and empathy and his emergence from his self-enforced solitude into her arms me in tears.
My favourite quote from the whole book is from Dirty when he is taking Ellen to the hospital to see her mother at the hospital and he meets Cage and Tegen who are on their way to see Deuce. Cage calls out to Dirty but he continues to walk away, Cage asks what’s the matter and Dirty explains it is Ellen’s mother and that the prospects are not good –
Cage nodded as he studied Dirty. “You need anything, dude?
Dirty shook his head again “Just her” he said quietly and turned away.
Those two words – “Just her” had me a blubbering wreak - this was how far the man had come and I for one hope we get more of their story
A great addition to the Undeniable series and whilst it may not have been my favourite it certainly had the couple that brought the most out of me – no not Cage /Tegen – I could take or leave them but definitely Dirty & Ellen – their story made me see that there is hope for us all.
Rating 4.5 out of 5