Thank you Sourcebooks Bloom for the advance copy. All opinions of my own.

I learned a very important lesson while reading this book: Dark romance is not my cup of tea.

Still Beating is what I imagine a romance to be if Jennifer Hillier or Alice Feeney wrote one. To her credit, Jennifer Hartmann warns readers in the beginning of the book. She provides all the content warnings. She hints it’s gonna be dark and yet, I was still not ready for it. I was not prepared.

Still Beating is DARK y’all. It’s got an ick factor times 10,000. I am traumatized. I thought about DNFING so many times but I could not do it due to the fact that I had an overpowering need to know that Cora and Dean were going to be ok.

For first time ever, I don’t know if I can recommend a book. Still Beating is certainly not for everyone. It’s for the dark romance lovers only.

This book shook me to my core!
It was such an emotional and intense roller coaster.

Dean and cora aren't the best of friends but one phone call changes their entire lives.
They go through unimaginable grusome things, and through that truama and survial they form and everylasting bond.

The author absolutely took my breath away. Her writing had me feeling like i wasin the sotry, facing the same demons. The characters were magnificently written with so much depth and emtion, you would think they were real and telling you their story first hand.

This book had so much heartache and so much hope.
Definitle check the triggers before reading as it is INTENSE!

Thank you to Sourcebooks bloom books and Netgalley for the ARC.

This book got me im every single feel that I have. Gut wrenching and powerful and the way you break for every single character. 🙌
This book may not be for everyone check trigger warnings for sure However if you can get through the triggers it is a very Powerful message about survival, guilt, mental health and love all in one.

This one is going to stay with me... as with all the Jennifer Hartmann books I’ve read. I went in blind and am glad I did.

This was dark & intense… but in the end, hopeful and healing.

Dean & Cora 😭💔 they go through unimaginable trauma that changes them forever.

The writing was WOW… navigating the events of the story as well as the aftermath. Amazingly done and absolutely gut wrenching.

I don’t want to say too much more, because it would be spoilers. So I will just say, check TW for this one! And if you’re a Jennifer Hartmann fan, this needs to be on your list to read.

Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for a chance to review an advance copy.

This book destroyed me along with the characters. The author made the story so believable I felt like I was trapped with them. I’ve never read anything like this before and Jennifer Hartmann is now an auto buy author for me! Prepare yourself for lots of tears and heartaches!!

“Still Beating” by Jennifer Hartman is a dark romance. Read TW/CWs as this book contains subject matter that may be sensitive to some readers. Dual POV, MMC/FMC, First Person.

The story of Cora (FMC) and her sister’s boyfriend — whom she dislikes getting along with — is an emotional read of two unlikely people that unexpectedly get kidnapped. They are kept and brutally tortured and abused by a disturbed man. But during their time together, they recognize their
shared trauma is bringing them closer together. And their relationship that they had before has evolved into something more.

“Still Beating” is a tragic story but a love story nonetheless. Author Jennifer Hartman shows the progression of Cora and Dean’s relationship to readers beautifully as they go through something so evil and inhumane by their captor. “Still Beating” is a book that I continue to think about.

overall, i enjoyed this book. while it was nothing groundbreaking for me, i did find myself very intrigued.

my issues were with the characters. corabelle specifically—and corabelle? really? that’s what you chose for her name?

it was slightly irritating that cora was constantly comparing herself to her sister. she seemed to think she was so more unique and perfect and wonderful and special than mandy. like ok? do you want a sticker?

it was also a little off-putting that mandy and dean had been together for 15 years… and dean claims that he wanted cora first. i’m sorry? am i missing something? you love cora so you date her SISTER for FIFTEEN YEARS and PROPOSE? what?

anyways, minus these issues, i did like the book.

First off, if you are sensitive to dark, abusive situations with sexual violence... this is not the book for you. Still Beating is a harrowing tale of two people taken by a serial killer, and their against the odds survival. Cora and Dean's traumatic story may end in escape, but going home has never been harder. For two people who have survived the worst thing imaginable, the battle to find normalcy is only beginning.

While dark, the story will suck you in, and won't let go. Trust me, I read this entire book at work... whoops. I just couldn't put it down. It's a bare, tragic look at what happens after you survive. How traumatic events reshape you as a person, and how sometimes what you think is right in front of you isn't what you think.

I admit, I have sat for hours wondering what I would give this one in rating form. When I broke it all down, I landed on a middle of the pack rating. Because that's how I felt. I felt like I didn't like most aspects of this read, however the writing style and quality has lead me to be a little more lenient with rating.

Still Beating follows Cora, on a night out for her sisters birthday when she has a little bit too much to drink, loses her wallet and then has to rely on her sisters fiancé Dean, who she dispises, to help her get home. During the course of that trip home, she wakes up shackled in a dark basement - with Dean locked up too with her. Cora and Dean have no idea their abductor has a plan for them. A plan that will alter the course of their relationship and blur the lines of their relationship.

In the beginning, I hated the first 30%. The only redeeming feature was how they actually seemed to grow together. Both Cora and Dean were experiencing something that no one else has and they learn that together they might be able to escape - but together they can also keep each other in the best mental state that they can be in. Then when they move on, Cora does deal with a lot of severe mental repercussions - however she seems to just float as a character. Her sister, Mandy, was an awful, awful person. She was portrayed as someone who 'cared' for her sister and fiancé - yet really only cared about what everything has done to her. She was unsupportive and blasé the whole time. My highlights were the crime loving, thriller side of me absolutely loved the idea of the "match maker serial killer". Brilliant move. And one thing I couldn't fault, was Jennifer's writing. I do think I would read more of her books - perhaps this one just wasn't the right one for me. Spoiler filled rant incoming now: Why was there no recognition that Dean was sexually assaulted too. He was just expected to be normal, go back to work, go back to his fiance. Then when he ended it with the fiance, he was seen as the villian there. In reality, even book world reality - these people needed therapy.

🩶 Still beating - Jennifer Hartmann🩶

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars

This. Book. Broke. Me.
I have no words for how this book made me feel, it broke me then put me back together. This book had me in tears and feel real sorrow and heartache!

This book follow horrific ordeals that the main characters go through and the aftermath of trauma that the readers get to follow. Please ensure you read the trigger warnings, this is not a light and fluffy book so ensure you can handle it.

🩶Enemies to lovers
🩶Close proximity
🩶Taboo romance
🩶Dual POV
🩶Trauma recover
🩶Character driven

Thank you to Netgallery.

This book was intense. Like seriously look up the trigger warnings before reading,they are there for a reason! The first part of the book was heartbreaking, and honestly it gave me nightmares. The story is very well written even if it was hard to read ( once again take the trigger warnings into heavy consideration). The plot moves along and is realistic. This being so it does make the main characters hard to like and get attached to. The sister in the story though is the worst her character is just the worst I my opinion. If you are looking for a traumatic yet healing book this is the one for you but definitely have a fun light hearted book as a chaser

Honestly, I am stunned and speechless. The first part of the book was a bit intense and traumatizing for my unprepared heart. There are tons of trigger warnings in this book but I never thought and expected it to be this profoundly agonizing.

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙚:
• I was hooked on the plot and the character's trauma bonding and their healing together. This book did not disappoint.
• The second part was a lot better and it's giving me different emotions. I was pleased with it.
• The main character's relationship was so fucked-up but it was understandable and reasonable. I can't fathom the experienced they have gone through if this was in real life.

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝘿𝙞𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙚:
While I was pleased with the execution, the only hole I needed to be filled was the character's impression it left on me. I didn't feel strong connections towards the main characters. I care for them but it was not enough to make me love them as much as I loved its core and the meaning of the book.

𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗗𝗜𝗖𝗧:
Recommended with caution.

𝙏𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙒𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨:
[𝙨𝙚𝙭𝙪𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙪𝙡𝙩, 𝙠𝙞𝙙𝙣𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙢𝙪𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧, 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛-𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙢, 𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙪𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙚, 𝙧𝙚𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙮 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙜𝙚 /𝙣𝙤𝙣-𝙫𝙞𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙜𝙣𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙮 , 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙥𝙚𝙩]


Disclosure: I received an eARC in exchange for an honest review. Also, I read this final manuscript side by side with the first published/independently published book. This final manuscript has been polished and gone through revision for republication purposes.

Unfortunately, this novel wasn't for me. I liked the premise of the novel, but I couldn't get into the character dynamics. I also found it difficult to like the main female character.

I really wanted to like this more than I did. The beginning of the book was amazing, it jumped into the main plot right away and I thought I was going to be hooked. Unfortunately it didn't stay that way.

A lot of the abuse that was suffered seems to be there just to justify bad behavior on the MCs part. A lot of their actions post abduction are problematic and honestly not necessary at all.

Besides the problematic behavior it was very predictable. I knew exactly how the story was going to end about a quarter of the way through and it made the story drag for me because I knew exactly what was going to happen.

This one was weird. Like seriously weird. It's a strange mash up of kidnapped and enemies to lovers kind of thing and I was all here for it. It was well paced and we didn't spend a ton of time being held hostage so that was good. I was worried that the book was going to be all about them being held captive. The romance was well paced and felt real and well I don't know why but this writing and story worked so well.

This was the first Jennifer Hartmann book I read and I fell in love with her writing.
This book is about a beautiful and heartbreaking love story and despite heavy themes (search for trigger warnings!), the way Jennifer told us the story of Dean and Cora is amazing.
I couldn't stop reading and falling in love with these characters.

If angsty romance is your thing, you'll love this book!

Attention, lisez bien les trigger warnings au début du livre! Certaines scènes peuvent choquer!

J'ai eu la possibilité de lire la version Bloom Books en avance grâce à Netgalley! Je suis toujours autant conquise de cette histoire. Clairement la scène bonus est top et j'ai vraiment hâte d'être au mois de février 2024 pour découvrir Tabitha encore plus!

On suit Cora qui fête l’anniversaire de sa sœur dans un bar, elle veut juste boire et faire oublier un peu sa vie. Elle ne s’attendait pas à se faire voler son portefeuille et à devoir appeler sa sœur pour qu’elle revienne la chercher… Cependant, ce n’est pas sa sœur Maddy qui vient la chercher mais Dean son fiancé mais aussi l’ennemi juré de Cora depuis plus de 10 ans… Mais ce qu’ils ne s’attendaient pas tous les deux c’est d’être kidnappés et d’être séquestrés dans un sous sol … Mais pourquoi eux? Quels sont les plans de leur kidnappeur? Vont-ils réussir à s’en sortir?

J’ai adoré cette intrigue si singulière, si prenante et puissante. On passe par des milliers d’émotions au courant de notre lecture : on a la gorge serrée pendant toute la lecture, les larmes aux yeux. La plume de Jennifer Hartmann est magistrale. J’ai adoré comment elle a écrit cette histoire. La relation entre Cora et Dean est parfaite. Je ne peux pas trop en dévoiler car il faut découvrir ce livre juste en sachant qu’on ne peut pas en sortir indemne. Ce livre va me hanter pendant encore longtemps.

Bref, un coup de cœur pour ce livre. Donc n'hésitez pas à le lire si les TW ne vous effraient pas.

I expected to not like this book - I'd heard it was too explicit. But I must disagree.
Sure, the sex was not closed door - and yes, trigger warnings for kidnapping, rape, suicide are required.
But the best part of this story was the character development.

Cora and Dean are mortal enemies, and have been since high school. HS was 15 years ago and in those 15 years, Dean has been dating and getting engaged to Cora's sister, Mandy. It's days before their wedding and Cora is out celebrating at the local watering hole. She decides to stay later than her ride, figuring she can just Uber home.

But when it's time to go home, she finds that her wallet has been stolen and she has no cash. She calls Dean. Despite their contentious relationship, he's reliable and he comes to pick Cora up and bring her home.

At this point they are kidnapped and a LOT happens while they are locked up, kept chained and threatened at gunpoint. Without giving away any more of the story, the kidnapping is a good portion of the book, but what I found most compelling was what happened later: how their personalities changed, how their relationship with each other changed, how they dealt with scenarios I can't believe the author even dreamed up...

Yes, there were some explicit sex scenes but considering the storyline, they worked. I will read another Jennifer Hartmann book!

Thanks to Sourcebooks for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I was expecting more of a “enemies to lovers” dark romance when I requested this in NetGalley, Then, there was this warning: “sexual assault, kidnapping, murder, self-harm, attempted suicide, reference of early miscarriage/non-viable pregnancy, and loss of a pet. While these subject matters were necessary in telling the story I needed to tell,”

Usually nothing really bothers me, so I proceeded, but the more I think about the book the more problematic I find it.

There is a lot of SA content that is unnecessary and used to justify later cheating, shaming of girlie girls vs being a manic pixie dog lover, etc. The male MC has been with only two women who are sisters—come on. When they return from being kidnapped, knowing rape was involved, his fiancée is like, “how come we haven’t banged immediately?” Basically, this book is about trauma codependence/some kind of rape fantasy disguised as a romance.

2/5. Releases 7/11/2023.

Note: this book was published previously; this is a review of a re-release ARC. Additionally, this review will discuss sexual assault extensively, as this is a crucial part of the novel.

For when you're vibing with... girls who aren't like other girls, actually, heroes who deserve better, and compelling ideas that went somewhere.

Cora hates her sister Mandy's fiance, Dean, and has ever since they started dating. But when Cora and Dean are kidnapped by a sadistic serial killer, they not only suffer at his hands, but are forced to have sex in front of him--repeatedly. After being rescued, Dean and Cora are fundamentally changed and bonded; and only they know what actually happened in the basement.

To be clear: when I give this book a low rating, it's not because I hate the idea. The idea is why I requested it. I knew this was a dark romance (and to an extent it is) I'm good with that, I knew it had sexual assault on the page, I'm good with that (though I am dubious on how it's handled). I appreciate the content warnings at the opening of the book. My issues are not about concept--the concept is the thing I like. My issues concern execution.

Quick Takes:

--I'll be clear here so that nobody readying this review toddles into this book confused about the sexual assault. Cora is raped by the serial killer, Earl (.... come on, couldn't we come up with a more creative serial killer name?) multiple times. Earl also makes Cora and Dean have sex, which neither of them want (though Dean can't help having an orgasm and Cora does get off in the last encounter, which sets off the second act turmoil). This means that Earl is raping both Dean and Cora, full stop. Dean says he was forced to rape Cora and has, understandably, a ton of conflict over it; I get this. It's a totally believable emotional reaction to what happened to him, and most of the believable emotional reactions in this book are Dean's. What bothers me is not that Cora doesn't see Dean as having raped her (an understandable response, and truly Dean was the mechanism of the rapist and not the rapist), but that NOBODY tells Dean that he was also raped. Like. Our cast of characters seems reasonably well-educated. I'm not looking for a Very Special Episode conversation, but nobody seems to emphasize to Dean "Hey, YOU WERE RAPED". It just bugs me a lot, because I got the sense that the narrative did not buy into Dean being assaulted.

Also, I'll be real... I went into this knowing there would be rape, but the amount of times Earl rapes Cora himself surprised me. It really served no narrative purpose. Obviously, I don't mind rape being a focal point of this novel, but that's where it felt gratuitous, especially because the sticking point of the trauma was what he made Dean do to Cora.

--The thing that bothered me most, however, is that from page one, Cora is better than her sister Mandy because she is not like other girls. Mandy has "bleach blond" hair, unlike Cora, who has normal gold hair. Cora loves books and keeps wanting Dean to read Of Mice and Men to get smarter, whereas Mandy is a hair stylist. (Of Mice and Men may be important, but a fun read it is not, fuck off Cora.) Mandy never got in trouble for all the bad things she did, like wrecking a car when she was a teenager, or having parties!!! Oh, and naturally, Dean actually saw and wanted Cora first when they were teens, because he likes 'em natural, unlike Mandy. Honestly man, what Cora and Dean go through is enough for me to believe in them being trauma bonded. I can believe there was an underlying attraction neither wanted to acknowledge beforehand. I don't need to see Cora uplifted as Better Than Mandy for me to believe in the love story. In fact, the more this is done, the more the love story is undermined.

--Also, Mandy is clearly a normal hot girl trying her best, but in order to again underline that she is not as good as Cora, the author has her say RIDICULOUS SHIT. Like "oh Dean, you were only held captive and tortured by a serial killer for THREE WEEKS, I'd think you'd be over it by now". "Oh Dean, why aren't we fucking yet, it's been six weeks since you were held captive by a serial killer"? Bringing up an incredibly personal thing her sister experienced and was keeping a secret in gENERAL CONVERSATION? It's like, nobody's perfect, I'm not asking for perfect Mandy, but no real person who is not clinically insane would say these things in these circumstances. And we see later than Mandy is a loving, empathetic, remarkably forgiving woman, so why was she so callous before? There's also one more gut punch thing added in that makes zero sense, and literally serves no purpose except to say "Mandy didn't deserve Dean anyway".

But every person in the book who doesn't like Cora or exists to make Cora look better acts this way. There is a conversation, in public, overheard that... Like... I'm sorry, I just don't buy two totally sane people saying this kind of shit out loud, in public, in a WORKPLACE, about a kidnapping survivor they work with. I just don't. They'd keep it to the group chat as God intended.

--Oh, and another thing: Dean and Cora developing these feelings is treated by other characters as like a "welp, I guess Mandy just needs to accept it" thing, and she has been with this man for FIFTEEN YEARS. FIFTEEN. YEARS. That's longer than many marriages! And also, if Dean was in a mid relationship for FIFTEEN YEARS and liked her sister first, why did he never make a move before being with someone for FIFTEEN YEARS and proposing to her? (While somehow, never moving in with her...?)

--Aside from this and one moment in which he says that Cora's ex cheated on her with "some floozy" (file under things a man in his early thirties would never say in the 2020s) Dean is actually really likable and his perspective was a respite. It felt like he was recovering from trauma, whereas Cora's perspective felt like she was recovering from trauma in a way that Sam Levinson would write, and not in a "this is wild I'm so entertained" episode of Euphoria. I felt bad for him. I thought that there was a lot more going on with him that needed to be unpacked, whereas Cora's issues seemed more straightforward and confronted by the text.

--This girl does something so ludicrous to aid in her recovery that I did laugh. Then I remembered she was 29.

--One more note... Like, I'm all for insulting the serial killer, but the amount of times Dean's insults of the serial killer hinged on him being fat was like? Weird to me? Romance has this thing where the villains are often fat (and it exists across subgenres) and like? Personally, if Earl was as out of shape as the book suggested (which, to be fair, you can be fat and in shape but I didn't get that vibe from Earl) I'm not certain as to how he physically defeated big and fit Dean that easily in the beginning. He's literally kidnapped and is torturing y'all on the daily, is there not a better insult than "fat"?

--Weird note, but there is a "joke" Cora played on Dean referenced several times in which she told a college friend of his coming to town that Dean had a crush on him, then slipped Dean Viagra while telling him it was aspirin so he was popping a boner around this friend the whole night. This is treated as funny. That is not only pretty much sexual assault and definitely drugging someone; it's homophobic? How do I root for this woman?

The Sex Stuff:

The (consensual) sex scenes were well written. The sexual assault scenes are a lot more vague, as they should be. I respect the way the non-consensual scenes between Dean an d Cora were written. It's a hard balance to strike, and I'm sympathetic to that as a writer--you don't want to titillate, but you do have to communicate that there was just a seismic shift and realization for our leads.

Look, I didn't like this, and I went in thinking "I'm the type of reader who can handle this book". And I could handle all the dark shit. I just couldn't handle how much the text bent over backwards to uplift the heroine and trash her sister. Sincerely, if this book works for you, go with God, I am not judging. It just didn't for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bloom Books for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.