5/5⭐️

Wow! This book had me in a complete chokehold the entire time I was reading it/listening on audio. I’ve had this book on my TBR for a while, but when I was given the chance to review the audio, I knew it was time. This is a DARK romance and is not for the faint of heart-contains a lot of heavy themes.

The book was heart wrenching and riveting, but all comes together with a HEA.

Cora and Dean have hated each for 15 years. The fact that Dean is about to marry Cora’s sister doesn’t change the fact that she hates him. They spend their time playing pranks and tormenting each other any chance they have. Until one fateful night when they are kidnapped together and trapped in the basement of a serial killer, “The Match Maker”. They endure atrocities they never thought they’d be exposed to. They finally get free, but the damage is done and now they are both fighting to put their lives back together. Can the damage ever be repaired?

This is Dean and Cora’s story. The story of how they lived, endured, survived, gave up, fought and loved to get back to who they were meant to be. A beautiful testament to endurance and the raw emotions that result after a traumatic situation.

Absolutely recommend this book and the audio helps bring it to life!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me the audio to experience this story in a completely different way than just reading it on paper (which is also amazing!)

"Still Beating" by Jennifer Hartmann is right up there with any book by Colleen Hoover or Mia Sheridan in terms of it being "trauma porn." PLEASE check the trigger warnings before you read this because it is a doozy. It is a dark romantic suspense with some truly messed up plot lines, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't like this book. I zoomed through it in a day and a half and was riveted from start to finish. It's sick and twisted, but like a car crash, you can't look away. It's full of "love and sorrow and regret and anger," all of which are addicting and hard-hitting. It delves into survival, sacrifice, destiny, true acts of love, what happens to people after they experience deep, unimaginable trauma and how to heal from those wounds. Hartmann's writing is in-depth and descriptive, which is both a good and bad thing because of the aforementioned dark, destructive, difficult themes. It's harrowing and raw. I won't be forgetting this one any time soon. I don't like the late-book revelation from Mandy to Cora, we really didn't need more reasons not to like her. This book will test you and make you wonder what you'd do if you were stuck in Cora and Dean's situation, clinging to life and at death's doorstep, forced to fall in love but having it all ripped away. Wow. I really enjoyed Laurie West and Christian Black's audiobook narration. Their voices added such depth and richness to Jennifer Hartmann's characters and made it that much better to listen to this book!

Thank you to NetGalley, Jennifer Hartmann, Tantor Audio, and SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

That was freaking AWESOME! Oh my goodness no wonder it has such a high rating. I started it & legit did not put it down until I read "the end!" Now that's how you write a memorable book.

This book is as a crazy ride! I could not stop listening. This book was well written with great, messy conflict. I’m not going to lie the topics were hard and heavy. This isn’t a feel good rom com. It’s a book about how a traumatic, life changing event changes the course of two people’s lives. I thought the author did a great job handling the trauma and PTSD. I know this situation would not be easy to get through. I liked the female narrator. I didn’t like the male narrator at first but I got used to his voice as I was engrossed into the story. This book held me from the first word to the last. Huge thanks to Netgalley and the audiobook publisher for allowing me to listen and review this book.

Great dark romance with lots of emotional triggers & rape.
Cora and Dean, her soon to be brother in law are abducted and forced to do unspeakable things. Will this make their hatred grow even more or bring them together? The narrators did a great job bringing the characters to life!

Wow wow wow!!!!! Let’s start by saying if you have trigger warnings please read those before proceeding. This book gets pretty intense but it is such a great dark romance story. Hearing these narrators read it makes it come even more to life as if I was experiencing it myself. Highly recommend this to an older reader that loves dark romance.

This book was so heartbreaking and emotional! It was hard to read at times, but it was honestly so beautiful. I'm definitely going to need to do a re-read of this in the future. I am also loving the new cover!

Excuse me why I continue flushing my ears with soap. What was that? I blindly went into this book, because the cover looked good and I was approved on net galley. What did I get myself into?
A dark romance.

My first and LAST in this genre.

Initially I actually enjoyed the banter between Cora and Dean (despite the fact they were kidnapped, locked away in a basement and tortured by Earl) I was questioning myself that I was enjoying the chemistry between the two....but then things just went down hill.
I do not see the appeal of why people want to read "Dark Romance" it felt like garbage was being spilled into my ears. It was gross.
I found myself shutting down/ignoring the repeated scenes. Enough is enough.

There were so many dark themes in this book the author does not leave untouched.

So instead of focusing on those aspects because I guess If you are into dark reads you might enjoy that....? But not me, so I will comment on some other things.

EVERY SINGLE TIME Dean said our MC's name, Corabelle we would have to deal with the wasted space of, "Do, not call me that. My name is Cora" Like literally any speaking the two characters had (surprisingly they did exchange words--) we had to endure the above mentioned sentences. That got old, quick!
This whole 14 hour audiobook was just too much for me, it got boring the constant lack of communication, hooking up, breaking up, repeat.
Clearly this author writes for a certain category of reader of which I am NOT apart of.
One prop I will give her is the chemistry and banter she created between the characters.
I found this book not for me.
Thank you Net Galley for this advanced copy. I was not influenced for this honest review.

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. And thank you Recorded Books for the advance audiobook- great narration. Props to Laurie West especially… Earl could not have been fun + so many emotionally intense scenes!

I don't think I was ready for this book. It was deep and suspenseful, and I loved it.

The characters were so full of life and emotion with real struggles. All of their issues were so truthful, their conflicts, external and internal, so realistic.

The story was amazing. I loved watching them struggle with each other and themselves. The conflict felt plausible, and I genuinely didn't know how it was going to end. But I'm so glad it ended the way it did.

The narrators were amazing. They truly captured the voices and emotions of the characters.

Not for sensitive people! Read the trigger warning before starting this book!! 100% a dark romance, emphasizing the dark part. I finished this book in practically a day because I couldn't wait to find out what happened next.

I have nothing really bad to say because I really enjoyed reading this work. This book is a romance (second chance in my opinion) and the author did an amazing job of describing the aftermath of dealing with trauma. Not only how the people who went through the event but how the people around them started to act. Some wanted to be there for you and be your shoulder to cry on. While others wanted to pretend it never happened because it burst their bubble and makes them believe there is evil in the world. The rest become insensitive and used your trauma as fuel for their insecurities.

I would recommend this book for the happy ever after at the end and to see the journey others need to heal from traumatic experiences.

Thank NetGalley for the ARC of this audiobook. This book was heart racing terrifying but in a good way, I didn’t want to put the book down. This was such a unique thriller and I haven’t ever listened to one like it. I loved the dual narration and the two sides to the story.

First, I did not realize this was a dark romance. I definitely went into this one blind. I really enjoyed it though and I have to say for a dark romance, it felt fairly tame (compared to my recent dark romance reads anyway) - I would almost call this just a regular romance story with a couple triggering moments.

I really felt the pain of the horrific events Cora and Dean went through. And the aftermath, struggling with PTSD and the trauma bond between them felt very authentic. I think Jennifer did an amazing job portraying those emotions.

There were a few times while listening that I was confused of the timeline. There is some jumping around in the beginning. I found the rest of the story easy to follow though and it was a pretty quick read. I will definitely have to check out more from the author because this is my first book of theirs.

Also, I really enjoyed Laurie West's narration, but I didn't care for Christian Black's at first. He grew on me after awhile and made the audio enjoyable.

Overall, I really liked the book and think it should be something to check out if you have no triggers.

I find it hard to express how I felt about this book. I'm not upset I read it, and I didn't hate or love it.
It was easy to read despite its many content warnings (on page detailed rape, murder, miscarriage, kidnapping, torture, and suicide are the big ones that come to mind), which is not an easy feat. It's written in a fast paced way that makes the pages fly by. But while I was curious to see what was going to happen, I wasn't emotionally attached to any of the characters. I'm honestly not a fan of bully romances and this kind of leaned that way with how Dean would do "pranks" on Cora- that kind of romance has just never been it for me. And Cora in turn is inCORAgible (this is doubly funny if you've read the book, trust me, I'm hilarious) with how much of a not-like-other-girls/ pick me she is. However, I'm happy with how things ended and I thought the progression of their relationship made sense. I also really appreciated that the book didn't end when they escaped. So many other books would've ended soon after that but I like that this focused on the *after* since that is often ignored, but is equally as important. The bonus chapter included in this edition also added depth to the ending. I like that we got to see everything from another character's POV, a reminder that we are only the center of the universe in our own story, and everybody has a story.

I am apparently in the minority with my opinion on Still Beating, but it just didn’t click with me. And it’s not the dark or traumatic romance that is in it because that doesn’t bother me. I don’t know if I can pinpoint exactly what I didn’t like about it, but I just didn’t connect to any of the characters. And I will leave it at that!

I really liked the female narrator, but the voice for the male did not coincide with the male character for me.

If you love hurt/comfort fanfic, this romance as dark as midnight is for you. And the trigger warnings abound. The angst of the first couple of chapters reaches dizzying levels, with the premise being that the protagonist Cora is abducted by a serial rapist and killer, in the company of none other than her sister’s hated fiancé. And of course they fall in love during their captivity, which keeps you reading, because how on earth are they going to get out of this predicament even if they survive the kidnapping???

Yeah, no trope catches my attention quite as fast as two horror survivors locked up in a basement together. The added social drama only made me more googly-eyed.

To be fair, I would give this 2,5 stars if I could, because it wasn't all that terribly executed, but the later 2/3 of this novel just went on and on uninterestingly. A lot of the argument points are regurgitated and discussed time and time again. I also have to add that – excessively repeated expletives in inner dialogues aside - Still Beating is not badly written, although I do think some words‘ meanings escape the author’s understanding.

In the end, I simply wasn’t interested in the mid tiktok smut the story devolved into, and I skipped the epilogue after the first sentence, for my own mental health.

Okay so this book has been all the rage in dark romance space and wow does it pack a punch. This is not my usual genre so I must point out that you should check trigger warnings cause there are a lot! There is kidnapping, rape, pregnancy loss, and PTSD to name a few. I didn’t quite know what I was getting myself into aside from two people getting kidnapped…it was an eye opener for sure. The kidnapping takes place for the first 1/4 of the book and the rest is about recovering and PTSD.

The narrators did a great job immersing me into this story. Especially Laurie West, her every emotion came through so well. Her trauma felt so real! Told mainly from Cora's POV, I did enjoy there was a POV from Dean as well. Cora has some serious issues which was to be expected but it was so intense to a point it made me feel like I couldn’t understand (I guess I'm thankful for that).
This is not going to be for everyone but I… enjoyed wouldn’t be the right word haha…but yes it was a very impactful read and one that will probably stay with me for a while.

Dark, dark, dark! Check the trigger warnings and proceed with caution. Cora and her sister’s fiancé, Dean, are kidnapped and held hostage by a mad man. Their relationship is contemptuous, but they will have to work together to get out alive. Multiple POV and just slightly long about 75% into the book, but I was so invested in these two and their evolving relationship. You have to love a HEA! Thanks @netgalley for the chance to review this book!

A wonderfully tragic love story ❤️ a perfect representation of the struggles and reality of the horrific events faced by Cora and Dean. Beautifully written and narrated, I will be rereading this one

Cora goes to her sisters birthday she tells everyone to leave without her. She needs a ride and calls her sisters fiancé they go through a traumatic event together. I cannot explain how much I love this book. It was traumatic and emotional 10/10