Heal Me, Damaged Goods Book 1 by Scarlet Blackwell

Heal Me is another bone chilling overcoming story of trauma, adversity and childhood abuse; handled with expertise from Scarlet! Be prepared for this emotional roller-coaster ride of grief, loss, and despair with every turn of the page! 

From the blurb:

Broken beyond repair, who is going to save him now?

He should have died in the accident. Somehow he survived. His body is shattered and his soul is crushed. It’s going to take a miracle to heal him. The nightmares and flashbacks are killing him. The scars have destroyed him. But he was broken way before the crash. He’s damaged goods and he needs a hero.

Suddenly he was back there, pinned against the steering wheel, bones sticking through his skin, his suit soaked in blood, surrounded on all sides by crumpled metal.

Putting people back together is James Hayden’s speciality, but heisn’t prepared for the way Matt Harmon bulldozes into his life like a hurricane. The attraction for him is instant and he is torn between his feelings and his professional boundaries.

“Why would you want to help me?”

“Because you need it. Because you’re drowning.”

Matt will never admit an attraction. He’s straight and he’s never looked at another man in his life. But James isn’t just any man. He’s the only one who understands what Matt is going through and the only one who can save him from himself.

I wanted to feel how his lips soothed and subdued me again. Made me into a different person. A better man.

Tatted_book_freak's Review:

I’m not entirely sure how Scarlet is able to make a tragic situation good, but she has done just that with Heal Me! The growth, both personally and physically, of these characters were phenomenal! And, reading through the struggles of a homophobic man who’s attracted to another man, was tough yet eye opening. There are a lot of different emotions in the book, feelings of worthlessness, abandonment, bigotry, and fear of rejection. The accident alone would be enough to tear any person down, but when adding in the additional events of the story, we have an emotionally charged masterpiece! 

𝐻𝑒 𝒹𝒾𝒹𝓃’𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝒽𝓎 𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝒥𝒶𝓂𝑒𝓈 𝒷𝓎 𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓈𝒾𝒹𝑒. 𝒮𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓅𝓇𝑒𝓈𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝑔𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒽𝒾𝓂 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓇𝒶𝑔𝑒. 𝐻𝑒 𝒹𝒾𝒹𝓃’𝓉 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝓈𝑜 𝒶𝓁𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓁𝑜𝓈𝓉.

Both MC’s were interesting to say the least, with James having the more level head of the two. Matt suffers from a lot of internalized trauma, that he unfortunately takes majority of it out on James, and James just can’t let him go. There’s definitely love there, even though I do believe it is a toxic type, but Matt doesn’t exactly know how to express or show emotions. But, even though it’s a long, painful journey, we begin to witness a change in Matt. 

“𝕷𝖔𝖔𝖐 𝖆𝖙 𝖒𝖊. 𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊𝖓’𝖙 𝖙𝖆𝖐𝖊𝖓 𝖆𝖉𝖛𝖆𝖓𝖙𝖆𝖌𝖊 𝖔𝖋 𝖒𝖊. 𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊𝖓’𝖙 𝖒𝖆𝖓𝖎𝖕𝖚𝖑𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖒𝖊. 𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊𝖓’𝖙 𝖘𝖊𝖉𝖚𝖈𝖊𝖉 𝖒𝖊.” 𝕳𝖊 𝖙𝖔𝖔𝖐 𝖆 𝖉𝖊𝖊𝖕 𝖇𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖍. “𝕬𝖑𝖑 𝖞𝖔𝖚’𝖛𝖊 𝖉𝖔𝖓𝖊 𝖎𝖘 𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖊 𝖒𝖞 𝖑𝖎𝖋𝖊. 𝕳𝖊𝖆𝖑 𝖒𝖊. 𝕾𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖒𝖊.”

Now, their chemistry was fiery hot 🥵, can’t keep their hands off each other, and every emotion known to man was experienced by them. Hate, casual, so much passion and desire that’d it make a Pastor blush with shame. They’re nasty yet caring, lustful and beautiful all in one, with a lot of spice and flavor for all! 

An engaging storyline with a great deal of depth for the characters! 

Rating: 5 Stars

Sheena's Review:

Matt is a terrible person. Truly awful, in the way only Scarlett Blackwell can write. She excels in writing these horrible people who ordinarily you'd stay a million miles away from, but in her books you can't help but fall for them and want them to turn things round and get their HEA anyway. That's my experience with her books, anyway, and I wouldn't change that for the world. I know what I'm getting when I pick up one of her books, if I want light and fluffy I'll go elsewhere. I pick these up when I want dark.

Heal Me is the first in a series, and it's set in the same world as Inferno. Matt has been in a bad car accident, and requires a nurse to help in his recovery. As I said, he's a terrible person, difficult is perhaps the best word, but he's spoiled, bitter, lonely, arrogant, homophobic and honestly I don't know why his friends put up with him, he's constantly awful to them. There's a core of good in there though, he's been through a fair bit in his life, but he's still terrible. When he finds himself attracted to his nurse, he gets worse really. He's never been attracted to men and denies it and pushes James away.  

I couldn't put this down, I love Scarlet's brand of terrible men who do awful things yet get their HEA, this is another of those that I loved and will likely revisit. I'm in.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Heal Me is available to buy as an ebook, paperback, or to read with Kindle Unlimited subscription.