Good afternoon, all! I know it hasn’t even been 24 hours since my last review, but I was already on book two of this new series when I was writing up my last review. Trying to stay on top of my goodreads challenge and deliver reviews in a timely manner gets a bit daunting sometimes. I’m happy to do it though if it means sharing the literary love!

Speaking of love… let’s talk about Deacon Love. He’s the latest alpha I couldn’t help but swoon over in today’s selected reviewed series, the Caged Love series. This began with the debut novel, Love Hurts by Mandi Beck. Thankfully, she eventually added a sequel, because one book containing all things Deacon Love just simply isn’t enough.

What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man. He may have some pent up frustrations he has to fight out (thank goodness for that MMA career of his), but his heart is forever in the right place. He has been in love with the same girl since he was a kid, and that isn’t changing. She just can’t see that. Or she does, and is too stupid and scared to let a good thing happen to her.

I won’t apologize for this. Frankie sucks. Frankie is Deacon’s girl. She always has been and always will be, she just loves to do anything she can to sabotage that idea. She says she loves Deacon and always has, but she does little to nothing to show it, from the time they’re just friends to the time they cross that line into something way more (and extremely worth it in my personal opinion). For some reason, Frankie is stuck on this idea that she’s temporary in Deacon’s life. Granted, he’s had a revolving door of ladies in his life, he explains that they were all because he couldn’t have her (excuse? Maybe). Eventually, he bares his soul to her… and on numerous occasions as time goes on. Every time he does, she somehow finds a way to throw it back in his face and shatter his hope of the two of them having something great and forever-lasting.

I had to read the second book because I needed to know what would happen. I had to hope that Frankie would grow up and stop with all the nonsense before she lost Deacon for good. Girls like her enrage me. You have a good man standing in front of you saying he wants all of you forever (and only you), and you find some excuse to ruin it and break the man’s heart. It’s really frustrating. Kudos to Mandi Beck for doing her job wonderfully and driving me absolutely batty!

My Final Rating: four out of five stars

So I’m going to eat my words here and say that I thoroughly enjoyed this series now that I’ve finished Love Burns! The “stick and move” bit got a little tiring to close out almost every single chapter, but I was pleased with how Deacon and Frankie were able to wrap up their journey. I was definitely less frustrated than I was at the end of the first book. Frankie became more tolerable in book two, but like they said, they were in different corners a lot, and it was hurting rather than helping them. It was a relief when they finally started seeing things from the same perspective and working as a team rather than against one another to find out how they would navigate their relationship. They loved each other too fiercely to notice the damage they were inflicting due to actions surrounding them. While I found the bit with the Irish mob a little far-fetched, its results still made me crazy emotional. Goodness, Sonny. The ending is what really made me so happy I could burst! The crowd, the mic, the adrenaline, it was just building to that point and how I adore Deacon for his enthusiasm. Frankie is one lucky girl to have her champion Hitman… so I hope she remembers that and how much he has loved and will continue to love her! My Final Rating: four out of five stars