Pierced Paperback – June 30, 2015

Sutton and Lauryn have a relationship deeper than that of two people who dated in high school. They are soul mates. "Give me your hand." "Why?" "“Because I told you to. Because I know what’s best for you. Because I know your heart.” Maya Hawk hypnotized me with her ability to connect the reader with the story. I believed and literally felt every emotion that the characters expressed. This book may appear to be just another romance but it truly is something special and worth reading. I wish I could forget this book so that I could experience it all over again. I know what you're thinking. If the book was so good why did I give it only four stars? The only flaw (and my reason for withholding the fifth star) was the way one of the characters brushed off someone's dishonesty. More than one instance of dishonesty happens in this book so I won't spoil it by saying which one it was. I will say that it wasn't a huge importance in the book but I felt that I had to count it against the author because that was the only time in the book where a character seemed to look genuineness.

This was a sweet stepbrother romance. Normally the tattoed, pierced, alpha male stepbrother in this type of book is an arrogant jerk. This step (Sutton) is actually pretty sweet and caring. He's never gotten over his childhood best friend,lover, and--later--his stepsister, Lauryn. They were kids together and loved each other. He was her first love, and then their parents had to go and have an affair and get married, ruining everything.Even after a 10 year separation, Sut loves Lauryn. It's always been her. Lauryn holds a lot of anger and resentment for Sutton, and she was deeply hurt by their parents' betrayal (and, seemingly, his). They reconnect, things happen, and eventually they get their HEA. :D I don't want to spoil the book, so read it!Overall, this is a great debut book from Maya Hawk. :)

3.5 Stars. There's one word to describe books like Pierced: Directionless. Which is a crying shame, being that it had awesome potential. The writing was witty, snarky, fun. The characters were beautifully developed, somewhat complex. There was great backstory. But it was thrown together haphazardly. I gave it three stars because it really was a wonderful read, aside from there being three different plots duking it out: Forgiving Sutton. James The Boyfriend. & Lauryn's Dream Job. All sort of running parallel but never really syncing. Along with flashbacks sprinkled throughout. But like I said, it was great. Phenomenal, really.I loved, loved, LOVED the writing, but I felt like nothing was really resolved and what was felt rushed and sort of stymied potential overall developmental aspects of the story. Unfortunately, as well, there were also several grammatical errors, including incorrect perspective change and misinformation/mixups of important events, riddled throughout the story. If it had garnered a little more attention from an editor and had been read over by a couple proofreaders, I believe Pierced could have been truly great. Sadly, as it sits now, it lacks symmetry and coherence and, to me, personally, feels like it falls far from its awesome potential. The rough draft that it is is exciting, but not nearly as enjoyable knowing that it could have been so much better. As for now, Hawk seems to have the makings of a wonderful author and I will look for her work in the future. Until then, I lament the greatness that Pieced could have been and hope for more well-constructed books from Hawk in the future. If she can harness the authentic originality and fantastic writing skills she obviously possesses, I feel, for her, the sky's the limit.

I loved this book. I didn't know exactly to expect but this has quickly become one of my favorite novellas. The only thing I didn't like about this book is that there wasn't more of it. Now on to the review.Sutton is the best book boyfriend. He was and has been in love with Lauryn since they were kids and until the one unforgivable thing his mom and her dad did, I was sure they would've made everything work out for the better. Sutton is the first alpha male that I've read about who's been an OB-GYN. That was really refreshing and I enjoyed the hospital scenes as they flowed naturally within the story.I could tell from the beginning that Lauryn wasn't really passionate about anything (except for Sutton). She let her circumstances that were forced upon her dictate her life. She was too closed off to really understand her feelings and I'm glad she finally worked through them. Even if it did have Sutton threatening to "relentlessly pursue" her.I wish there was another book or that this was a series because I really can't get enough of this couple. This is the first book I've read from Maya Hawk and I'm really impressed. I can't wait to read another book of hers.

I liked this book but expected a more bad @ss alpha hero that usually comes with tats and a boy bits piercing. I would've rated higher (probably 4.5) if that expectation wasn't built up so much in the description. Don't get me wrong it was a really good story, just not as edgy as I thought it would be. It was a nice change of pace for the stepbrother genre because they were older and not in high school/college. I also liked some of the details the author gave during the book. One that comes to mind is one of the delivery scenes where the nurse/husband holds the soon to be moms legs up while she's pushing. It's an honest frank detail that isn't always mentioned in books. There were several other times like that where I thought the author told the story in a unique and refreshing way. Over all a good read but between the cover, description and adult content warning I was expecting more "wow".

3.5 stars. Overall, quite enjoyed this story.Former childhood friends and lovers, Sutton and Lauryn, meet again after ten years of not seeing one another. Sutton is determined not to let Lauryn slip through his fingers again. They have an intertwined history, not least the fact that they are now step-siblings.The story was quite fast paced, with flashbacks to past events, but it is clear that Sutton wants and loves Lauryn. Lauryn can’t get over what she sees as a past betrayal, even though her true feelings for Sutton are surging to the surface again. She’s currently in a safe relationship….but does she really know her almost-fiancé?A sexy debut portraying longing, frustration, passion and true love.

I quite simply loved it 😉 what a fantastic debut novel.There was excellent and realistic chemistry between Lauryn and Sutton. They may have spent 10 years apart but he didn't stop loving her which was a refreshing change as it's usually the other way around. A bit of drama with an ex, not too much angst and smoking hot sex. My only small issue was the length of time it took before they finally got their HEA and the amount of 'running' Lauryn did.I recommend this book whole heartedly and will definitely be adding the author to my favourites.

Started off ok ish, but I soon got bored with it, skipped a lot of the story as I almost knew how it was going to end, not very realistic

Loved this book hooked from page one, loved the way the story flowed and got everything you could want from a great book

loved it could not put it down hooked from the start brilliant.