Defiant: An Enemies-to-Lovers Standalone

By: Sara Cate

Narrated by: Aiden Snow, Kelley Huston

Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Rafe

Hate is easy. A hell of a lot easier than the alternative.

It’s my job to keep Wicked safe, which means getting my hands a little dirty sometimes. After I lost my best friend, I’m not pulling my punches anymore. So it’s hate that helps me win every fight and close every case.

But now the past is coming back to haunt me, and I refuse to be cornered. As for the girl who just moved in next door, hate is my only option, and I won’t go down without a fight.

Shelby

Ten years ago, he ruined my life. Now, it’s my turn to ruin his.

I didn’t plan to move in next door to Rafe Nolan - especially after what he did to me and my brother. But now I have the opportunity to make his life as miserable as he made mine.

And for a man who is so tortured, this should be easy.

But there is a dark secret behind all that pain of his that draws me in. He’s trying to hold his power over me, but I can see him losing control.

I can use his secrets against him, but as I start falling for him, I know this is one fight I am going to lose.

Welcome to Wicked Beach....

Defiant is a stand-alone, enemies-to-lovers romance. It has a love-to-hate alpha a-hole and feisty heroine with no cliff-hanger and a guaranteed HEA.

©2020 Sara Cate (P)2020 Sara Cate

Couldn’t stop listening

This enemies to lovers story is to notch. Sara Cate didn’t hold back with the emotion, gritt and angst in this third book of the Wicked series. I recommend this book and all the the book in the series.

Second Chances

We all have things in our past we regret. Some regrets are bigger than others, but I love a good redemption story. Coming back from those retreats and getting a second chance to mend relationships melts my heart. This wasn’t just a story of a man and woman re-finding each other. This is a story of two people re-finding themselves and those they consider family.

She does it again!

I absolutely love Sara Cate and this is another winner! Enemies to Lovers is one of my favorite tropes, and Aiden and Kelley brings this story to life. I didn't listen to the first two in this series, but will definitely go back for more. :)

I loved this story

The narrators were amazing & I loved this series! These were some of my first audios so they hold a special place in my heart

Unbelievable! It was that good!

Shelby once loved Rafe. He was also her brother’s best friend. That was until Rafe betrayed them both. Now, years later he’s her new next door neighbor and that’s a problem, for both of them. Defiant is a intense, well written, gripping, emotional, enemies to lovers, to forever story that held me and would not let me go. I cried uncontrollably, intense ugly tears, and there is no way I am getting over this one any time soon. What scares me to the depth of my soul is the fear that for some, this story is all too real. The writing is gritty and brilliant. The dialogue painfully realistic and the narration? Unbelievable! Raw emotion comes through so loud, so clear that the mere thought of increasing the speed seemed like sacrilege. Don’t take this one lightly. And don’t pass this one by. Not enough stars on the face of the earth! WOW!

Second Chances

I enjoyed defiant as enemies to lovers is my favorite trope. However, I felt it needed a bit more of the enemies than lovers. Rafe and Shelby alluded to their shared past, but it took a while to learn what happened that set them on the course to become enemies, and then they quickly brushed it aside on the road to becoming lovers. However, there was some pretty good banter between the two that you knew would combust when they got together.

Aiden Snow & Kelley Huston (new to me narrator) did a great job narrating.

Gripping continuation

Defiant is an exceptional enemies to lovers story of self-discovery, real life emotions and redemption. Its raw intensity took my breath away. Rafe and Shelby!!!!! - the character development and chemistry between them was on fire!!

With their narration, Aiden Snow and Kelley Huston made this book come to life. I cannot count how many times I held my breath, waiting for the next chapter. They truly enhanced this books experience. I was blessed to receive an Advanced Listener Copy (ALC) and am enthusiastically leaving an honest review. #AudiobookObsessionReviewer🎧

this 18+. you wont want to stop listening

Shelby is a hospice nurse and Rafe is a police officer who calld cop on shelby's brother 10yrs prior now and now they are neighbors.. This book fill with emotions Emotions, trauma past and second chance. Read it in a day and yes i did cry cuz ifelt shelbys emotions when she talks. i read this on kindle unlimited before a listening and im not disappointed.

I love this Series!

This is the third book in the Wicked Hearts Series, a standalone romance in an interconnected series. I like this series. Rafe and Shelby's story is entertaining, and captivating. Rafe is handsome, wounded, and enigmatic. Shelby is strong, caring, supportive, and determined. They are perfect together! The storyline is well written, and intriguing. I loved to see again the characters from the first books in the series. Aiden Snow and Kelley Huston did an amazing job with the narration. I enjoyed it.

Just meh....

2 Stars ⭐️⭐️

Defiant was my first book I read by Sara Cate and I have to say I was disappointed. The blurb sounded really good, but unfortunately it was meh…This book had so much potential, but it just didn’t follow through. Supposedly this was a enemies-to-lovers book, which I’m still trying to figure out how the Author come up with that conclusion? 🤨 because seriously Rafe’s hatred for Shelby was a whopping second and Shelby’s hatred was non-existent.. No joke it was like I blinked and them saying they both hate each was over.

They whole story was so rushed that you never get the chance to connect with the characters. Sara Cate never gives her readers any backstory details. How is this a second chance romance when we know nothing about them? There were too many things that didn’t make sense. For instances why did Rafe have condoms in his side table when he was a virgin? The better question is why was he a virgin at 28 years old still? I get he was traumatize for what his parents did to him when he was a young boy, but to never experience intercourse at all, well that just ridiculous..Plus the reason that we are given why Rafe still has his virginity just made no sense. If you loathe being touch that much then you’re not going to perform oral sex on another person nor let them on you. It just wasn’t believable…

On top of all that, the story jump all over the place. It had too much going on and not enough details. There were laughable situations, one being Shelby learning how to fight…

When fighting was the reason why she removed herself from Rafe and her brother. Sounds Hypocritical if you ask me. The story was just poorly written and unfortunately a waste of time.


Audiobook review: Unfortunately I didn’t get to experience Kelley Huston and Aiden Snow full potential on narrating, due to the poorly written story, but what they had to work with I think they did a good job and for that I gave them 4 stars.