Hard to Hold On To

A Hard Ink Novella

By: Laura Kaye

Narrated by: Seraphine Valentine

Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Five dishonored soldiers.

Former Special Forces.

One last mission.

These are the men of Hard Ink.

Edward "Easy" Cantrell knows better than most the pain of not being able to save those he loves - which is why he is not going to let Jenna Dean out of his sight. He may have just met her, but Jenna's the first person to make him feel alive since that devastating day in the desert more than a year ago.

Jenna has never met anyone like Easy. She can't describe how he makes her feel - and not just because he saved her life. No, the stirrings inside her stretch far beyond gratitude.

When the pair is thrust together and chaos reigns around them, they both know one thing: The things in life most worth having are the hardest to hold on to.

©2014 Laura Kaye (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers

Oh Easy....swoon :)

Jenna was kidnapped by her sister Sarah's ex-boyfriend. Edward "Easy" Cantrell was the first face Jenna saw when she was rescued. Distraught with guilt and anxiety, Jenna reaches out to Easy and together they begin the journey of healing.

Laura Kaye tells a beautiful story of two people who find each other after a horrific ordeal. This has to be a tough topic for an author. She does it well and voices hope instead of tragedy.

Seraphine Valentine does a good job narrating this book as in the previous volumes. I hope she continues the narration of this series.

Loved this book

This story made me cry. Thank you for writing a story about our Vets and what a lot go through.

Easy Listening

What made the experience of listening to Hard to Hold On To the most enjoyable?

Hard to Hold On To was a great listen all around. I enjoyed the story and the narration brought the characters to life. Seraphine differentiates between the voices of the characters extremely well, so I don't have to rewind every few minutes to figure out who's talking. Despite the brevity of the book (wish it had been full length instead of a novella!), the characters were well developed, and I liked that there wasn't insta-love between the leads. There was strong attraction, a bond, but the L-word wasn't tossed out after 35 minutes of knowing each other.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Definitely Easy. He was very easy to empathize with, he was well performed by the narrator, and I found myself very invested in the outcome of his story.

Which character – as performed by Seraphine Valentine – was your favorite?

It's a toss up for me between Jeremy and Marz. She brings so much personality to her performance of them, and I really enjoy whenever they come into the story. Too bad they were only in HtHOT for a few scenes!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I did laugh a bit, and I was very choked up during some of Easy's scenes, especially the one he shared with Shane.

Any additional comments?

Can't wait for the next book in the series! I enjoyed this novella quite a bit, but I find I'm just as excited to get to the bottom of the mystery of the series as I am to get to know the rest of the guys better.

Hard to Hold On To A Hard Ink Novella.

Hard to Hold on To is the first novella in Laura Kaye's Hard Ink series, but it's still an incredibly satisfying story. I'd probably classify this more as contemporary romance than romantic suspense because the focus is definitely on the relationship between the two main characters and there is much less action than before but I think that it was a much more heartfelt read because of that and I absolutely loved this couple. Easy's story absolutely broke my heart, he is going through such a difficult time and I felt that Laura Kaye did a fantastic job of showing the effects of PTSD. There is no magical fix for Easy but he slowly opens up and asks for help from his team and from Jenna. There are some really emotional scenes with him and the other guys that really tore at my heartstrings but there is also a lot of love, laughter and unconditional support. I was pleased that Easy's problems didn't immediately vanish when he met Jenna but things are definitely going in the right direction for him and I couldn't be happier about that. As much as I've enjoyed the previous books, I have to say I think this was my favorite, I loved Easy and Jenna and I'm so glad we got to read their full story. I'm also excited to continue the series and see the rest of the team find their own happy endings.

WOWZA.... the chanllenes.. sexy sexy

Just LIKE book 1 and 2.. I Absolutely LOVE the voices from Seraphine Valentine.. She’s one of my favorites and she gets me drawn into the story EVERYTIME. This one was a very touchy subject with so much PTSD, interracial relationship, and age difference involved but Laura did a great job with the awareness to the subjects. I just wish this story was longer I feel cheated because this one was so much shorter than the 1st 2 books in the series. I don’t regret this purchase at all. I was moved by this story as it hits home a lot for me.

suicide rate scary

statistics at the end of the book are staggering and shocking more needs to be done

Too Short!

Would you consider the audio edition of Hard to Hold On To to be better than the print version?

I have enjoyed this series and hope there will be more books, but this one was way too short! I started to invest in the characters and then suddenly....over!

Ok

If it didn’t have a link to the rest I would have given up on it. I’m not big on the performance.

Good story for Easy and a very important message!

Thank you for a wonderful story to explain veteran related depression and suicidal ideation. Too many people don't know the horrible situation veterans face coming home from those horrible places that still stay with them the rest of their lives.

favorite in the series

I love the hard ink books and Easy and Jenna are far and away my favorite couple!