Bruised – Sarah Skilton

A short book at just under 300 pages Bruised tackles a lot in a small space of time. However each and every page is as great as the last and I needed to read more to see if Imogen was ever going to be ok again.

The story was fantastic but brutal. Imogen spends the entire thing beating herself up becuase she feels the incident at the diner could have gone differently had she responded in the way her training told her to. It was awful to read because I was just sat there thinking ‘but he had a gun, he could have shot you before you ever tried to do anything!’ but imogen didn’t see it like that. It was so hard too as she had blanked out the part between the gunman entering the diner and the police taking her to the station covered in blood, so as a reader you have no idea what actually happened, who’s blood it was or anything. I loved the whole thing but at the same time it was so hard to read because of how hard she was on herself.

Ricky was a breath of fresh air in the book and although he had his problems too, the whole thing was done brilliantly. I loved the outcome of their relationship because it gave Imogen what she needed at addressed a couple of other things about society, and about love.

The writing is incredible and I really felt like I was inside Imogen’s head for the most part. I felt what she did and understood why things were the way they were. I think I would have liked the book more if it was in split perspective with Ricky’s side of things but it still works the way it was written.

Everything about this book was great and I really loved reading it. I am glad I have the authors latest book on my tbr pile as I need more from her. I really recommend Bruised for a contemporary love story with a lot of self-identity issues within.

Bruised was published on April 1st by Abrams books. My copy was sent to me from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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