Title: Dark Hearts
Genre: New Adult
Blurb: If you are an angst-ridden teenager with illusions of romantic death, there is a place for you to call home. A chat room full of bleeding brains and bleeding veins, Dark Hearts, offers a place for damaged souls to find others who share their misery. Unfortunately, on the fringes of the suicidal society, a killer lurks. Six young souls that fall in love with death, the lure of blood, and the search of release find themselves drawn into a twisted killer’s game in the anonymity of the Dark Heart’s chat room.
The Players:
Kara (aka Bloody_butterfly) ~ 15/f/VA ~ The sad product of an absent father, a drunken mother, a life full of torment, seeks a reason to end it. Weapon of choice: Razor blade.
Sara (aka Decaying_rose) ~ 17/f/FL ~ Abandoned by her perfect family, aims to drown in her own misery, yearns for a pact that ends in forever. Weapon of choice: Narcotics and alcohol.
Lucy (aka Lifelexx) ~ 17/f/VA ~ Trailer trash country girl with a pension for sexual compulsion and blood. Weapon of choice: Anything sharp.
Sammy (aka StarryBlade) ~ 18/f/CA ~ Writer, dreamer, college girl, and unlucky enough to land where she doesn’t belong.
Cherry (aka LifeBlood) ~ 25/f/CA ~ Sexually abused, gun packing, revenge junky.
Adam (aka Shadows_of_my_soul, aka DarkDreamer) ~ 21/m/anywhere ~ Artist, creep, procurer of broken beauties, searching for the one to heal the hole death left behind.
Synopsis:
Twenty-one year old Adam trolls the Dark Heart chat room in search of a real connection. Scarred from watching his high school sweetheart succumb to depression and finally bleed out in front of his eyes, he is on the search for retribution. Sixteen-year-old Kara Watson is a depressed girl from a broken home. Seeking love in all the wrong places, she turns to the anonymity of the internet in a desperate plea for attention to soothe her low self-esteem. Instead of finding the boy of her dreams in Dark Hearts, she becomes an unknowing participant in the hunting ground for predators. Adam spends weeks building the illusion of love between him and Kara through their chats. As she falls in love he prepares to end a life. A fight with her best friend and the advances of a creepy stalker presents Adam with the opportunity he has been waiting for. Kara is desperate to be saved but when she calls on Adam to play the role of her hero she seals the fate of her young life, death. Russian roulette is a deadly game of chance but Adam has the odds stacked in his favor when he plays to Kara’s morbid obsessions and pre-written suicide note. A shot rings out and a girl lays dead as the monster disguised as a lover escapes into the night. The perfect murder, no one will doubt a broken, suicidal girl has given into her own madness. Kara’s death leaves Adam reeling with thoughts of the girlfriend he lost and the exhilaration of taking a life calls him deeper into the game. Posing as Kara, Adam creates a suicide pact with Sara, tying up his loose ends. Ready to find his next willing prey, Adam lurks in the Dark Hearts chat room where he meets Lifelexx. Within hours she invites him into her cramped, dirty trailer where she plays her final game of Russian roulette. Death and art are the only things that keep Adam going, until Sammy logs into his life. Adam hopes to make the torment of his deadly thoughts a thing of the past and Sammy his future. The plan is to drive across the country and his problems will be forgotten once he is by her side. Sammy greets him with open arms, and for the first time in a long time Adam feels as if he has finally come home. Life as a couple seems perfect until Adam’s thirst for blood rears its ugly head yet again. He rationalizes that he can quench the desire for death with one last kill. While Sammy is at school, Dark Hearts presents him with Cherry, the perfect Victim. Adam is on top of the world as he prepares to meet the unlucky young lady at a seedy hotel. Fire-truck red curls cascaded around a pretty heart-shaped face, and wrapped tightly in leather welcomes him. Cherry is more than he bargained for. Unbeknownst to Adam, Cherry is death. Two killers and one dirty motel bed leaves Adam at the end of the barrel in his last game of Russian roulette and it is game over for him. Cherry rides off into the night with the murder weapon cozily stashed in her thigh high boot and tomorrow’s vigilante is born.
Purchase Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DJGC5UA
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18075795-dark-hearts
Reviews:
“This is a must read ! The plot keeps you guessing, the characters make you care, and the message hits home. I could not put this book down it made me go through an entire range of emotions. Where it may seem dark it really gives you an insight of what can/does go on. I have to give this 5 stars and a round of applause for T.R. Stoddard !! Loved it” -Keona El
“I had the honor of beta reading this book and it left me with chills. Being a teenager can suck, even more so when you are mentally unstable and obsessed with death. This is a story of one disturbed young man and the gruesome affect that he has had on the lives of young, desperate girls who are only looking for someone to love.
Dark Hearts takes you on a terrible tour of the internet and a bloody cross country ride. T.R. Stoddard has out done herself. Guaranteed to make you feel a little more uncomfortable the next time you get a message from a stranger.”- Catherine Stovall
“I was provided with an ARC of this novel in return for an honest review, so here goes: Yet another dark, thrilling read from Ms. Stoddard, the story revolves around the predator/prey use of the internet and what might happen when you put your trust in the anonymity of someone you meet in a chat room. This is the reason for meeting people in public places. Things can go terribly wrong, and boy, they do in this story. And yet, as with all of her stories, Stoddard makes you feel sympathy for the bad guys. Bravo.” -Jason Maurer
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