Thousands by Pepper Winters

“Love had been stolen from me for reasons entirely my fault. But then a miracle happened, and Pim gave me something I thought was lost forever. She gave me a love I’d earned. Love that ruined me. Love that made me hopelessly hers…”

Once upon a time, I didn’t think I’d ever be normal. 
Now, I’m talking and trusting, and it’s all thanks to Elder. 
He gave me my life back, and I gave him my heart, but love stories like ours are never simple. 
I did something to protect him. 
He did something to survive me. 
We screwed up. 
And now, it’s no longer just about us. 
It’s about safety, sanctuary, and sin.

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*SPOLIERS*
If you have not read Hundreds, this review contains spoilers! 

At the very end of Hundreds, Pim makes the decision to leave Elder in Monaco, to make him happy, to protect him. 

Elder gets a phone call after looking for Pim on the streets of Monte Carlo that two of his second cousins that he didn't know about had been murdered. He has no choice but to stop looking for her and leave on his yacht, and sail straight to America. It doesn't matter to him that his mother and family don't want anything to do with him. He has to protect them from his past coming back to hurt them.

Finally, Elder comes to his senses and goes back to Monaco to find Pim. After getting her out of jail, he takes her back to their yacht and Pim believes that she has found the way that they can finally have sex without Elder losing control and hurting her, as he believes he will. 

My very favorite part of this whole entire series is this short excerpt:

"How many have you seen?" Curiosity rose along with a mild case of jealousy that Elder had sailed the seas with dolphins without me. My jealousy made no sense. Our lives had been separate just like any other couple before they met. Maybe it was because while he was free, I'd been locked up. Or maybe it was because I'd begun hoarding every moment with him and was jealous of time itself. Of not being able to go back and claim those minutes and hours when we didn't know each other. 
I'm being ridiculous. If this was what love did to people, I didn't know how they functioned normally. No wonder people needed psychologists-everyone turned crazy when they fell.
"Probably the biggest was off the coast of Australia. Easily in the hundreds, maybe more."
"That must've been amazing."
"It was." His eyes glazed, remembering. "It was lacking, though."
"Lacking how? I can't imagine something as extraordinary as-"
He pinned me with a brutal stare that told me to stop playing games. "You weren't there."
"Oh."
"Everything in my past suddenly feels lackluster without you."

Swoon! Be still, my beating heart. 

After the ball at Hawksridge Hall with Jethro and Nila Hawk, the two go back to the yacht, ready to explore the potential they had as a couple...

Can they survive not only Elder's past but yet another crossover with a set of Pepper's characters from a previous novel?



AAAAAAAHH. 

That ending, though. And now I have to wait until December for the next one. I don't think I can do it. I really don't. My heart needs more of these two. To know that after everything they've been through, there will be a happy ending.

I loved this book the best, especially the beginning. The angst overload took a  toll on me and I tried to read this book as slowly as I could, because I wanted to make it last forever since the next book comes out four months from now. It didn't work.

I'm so ecstatic that after three books, I finally felt like I knew who Elder truly is. That isn't a bad thing. I love that she didn't give away who these characters truly were in the first book. She made us work for it. 

I'm so happy that these two are finally exploring all that they can truly be. 

I'm so upset that that might all be for naught. 

I'm anxious and eager for the next book, yet at the same time, I'm not. 

This is truly the best series that Pepper has ever written and I'm not ready for it to be over. 


Five stars!

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