{NA Review} No One's Angel (Chadwell Hearts #1) by Kelly Walker

If you are looking for an intense, passionate love so wrong it is right, a story about losing your way but clawing desperately at any chance to find your way back, about hanging on to your last shred of sanity and trusting someone enough to let go of your fears, look no further. No One's Angel's angel is a New Adult (NA) Contemporary Romance about a girl learning to fight back and a boy learning to let go.

Tess used to spend more hours than she'd care to admit playing her favorite computer game, using the nickname Angel. She could pretend her life was different, and she could pretend Arion was just a friend. But a girl needs more to keep her warm at night than pixels, and she traded her virtual heaven for a real-life hell. Now she's on the run from a past she won't talk about, and the only place she has to go is the doorstep of the friend she's never actually met.

When Angel disappeared from their nightly games, it nearly destroyed Arion. He threw himself into work and women, but he can't help knowing the one-night stands will never compare to the angel who haunts his dreams. At first, when she shows up soaking wet and scared-shitless on his doorstep, he thinks his prayers have been answered.

But the more Arion tries to keep Angel close, the more her fear drives her away. If they are ever going to have a chance for a future, they'll first have to deal with the past that hasn't forgotten her any more than she's forgotten it--and Arion will have to learn how to let her go. (Blurb via Goodreads)

{Details} Kindle Edition, 390 pages. Published September 6th 2013 by Kelly Walker. Source: ebook provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

{Rating} 4/5 - I really liked it!

{Review}

"When people say soaked to the bone, I think this is what they mean." (page 1, line 1)

Angel doesn't feel like much of an angel. She's been living in hell and she escaped. She ran to the only person she could trust: her best friend, a friend she abandoned without a word. Her hell is slowly revealed, what happened to her, what's she's running from, how it changed her. Angel feels broken and as much as she cares for Arion she's determined to fix herself before letting herself get close to him.

Arion/Axel is a good guy. Angel was the most important person in his life and he lost her. But now she's back and in real life. He tries so hard to help Angel, I just wanted to give him a hug. He knows the pain of losing people, especially the pain of losing Angel, and he tends to hold on too tight.

Kelly Walker did a good job of immersing me in the story and Angel and Arion's emotions. Though some part of the story felt a bit formulaic I liked seeing both Angel and Arion's growth throughout the story as they learn to trust themselves and each other. I did wish that stuff with Arion's mom and dad had been explored further, their actions molded him into the person he is but the reasons behind those actions was glossed over.