Title: Tragic

Author: J A Huss

Genre: New Adult

Rating: 3.5 stars

Reading Age: 18+

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“If I wanted to change my life then I’d have to do it myself. Because no one was coming to protect me, or save me, or heal me.”

I had so much fun with this series, I am definitely a fan of J A Huss. Tragic is book one in a series of books, the first three being the Rook and Ronin books, but the spin-offs that follow are still focused on this group of friends. So really there is like, five books, plus two novellas, plus another set of three as a spin-off after that as well.

Confused? don’t be, and don’t let it deter you either because This. Series. Is. Amazing. I couldn’t stop reading once I started, and my reading pile started stacking up, but it was completely ignored in favor of these books.

SO, Tragic. We meet Rook – who has like the best name! – she is homeless and jobless and decides to take a chance on a modeling shoot that wasn’t hers to start with. At Chaput Studios, and erotic photography studio she meets Antoine. A French photographer who is extremely selective of his models. But Rook has the look Antoine is looking for, for the exclusive Tragic campaign and is hired on the spot. Rook is given a second chance at life, to leave behind her dark past. Or at least try to. The story begins there. Then it unfolds, and we meet Ronin, a super hot model who works and lives at the studio where Rook is now working too.

Ronin is super hot. This book is super hot. Seriously. He was charming and a bit to good to be true, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop with him. Rook and Ronin battle each other throughout the book, Ronin wanting to help Rook and take care of her, and Rook constantly battling for her independence to be away from the life she had before, determined to make her own choices, her own mistakes.

“Beauty is fleeting. I know someone important said that, but I have no idea who it was. I jut know it’s true. So I’m gonna grab this second chance with everything I’ve got and I’m gonna ride this wave until it spits me back out on the beach of bullshit.”

This book honestly had me questioning everything, you are drip fed information about these characters and it’s almost frustrating when questions go unanswered, but that’s the nature of these books. You’re not meant to know whats happening until it all blows up in your face.

“Because if there’s one thing in life I can count on, it’s that eventually, no matter how freaking nice that rug is under your feet, someone always pulls it out from under you eventually.”

This book would have been a 4 star for me if some of those questions where not left unanswered. In just a few places it seemed like Huss was going one way, then took the book in a different direction. But the small amount of unanswered questions is nothing compared to the overall book. And it was nice that, for a change I was wrong, I was so so wrong about these characters. Who knows, maybe I have trust issues, always expecting the worst from people. But the worst is not what you get in this book.

Towards the end of the book we meet Spencer. He hires Rook for his Shrike Bikes campaign. Against Ronins better judgement, Rook takes the contract and signs on to spend the Summer modeling in nothing but body paint for Spencer. The book ends here. It is not a cliff hanger and has a direct follow on with Manic, the next book in the Rook and Ronin series. Tragic is the perfect foundation book for this series to be built on. It was original and hot, J A Huss is a fantastic author and I cant wait to read the rest of her work.