The Strip - Heather Killough-Walden I’m not sure if this is the 3rd or 4th time that I’ve read through this series. I seem to get wrapped up in it every time I do, so it doesn’t really matter. Part of the reason why I like The Strip is because of Malcolm Cole. It seems almost wrong to like him as a character since he was the bad guy in The Heat, but that’s part of what makes it so good. I love it when an author can turn your attitude toward a character around totally. Turns out Heather is a pro at it. ;)Talk about damaged characters. Charlie is one of the most heartbreaking characters Heather has written so far. She lost her parents, she’s physically attacked more than once and the only person who seems to be able to make her physically strong enough to fight back uses mental and physical abuse to get the job done. She has a close core of very good, protective friends, but they can only do so much, especially when the bad guys even start chasing her in her dreams. What’s worse is, she’s about to find out that she is part of a world she never even knew existed.Then there is Malcolm. He is damaged as well, but hides it behind his tough exterior. Lily saw through it, even though he kidnapped her and tried to break her. I think that’s what won me over. That, and there is no character more Alpha or respected by his pack than Malcolm Cole. He was still brass, opinionated, domineering and cruel, but you could even see that toughness slowly melt when it came to Charlie. It started out as the same type of scenario that drove him to capture Lily, but then it turned into so much more. The protective mate came out in him and that changed everything.The twists and turns in this one keep the pages turning. Even after reading it more than once, I had a hard time putting it down. Sometimes knowing what is coming is even worse. I also loved getting to know characters from previous books a little better. The subtle foreshadowing gives you a hint of things to come. The snarkiness between Malcolm and Lily was fun too. I love those two together. After all they went through in The Heat, that should be so wrong, but I can’t help it.There are aspects of these books that are hard to read. The abuse and violence is sometimes raw to the point of being painful. These characters suffer, mostly at the hands of pure evil. As hard as it is to read, I don’t think the outcome would be the same if it was totally left out. I don’t condone this type of abuse, and by writing about it, I don’t assume that the author does either. These books aren’t for everyone, as I’ve said before and not just about the Big Bad Wolf series, but about others as well. The concept of the Alpha is what it is. They are strong, domineering, powerful and fierce. They are also protective, love unconditionally and are fiercely loyal when it comes to their mate. It’s a totally different world and Heather does a great job of bringing out the pain and beauty of both aspects. Sometimes there’s a fine line between good and evil in both fantasy and reality.The Strip is the second book in the Big Bad Wolf series. At the end of this one you find out that there is much more to come for all the previous characters as well as some new ones. There are 4 books and the next one, The Spell, is probably one of my favorites. It will be the last of my Deja Vu reviews for the series because I reviewed The Hunt months ago. I’m not sure why I skipped the rest, but at least I’m making up for it now.