reviewing another tearjerker - In This Iron Ground by Marina Vivancos

In This Iron Ground (Natural Magic #1) by Marina Vivancos 5*
BLURB: Damien is nine years old when his parents die. What should have been the worst moment of his life begins a journey shadowed by loneliness and pain. The night of a full moon, four years and seven foster homes later, Damien flees to the forest, desperate to escape everything.
Instead, he finds the Salgado pack, and the earth beneath his feet shifts. Damien has seen the Salgado children in his school: Koko, who is in his class, and Hakan, two years older and infinitely unreachable. Damien is suddenly introduced into a world that had only ever existed in his imagination, where there is magic in the forest and the moon. He meets creatures that look like monsters, but Damien knows that monsters have the same face as anybody else.
Over the years, Damien and Hakan grow closer. First, just as friends and foster brothers in the Salgado house, and then into something heated and breathless when Damien joins Hakan at college. Despite what he may yearn for in the darkest part of the night, Damien knows, deep down in that bruised and mealy part of his core, that he’s not good enough to be part of the Salgado family, their pack. He’s not worthy of calling Hakan his home.
Even though he knows in the end it’ll hurt him, he’ll hold onto this for as long as he can.

CONTENT WARNING: This book contains themes of emotional and (nonsexual) physical child abuse and the subsequent emotional, cognitive, and behavioural impacts.

My Review: I received a copy from Signal Boost Promotions in exchange for an honest review. I must be in a masochistic mood to have picked this one to read, especially so soon after finishing the previous tearjerker. However I honestly didn't expect it to be quite as harrowing to me as it turned out. Marina Vivancos has such a superb way with words that they drag the reader into the emotional quagmire of this young boy's feelings and keeps them there. It gets a little easier on the emotions as he grows up and finds his way in life but, it doesn't let up on plucking the heart strings. If you like a character driven story which also delivers an interesting take on shifters, then try this one but have that box of tissues handy.