This read like a Tiktok influencer wrote it. Or one of those cheesy click-bait short drama serials with bad acting put into book format (am DNF @ 40%
This read like a Tiktok influencer wrote it. Or one of those cheesy click-bait short drama serials with bad acting put into book format (am I the only one seeing those ads on Instagram?). I could handle cheesy but the writing is awful. All the pop culture references/world events dropped in here trying to make the characters sound educated did the exact opposite. Ex: Putin, Covid, Gen Z mentions, the hero is an older guy lusting for a 18 year old but "he's not like Epstein" y'all! ...more
Now I know why nobody touched this book since it's release besides the ARC readers who gave it glowing reviews. This is a sequel to Devil of Dublin whNow I know why nobody touched this book since it's release besides the ARC readers who gave it glowing reviews. This is a sequel to Devil of Dublin which was a DNF for me. I remember the first book got so much hype on Bookstagram and Booktube and literal crickets on this sequel. The author said this sequel can't be read as a standalone and being the chaotic reader that I am, I ignored that. This wasn't bad but it's not for me. (view spoiler)[I had no personal attachment to Kellen and Darby from Book 1 and probably why I powered through this but I gotta say, killing off your couple in the opening chapter only to have them reincarnated as another couple who look "the spitting image" of said dead couple who were murdered is not romance in my book. If I were a fan and came into this only to see the couple I loved killed off for some Romeo + Juliet forever soulmates drivel I would be pissed. STOP FUCKING WITH HEAs. I don't understand this morbid fascination of killing off your characters just for shock value? Making your characters miserable and suffer is not beautiful. It may be someone else's kink but it's not mine. (hide spoiler)] I generally don't like apocalyptic war themed stories and I knew going in this would be dark but didn't realize how dark and ridiculous. The story opens up with Ireland getting bombed and invaded by Russia as retaliation for a mafia war that happened 20 years prior between the United Irish Brotherhood and the Bratva. A whole war over an old mafia vendetta where bombs are dropped on unsuspecting civilians and Irish cities and drones shooting down people and girls and elderly taken hostage and raped and brutalized gleefully by Russian soldiers. It was just a little too much and triggering where the violence and gore seemed heavily focused on for no reason. Not the kind of escapism I was looking for.
And the author makes her heroine Clover Doyle do some very questionable stunts in this book where her naivete veers straight into TSTL. Clover honestly was dumb as a box of rocks in her insistence on some things that made no sense. Why would you go off on your own and knock on doors of your evacuated city? Does she get captured by soldiers? Yup. Does she nearly get gang raped and unalived again? YOU BET. I hate when characters are dumbed down just to put them in dire situations of gruesome violence/assault with no help in sight. Awful shit happens all the time in real life. Do I want to read about it? No. Does it elevate this story? Also no. Neither did it make any sense for the heroine to dig her heels in refusing to leave their war-torn country just so she can solve what happened to her in her past life. Listen Nancy Drew, y'all got unalived so many times running for your life with no clothes or shoes or money with literal soldiers after you and now you want to say in a deserted town being invaded? No common sense. The TSTL ran deep in this book with characters lacking agency at the most bizarre times no less. Facing 25 drones armed with rifles about to shoot you down on a rooftop and ya'll just run into a helicopter to have sex instead while bullets are literally flying? WUT? O_o This was *thee* climactic face off with the villain that readers were waiting for but instead it's bow chicka wow wow time? Really? Bizarre as fuck. And I still would like to know how the hero Damien who nearly bled out from 2 separate gunshot wounds just magically heals from those grave wounds with nothing but some whisky and bandages applied to him? The hero is also a virgin but no mention of that whatsoever whenever these two have sex. B.B. Easton creates this huge political atmosphere and war torn landscape but her attention to details and word building is near nonexistent in times that is drastically needed. So yeah, I tried but this author isn't for me....more
Sometimes I really really really wish I just stuck to the books I originally wanted to read from a series as a standalone without going back and readiSometimes I really really really wish I just stuck to the books I originally wanted to read from a series as a standalone without going back and reading previous installments. Ugh, why did I do that?
Merged review:
Sometimes I really really really wish I just stuck to the books I originally wanted to read from a series as a standalone without going back and reading previous installments. Ugh, why did I do that?...more
Started off really strong. This was cute for what it was and reminded a little bit of Mila Finelli's mafia books. Just wish it had more depth like FinStarted off really strong. This was cute for what it was and reminded a little bit of Mila Finelli's mafia books. Just wish it had more depth like Finelli's work. The world building and character development could have been better. A Mafia Don going into an arranged marriage with a Bratva princess who has a disability and uses a wheelchair. So intriguing right?! I did like the disability representation. The heroine Sofiya has a condition called EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) which causes sensitive skin tissue, joint pain and dislocation frequently. She uses a rollator and wheelchair to move around. What started off great with a marriage of convenience disappointingly crumbled into repetitive cotton candy fluff by the halfway mark. I'm all for fluffy goodness but characters doing the same thing over and over again to fill up pages just starts to wear things down fast. I loved the sweet moments which were many but when nothing else happens in the story I start to mentally check out. The hero was a complete puppy for his "tesoro" wife which was cute. But a mafia don grabbing his wife at every opportunity to have her sit in his lap in every occasion including business dinners with all the mafia families felt a bit like fanfic for me. I love when couples have their own special "things" but when it's done all the time in every scene? Nope. There was also a looooot of giggling and lip biting happening from the heroine which kind of drove me insane.
The mafia action didn't kick in until the last 100 pages which stirred my interest again but parts were ridiculous given some of the questionable stupid stunts the heroine pulls. You want to get away from your husband fine, but why the fuck would you team up with a rival mafia to "rescue" you? ...more
-Weston Belmont made for a sweet hero. Was he memorable though compared to other Silver heroes? No. He's a walking green flJust some random thoughts.
-Weston Belmont made for a sweet hero. Was he memorable though compared to other Silver heroes? No. He's a walking green flag and a sweetie but he felt a *little* too perfect for me that it fell flat and kinda boring. Always throwing winks and cracking jokes felt a little too on the nose. I love nice guy heroes but I need a little something more underneath the surface. He felt way too laid back on some things too. He's supposedly protective of his kids and introducing new women to them but it didn't feel that way with the heroine once they got intimate. The fact that he didn't even bat an eye over his daughter catching them in bed together is an example of that. A lot of conversations seemed to happen off the page. He's a horse trainer but the "cowboy" aspect was nonexistent.
-West's two kids Oliver and Emmy were cute, I especially loved Oliver. But his little girl Emmy who is 6 years old sounded like a 12 year old going on 20 and it kept throwing me off and taking me out of scenes. It was so distracting. Does anyone know a 6 year old who talks this way?...
“I’ll come up with one and show you. If you like it, we’ll need to negotiate a price. I don’t work for free.”
“No, fancy girls don’t drink out of cans, Skylar,” Emmy argues. “What about a champagne glass? I think Dad has one back here somewhere.”
Emmy lets out a little scoff before turning to me dramatically. “It’s amateur hour over here.”
-Skylar Stone made for a sweet heroine. I don't love musician characters/stories, so that didn't really grab my attention and probably why I wasn't as invested as I should be in this story. It certainly didn't help here that Skylar didn't really feel like this big famous musician considering all the details about her music making and lifestyle wasn't really shown. She's supposedly a Taylor Swift-type of famous but it really didn't come off that way. Like her writing her whole new album pretty much happens in small bits and pieces and then boom! skip a few months(?) ahead... album is out. Which made no sense. Your heroine is a superstar shouldn't we see that creative process in real time? Her abusive asshole parents pushed her into stardom at a young age and controlled her whole life so it was nice to see her break free from that and discover what she really wants in life. Just wish the actual plot and chemistry was more exciting. I didn't feel invested/interested until the last 100 or so pages. I especially didn't feel the chemistry and angst till the near end which felt late.
-The standout character for me: The heroine's foul mouthed African Grey parrot, Cherry. ...more
He stroked her hair and her back, kissed her temple and her cheek. "When you're gone, half of me is gone. Why do ye suppose the firs
3.75 stars
He stroked her hair and her back, kissed her temple and her cheek. "When you're gone, half of me is gone. Why do ye suppose the first thing I do is find ye?"
I just adore this series so much. So much to sink your teeth into. Adventure, family, humor, lowkey magic, suspense, sexual tension, passion and yearning in spades. No one does yearning anymore like Elisa Braden does. While this wasn't my favorite installment, I still had trouble putting it down. Alexander MacPherson and Sabella Lockhart made quite the pair. I loved the whole forbidden/sworn enemy dynamic here with a bitter hollowed-out jaded angry hero pining over the sister of his family's sworn enemy. Kenneth Lockhart terrorized, tortured, falsely imprisoned and nearly killed Alexander's brother Broderick a year ago and nearly killed Alexander too. So the grudge is deep and for good reason. While the already established "I've wanted you for so long" feelings didn't work for me in Campbell's book it worked well here because we actually got to see it play out in real time in Book 2 when Alexander and Sabella meet and the fallout of him nearly getting killed. So that underlying tension has been simmering in the background for two books so it held weight. You feel that anticipation going into this book already. Was there insta-lust and tripping over things quickly to get to a marriage of convenience? Yes. But the sexual tension, pining and chemistry saved it for me. And yes there was a quite lot of tup, tup, tupping. These two are so insatiable and smitten with each other and while I wish some beats played out differently and paced out better, a fun time was had nonetheless. I just loved how obsessed Alexander was with her. He hates that he's wanted her and couldn't have her and thought he lost her to someone else. His desperation in wanting to keep her and fear of losing her was so great to see. There's just something about lovesick obsessed "I'll do anything to keep her" heroes even if they have to play a little dirty to do it. He starts off mean to her because of a misunderstanding but even underneath that bitterness you see how much he worships her. All bark and no bite is the best kind of brooding hero. I mean the switch mode from broodacious rawr! to losing his shit over her getting hurt? Ugh. INJECT IT INTO MY VEINS RIIIIGHT NOW.
“But first, I want to know why ye call me Duchess. Early on, I assumed ye intended to mock me, but I no longer think that’s true.” “Ye should be a duchess,” he answered. “But as ye’re mine, and I cannae offer lofty titles, I call ye what ye are to me—my wife, the mother of my bairns. A woman too fine for aught that’s ordinary.” He shrugged. “Ye’re my Duchess. That simple.”
The weakest points for me were two things. Their first time having sex I didn't really love. I mean it was hot but felt kind of anticlimactic; I didn't love the whole fucking her against a tree for their first time (after all that build up) and to continue to just go at it after finding out she's a virgin without pause was little WTF for me. Considering he thought she was mistress to a man he loathed for 1 whole year, yeah I wanted the coming together to be little more explosive or meaningful or at least freak the fuck out realizing how wrong he was. That moment just lost something for me and fell a little short. And second, the whole random villain conflict and resolution with the bad guy Cromartie in the end with her brother's mistress wasn't great. Considering Cecilia's role in my baby Broderick's downfall in Book 2 I really didn't care for a revisit of this character. I don't care what a sad tragic life she's had, she nearly got my man unalived and mutilated for it. ...more
I should have taken the fact that this is a clean romance as my first red flag. I'm not knocking books with no sex, clean romance just isn't for me peI should have taken the fact that this is a clean romance as my first red flag. I'm not knocking books with no sex, clean romance just isn't for me personally. Or at least ones like this. But I have to say for a mail order bride story where the characters talk and think about sex 24/7 since first meeting but not show any sex in the end is a weird choice. And if it's gonna be a clean romance you gotta make it worth my while in other areas like emotional development, plot, and writing and it just wasn't happening in any of those areas either. You have a 24 year old virgin heroine who is a complete sensitive Mary Sue who is stuck in the dark ages with zero agency. Meredith doesn't own her own phone or even an email address and saying things like "his back assets" and "licentious woman". Which makes you question what decade this book was written in? It felt like my grandma wrote this. And the heroine is a rich socialite city girl which makes it even more implausible. Her tantrums were especially a sight to behold, if I never have to read the word "stomp" again I'll be happy. In the words of Meredith herself, Jumping Aunt Hannah! Whatever the hell that means. (Again, a city girl would be saying stuff like this? lol)...more
I couldn’t help but feel that her lips would be just out of place against my own: a rose petal against a chainsaw.
Too stupid for words. Th
I couldn’t help but feel that her lips would be just out of place against my own: a rose petal against a chainsaw.
Too stupid for words. This supposedly takes place in Ireland and all the characters are supposedly Irish but they don't sound like it at all. The accents are barely present and come and go throughout the book. You wouldn't even realize the heroine Kayleigh is Irish with the way she talks, she talks like an American with the exception of the word "fecking" on and off (she sometimes says "fucking" and other times "fecking", which is it author?) and when she calls the hero an "eejit" near the end. It's like the author didn't even try to do her research and just plopped these characters into a setting she wanted. The forbidden love aspect of this (which is the main reason I picked this book up) ended up being so silly, so ridiculous and thinly drawn. The heroine Kayleigh is dating the hero's brother Eoin for a few days who is a complete stranger to her (she meets him on the street after saving his life in a near hit and run and he's instantly smitten and asks her to dinner) who she has no feelings for but not wanting to break it off with him because she feels bad and loves his family so much after spending 2 days with them and it's the holidays. ...more
Highly anticipated 2023 releases have been really disappointing for me overall and that makes me so sad. :(
This booNot really what I was hoping for.
Highly anticipated 2023 releases have been really disappointing for me overall and that makes me so sad. :(
This book frustrated me and underwhelmed me in so many regards.
-Breeding Kink. How are you gonna promote/market a book having breeding kink and not actually show it? I mean we got…some. Just barely. I didn't even realize until I read this book that breeding kink is the thought of impregnating that's the kink and turn on, not the actual act per say. But even so, that barely had much airtime in this either. I’m so confused by the choices Finelli made here. You have an arranged marriage between two people who are from rival mafia families who need to get pregnant in 3 months time or their loved ones will die. What’s more higher stakes and dramatic than that?! But nothing happens. Barely any sex (compared to the other books). No pregnancy in the end, nothing. So much page time was wasted instead on the hero and heroine delaying consummating their marriage, the heroine trying to get out of it and go back to Toronto or the hero pushing her away. The constant flip flopping also confused me and frustrated me.
-Emotional connection. I had the same problem in Mafia Madman and same problem persisted here. There was barely any time or effort shown in letting the characters actually connect and fall in love. It just seems to happen over night and come out of thin air after they have sex. The words are given and they are nice but I didn’t really believe it because of that. You literally have your heroine say at the 70% mark she doesn’t even know anything about her husband. So you just fall in love with someone you barely know? *crickets* How does that even make sense? :/ I mean we finally do get some of the sweet moments we are waiting for but it felt like a blip compared to everything else that happens there. It felt like these 2 barely spent any time together here, the pacing was very odd. I wanted much more than what was given.
-The sister. I’m gonna sound like an epic b*tch saying this but it’s fiction so who cares. But having your hero have a more visceral/urgent reaction and drop everything to run after his runaway 26 year old sister Vivian instead of fighting for his wife who he supposedly loves was a.....choice. It just left a bad aftertaste in my mouth and so underwhelming. Your wife is curled up in a ball sobbing and you just leave her there and tell her to go back home? Seriously?? THAT'S IT? Giacamo coddling his adult sister and his obsession of hiding her got tiring the more it went on. I wanted the heroine Emma to meet Vivian and become friends. Instead we got this nonsense. One conversation with Emma over the phone and that's it.
-Emma. I liked her...sometimes. She's exactly the type of heroine I usually love. Smart, quiet, sweet, selfless, minds her business. I liked her levelheadedness and good heart. That's very easy to like. But this girl really got on my nerves at times. One with the goody two shoes “the dangers of misogyny!” act. For someone so smart studying to become a doctor she would say stuff that would make my eyes roll so hard they almost fell out of their sockets.
Yes, I was a virgin. I knew it was silly. But it wasn’t like I was waiting for marriage. That perpetuated an arcane patriarchal view of a woman’s body and her rights.
“That was fast. Too bad for your wife, eh, Don Buscetta?” A stamina joke. Awesome. I guess we were checking all of the clichéd misogynist boxes today.
“You have no right to yell at me, because I did nothing wrong. I will not perpetuate a backwards society where I’m supposed to be lesser than you just because I’m a woman.”
She pushed a strand of long brown hair behind her ear. “Sex isn’t just vaginal penetration. That’s a very misogynistic way of looking at—”
“Maybe I’m just over being nothing but the footnote of an epic love story!”
I didn't feeI came for Nalla but stayed for Bitty.
Nate & Nalla
“Maybe I’m just over being nothing but the footnote of an epic love story!”
I didn't feel the chemistry between these two at all. Everything felt rushed and instantaneous so it fell flat. I appreciated Nate's backstory being similar to Nalla's father Zsadist. As a young, Nate and his mother were tested on and tortured horrifically by humans in a lab for scientific studies where they would inject Nate and his mother with human diseases and cancer. He was rescued from the lab by BDB Brother Muhrder and his mate Sarah who ended up adopting and raising him. Thirty years later we still see some of that trauma and PTSD peak through. All the elements were there to make this a great love story but unfortunately I struggled to connect with either of them. I didn't believe in the connection between Nate and Nalla because there was literally no build up to it. Like zero. Nate goes from pining over Rahyvnne for 33 YEARS to instantly lusting/smitten with Nalla after 1 scene. Page 83 no less. That's all. These two barely talked or knew much of each other before that so it didn't resonate. All it takes is one moment of seeing Nalla karate chop a lesser for Nate to snap out of his self-destructiveness? Seriously? ...more
It took me one whole month to finish this. If I wasn't so invested in this series and Knockemout characters I 100% would have DNF'd t2.75 stars
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It took me one whole month to finish this. If I wasn't so invested in this series and Knockemout characters I 100% would have DNF'd this. It took the last 70 or so pages out of a 648 page book to finally see chemistry, sincerity and sweetness between the couple. Which is not a great ratio. Just want to preface this by saying I did not go into this one with eager anticipation like everyone else as I was not a big fan of either characters or their supposed "sizzling tension" in the previous books. *ducks for flying objects* I found Lucian "Suit Daddy" Rollins a walking stereotype and Sloane felt OTT with her sassy "spitfire" persona before even going into this. I just wasn't convinced or sold on their chemistry and here they didn't do a great job in convincing me otherwise for a good chunk of it. And I know I'm in the minority on that one. I have never seen so much work and set up put into selling a couple in the previous books where every character be it the bartender or nosy grandmas having to comment how "hot" these two were for each other underneath the hurling insults. You may as well fly a banner in the sky in case you missed it the first 100 times it was mentioned. It was giving performance for me. And here was pretty much more of the same unfortunately and I was really hoping they would prove me wrong. The bickering and antagonism carried on for much too long in this book and came off childish and petty instead of sexy and heated like the author tried so hard to pull off. They acted so juvenile around each other. I mean fighting over who can handle period cramps better? Really now? I'm sorry but that scene came off so stupid and embarrassing instead of funny. There are only so many times/ways two 40 year old adults can sling "asshole" "assface" "shut up" and try to convince me that's sizzling chemistry. ...more
I'm just gonna call it, Catherine Cowles is not for me. Her writing is way too formulaic especially with the characterizations. Considering the heavy I'm just gonna call it, Catherine Cowles is not for me. Her writing is way too formulaic especially with the characterizations. Considering the heavy trauma and dark backstories both hero and heroine are dealing with? It's an issue for me. The tension should have been thicker, the angst should have been angsting and things should not have been skipped over like it’s just another fluffy small town romance.
-Cowles doesn’t write her characters like they carry trauma. Not letting your heroines react to anything that is remotely dangerous because it might make them look weak is really lame and unrealistic AF. People don't talk like this and don't treat their trauma this way, especially with the kind of build up we've gotten for it. Everyone handles trauma differently and I hate sounding like the obnoxious police bregrade telling anyone how a person should react and process things, but having your characters act and react to everything the same way as you would a scraped knee isn't really doing what it should be doing. The heroine Shiloh was kidnapped and kept in a shed and beaten by a psychotic man Howard Kemper when she was ten years old. For seventeen years she can’t stand human touch and being around people for too long, you see that struggle through the previous books leading up to this. The hero Ramsey was sent to prison as a teenager for a crime he didn’t commit and suffering at the hands of his abusive stepfather who beat him and his mother. So it’s a lot. Both hero and heroine carry a lot of trauma and are guarded but the walls came down much too quickly. I had the same problem with Everly and Addie’s books. Cowles wrote Shiloh like every other heroine in this series, brushing off concerns and acting like nothing bad will happen. It made no sense. A kidnap survivor who got letters from her abuser for 17 years saying she doesn’t think it’s necessary to file a restraining order against her attacker and thinking it's "extreme" made zero sense and made her look idiotic. A violent man threatening you and you think it’s just “all empty talk”? Girl what? O_o Cowles forgets basic logic. I get this is a Romantic suspense and the stage needs to be set up for The Danger™ which means common sense is sometimes missing but this is different. Having your traumatized heroines willfully ignore threats because “they can take care of themselves” knowing full well what violent men are capable of is not showing strength, it’s wilfully foolish. And I can't say this enough: it made no sense here. Especially for Shiloh who supposedly doesn’t trust easily and has severe PTSD. She has over a decades worth of severe trauma and PTSD but that seems to up and vanish in this book entirely. Getting assaulted TWICE in a matter of 2 days should trigger memories of some kind, not grumbling about not needing protection and walking around like everything is fine. Half her face is black and blue but she's fine y'all! She's so brave and made of strong stuff and anything less than that is absolutely not brave. That's the underlying message that's screamed at you in every story and I just really don't care for it. The withering glares when family or friends show even an ounce of concern or reamed for simply asking "are you ok?" is a little bit much and overkill. I get needing space and not feeling smothered, but give me a break with the OTT snappy reactions from your heroines. It's childish at best and unreasonable at worst. Also, a super protective half-wolf dog sees his master on the floor getting physically attacked, charges up to the attacker only to growl at him? Really????
-Every book reads exactly the same. From plot points, to character reactions, to even the dialogue. Just change out the hero and heroine's names and it's the same story. It's always the same exact beats: Heroine has a mysterious stalker ✔︎ Heroine gets a threatening note taped to the windshield of her car/bike ✔︎ Heroine is grabbed from behind and knocked out at least once while walking alone ✔︎ Heroine refuses to get a bodyguard or have the hero shadow her cause that means "the bad guy wins" ✔︎ Heroine has run in with the bad guy while in town with the hero getting shoulder checked for good measure! ✔︎ (view spoiler)[ Heroine gets kidnapped in the end much to everyone's shock (not) ✔︎ Heroine is kept in an abandoned cabin of some kind ✔︎ Hero comes charging through bushes of some kind to the rescue right in the nick of time ✔︎ (hide spoiler)] It’s the same exact thing literally in every book with zero differentiation. For transparency, I skipped books 2 and 4 but I can just take a wild guess it's not much different? Because this certainly felt like an exact replica of Everly and Addie's books right down to the mannerisms and dialogue. You're really telling me 5 books in a series has to be the exact same thing? Really? I'm sorry but please come up with something else. ...more
Not bad but could have been better. The writing isn't bad just more on the simplistic side, especially the development of the romance. For a romantic Not bad but could have been better. The writing isn't bad just more on the simplistic side, especially the development of the romance. For a romantic suspense, the romance felt very secondary to the family drama and suspense. Romantic suspense books are very predictable in general for me because you can usually tell a mile away who the villain/stalker is. And this is exactly that. And I'm usually fine with that aspect. I don't care that Johnny down the street ends up being the bad guy but I need everything else to balance it out. And here the other things didn't really balance it out. The beginning was very strong and I was sucked in immediately. The heroine Everly returning to her hometown Wolf Gap to renovate her childhood home ranch her mother left her and plans to turn it into an animal Sanctuary. Loved that. The very home where 15 years ago her controlling paranoid father kidnapped a little girl named Shiloh and locked her in a shed for 5 days. That little girl's brother happens to be the hero, Hayes Easton who is now the town Sheriff and has it out for Everly. That set up and all the juicy enemies to lovers potential was delicious to me.
But things petered out with how Cowles had the starchy hero quickly falling for the heroine and wanting to be her savior and protector not even half way in. All the rivalry just fizzled away much too fast for my liking and made the story lose it's edge for me. When the tension is gone between your couple early on, what's the point then? I mean her father kidnapped his baby sister and caused serious trauma to his whole family. Hayes's resentment towards Everly at the beginning while unreasonable made sense. For it to quickly evaporate just took the wind out of my sails. So when the tension is taken out of the equation all you are left with is the "suspense" angle of the book with the couple trying to figure out who is stalking the heroine. And the choices for suspects are very obvious so there's not much room left to guess or hold your attention. As a result, I just got bored to be frank.
What frustrated me is that mostly all of the scenes between the couple are short and abrupt that quickly cutaway to the next day or a week later. Moments that are pivotal and important to the romantic build up are treated like unimportant rushed filler scenes instead. I didn't notice that until half way in. And again part of that is probably because the tension is no longer there. I mean the heroine working on her ranch or checking her charts at work? All there and given. But the heroine has a concussion and the hero takes her to his home so he can take care of her. Do we see that? No. The heroine offers to stay overnight at the vet clinic to look after the hero’s dog Koda and the hero joins her with pizza. Do we see much of that? No. The heroine has an awful nightmare in the middle of the night while staying at the hero's house. Does he get to comfort her? No. The author has all these great moments full of potential but does nothing with it. She throws moments away and it frustrated the more it happened. It’s just small snippets and it quickly cuts away to the next day. Catherine Cowles doesn't let moments marinate between her couple. Everything is quick and dash. But moments when they are alone and going about their daily routines? She takes her time. Which is what I found so odd and very frustrating. The romance just felt very artless and rushed when it shouldn't have been. The heroine was definitely more cautious than the hero but even so, given the history between both their families I needed a slower burn and more development on the page. That would have made more sense to me.
Gripes aside, I am eager to read Addie's story and Shiloh's as well. I just wish the writing grabbed me more. I found the whole "prepper community" that Everly and Addie grew up in fascinating because it's both crazy pants but also felt real. The menacing edge to these people made my skin crawl. They live off their land and off grid and believe they are above the law and don't believe in modern medicine. They think the government is out to get them so they do drills to prepare. Why Everly's father thought Hayes's family was sinning and that he had to kidnap their baby sister was never explained and I didn't understand because it felt so random. But I guess you can't find logic in crazy.
Shoutout to Hayes's adorable German Shepherd dog Koda. That adorable goofball was a scene stealer. So was the little chipmunk "Chip" that Everly found in her home. So cute. <3...more
Sweet couple but struggled to connect with both characters. Everything felt very surface level. I'm coming to realize this is a low angst series. WhicSweet couple but struggled to connect with both characters. Everything felt very surface level. I'm coming to realize this is a low angst series. Which is fine but considering this is Romantic Suspense and how this series deals with a lot of trauma and dark heavy themes, the lack of angst and tension doesn't really work great for me. The writing feels very lackluster. Which is so frustrating given the heavy emotional detailed backstories to these characters. You give such depth to the backstories but can't flesh out the romance? :< Here you have a deeply traumatized heroine who escaped an abusive life living under the thumb of her tyrannical father who beat and abused her her entire life. Allen Kemper kept his daughter Addie a virtual prisoner on their ranch. She's been under his control and the only person who protected her was her mother who mysteriously abandoned her as a child so she's had to face him and his ranch hand followers all alone. Addie's family is part of the prepper community in Wolf Gap, a paranoid small community where they don't believe in modern medicine, law or intervention of any kind and live off their own land. They like to "prep" in case of hostile takeovers. The men treat the women like property who aren't allowed any autonomy of their own. When Addie's cousin Everly returns to Wolf Gap in Book 1 and finds her happiness it gives Addie the courage to escape her father and that community. Here she's trying to make her own way, build her own life and gets thrown in Beckett's orbit where they are roommates in the same house. That premise was super intriguing and had me eager to pick this up. (*ETA after reading Book 5: We are told about this cult "community" through all these books but besides Addie's father, uncle and cousin, and a few of their loyal ranch hands there isn't any followers beyond that. So I guess I'm just wondering how it's a community and one that has such a menacing hold when it doesn't have that many followers? Big numbers don't necessarily make a community but Cowles makes it seem bigger than it is from the very first book when we aren't really seeing anything beyond this one small family living off the grid)
Same problems I had with Hayes and Everly's story in Book 1 still stands here unfortunately. While we do get more page time and focus on the couple, stuff still felt very fast, easy and quick. It just was very predictable. Beckett was a sweet hero but I was expecting a lot more tension and gradual build up between him and Addie. Especially with him introducing her to her firsts she missed out on. Taking her on her first date? Never happens. She's not a virgin but finally going that far with a man should have been made a bigger deal IMO considering the life she lived. Trust is a very big deal for her and she doesn't like being vulnerable. Same as Everly, Addie kept grinding out "I can take care of myself" and snapping at her cousin for even worrying about her (and this happens literally every time Everly even tries talking to her and it felt a bit extreme?) as if the words were enough to show her strength. And it made her do some questionable and foolish things for the sake of the thin suspense plot. Same with the men, why on earth would you not search the home the suspect was staying at after he shot his wife in the stomach??? You're telling me the Sheriff couldn't have any sway over getting a search warrant? The victim saying her husband's name isn't enough probable cause? Hayes just HAS to go by the book every time? Seriously? A woman's life is on the line. The author made Hayes look like a fumbling idiot and it aggravated me because 3 days of torture and abuse to the heroine could have been easily avoided. :/
Introducing her to new foods and life experiences was also a let down. I was expecting it to be shown more and made a bigger deal. Growing up she wasn't even allowed to eat junk food or anything foreign, she was forced to cook only the foods her father wanted. I wanted us to see her reaction to trying new things overall. But the reactions are few and far in between. I just didn't understand what was the point of having your heroine break free from an oppressive abusive life only to skip over her trying new things in her life....? Beckett does teach her how to drive and takes her to get her ears pierced for example but that's pretty much it. That was sweet but I wanted more. That's what lured me into reading this, how he introduces her to new experiences.
Catherine Cowles likes to just skim the surface of things and quickly move on which makes everything fall almost flat. The character development is barely there. For a hero, Beckett lacked depth. Addie was supposed to be terrified of the hero at the beginning. The first chapter Beckett is randomly cornering her and growling her name when he runs into her on the street. That honestly made me think we were gonna get a temperamental grouchy brooding hero but that's not what we get. He loses his temper once and that's it. Growling brooding Beckett quickly dissolves and disappears out of nowhere within the first 3 chapters. Addie quickly relaxes around him and opens up to him cause he's easy to talk to. It kind of felt like telling rather than showing at times. It just felt easy going Beckett could be mistaken for his brother Hayes from Book 1. And that's fine but I just don't love formulaic writing especially in a series where I'm interested in future pairings. Everything and everyone sounds the same and it just falls flat with zero nuance. I want to read Shiloh's story but I can already sense we are gonna get the same cut and dry treatment and that feels like a missed opportunity considering Shiloh's dark history and who she is being paired with. I'm just gonna take a wild guess that Wes Ramsey the mysterious recluse horse trainer is also gonna be "barking out a laugh" (seriously Cowles you can't come up with another adjective?) at every opportunity not even halfway into the story. ...more
This was slightly better than Book 3 for me. I appreciated that the petty drama and psycho behavior didn't happen here between our couple. Unlike Mac This was slightly better than Book 3 for me. I appreciated that the petty drama and psycho behavior didn't happen here between our couple. Unlike Mac & Arro, Arran and Ery were sweet. I didn't realize how close Arran and Eradine had grown from the last book and the timeline of how much time has passed since then did throw me off. I liked that this was a friends to lovers story. The slow burn was believable. Was it memorable though? Not really. It was missing that intensity and tension that was there in Book 2 for me. Even with both characters carrying heavy baggage (Eradine in particular) I didn't really feel the angst, especially in the second half where it was most needed.
Just going to touch on some of my overall issues:
-Every book now has at least 2 stalkers after the main couple. Why? It's a bit much now and reading like fanfiction. Everybody has it out for the Adair family and it's becoming comical at this point. Also very predictable who the bad guy is but that is neither here nor there.
-The endless telling, retelling and retelling again to readers what happened in previous books. It's overkill and so excessive. It's just starting to feel like info dumping. I pretty much have Lachlan's book memorized by now, beat by beat with the number of times we are told what happened 2 years ago. I honestly don't see the point now of going back and reading Lachlan's story since all the characters keep telling ad nauseum and in great detail every single stunt the villain pulled in Book 1. It just feels like all the characters narrating the previous book. Thane has told me. Arro and Mac have told me. Now Eredine and Arran (who wasn't even there) have told me. That's more than enough, no? It's been 2 years and we are 4 Books in. [image]
-The jealousy thing. I usually don't mind jealousy in fact I normally love it in my reads if nicely handled and it's coming from the hero but how Young writes her heroines is like nails on a chalkboard for me personally. I just don't love how her heroines act when they are jealous. Ery being so territorial and openly rude whenever she sees Arran talking to another woman and saying she trusts him (when clearly she doesn't) felt kind of cringey. It was giving red flag behavior. And it happens a lot. With Arran having to keep reassure her that she has nothing to be jealous of. It just felt very High School for me. It honestly gave me whiplash because it felt really out of character for her. Especially the whole turning him down when he asked her out but confronting him about possibly going out with another woman and how she is gonna ask a guy out to gauge his reaction. It's the approach and style that I hate. It's childish and petty how Young goes about it. Like I said, I normally don't mind jealousy but how it's handled in this series gives serious Stage Five Clinger energy. It's not cute.
-The Adair siblings getting pregnant at the same time is just ick humor. It's ick because the "we conceived at the same time" joke is brought up so many times just for laughs. Sorry but I don't really wanna throw it in my brother's face how I probably conceived the same time his wife did just to make him squirm. *scrunches face*. The whole thing is starting to be a bit much. I mean it wasn't enough that 2 of the couples decide to do a double wedding and now the Adair siblings building houses right next to each other if not close to each other but now both ladies realizing they are pregnant and both are 14 weeks along? Seriously?? Why can't couples have their own moments? Aside from Lachlan and Robyn, Young won't let any of her pairings have their own special moments after their HEA and it's annoying. Like why did Thane and Regan have to share their wedding with Mac and Arro? Robyn couldn't announce her pregnancy without Arro stealing her thunder? For me it's the same as a couple getting engaged at someone else's wedding. Some things are just not cute or done or ha ha! funny. Maybe I'm just making a bigger deal of it but it's too much. It's starting to feel like campy unrealistic fanfiction and very cheesy.
Overall not bad, just not very memorable unfortunately. I'm excited yet nervous about Bradon's book. He's my favorite Adair brother next to Thane so I'm trying to tamp down my expectations. The movie star bad boy and his ex-best friend Monroe. Brodan and Roe's situation is something I don't love so we'll see how it goes. I'm more nervous about Roe than anything. Or to be more exact, I'm nervous about how Young is going to write her. Roe definitely seemed sweet and intriguing in this I just pray that sweetness doesn't morph into something else entirely like it did with Arro. *crossing fingers*...more
You don’t know me, but you have my husband’s heart.
This book hurt me. In a good way but whew. I would like to sue Jennifer Hartmann for em
You don’t know me, but you have my husband’s heart.
This book hurt me. In a good way but whew. I would like to sue Jennifer Hartmann for emotional distress. My gawd. I don't even know what to say or where to begin but this was such a ride. This is only my second book by her and I love her writing. She really knows how to grab you with her beautiful prose, engaging all 6 senses and emotionally reeling you in. This book made me cry. This touches on quite a few dark themes primarily around mental health and spousal loss so it may not be for everyone. It's about two emotionally vulnerable hurt people finding comfort and hope in each other. Hartmann really knows how to write unique romances that test emotional boundaries and strongly focusing on healing. Her writing really makes you believe in fate. What would you do if you emailed the heart recipient of your late husband's heart? That's exactly the kind of stuff I sign up for. Oh the angst.
Melody. Honestly, her name irritates the fuck out of me. No woman should have a name like music and a face like poetry. She’s a walking contradiction.
The situations Hartmann comes up with and how everything plays out where you are holding your breath waiting for the other shoe to drop is just really mastery level. Yes there is a twist which I won't give away which makes things even more complicated and angsty. I just could not put this book down. Melody March lost the love of her life, her husband Charlie, in a horrific mugging gone wrong when a thief tries to steal her purse during date night. You see the scene play out in the opening of the book and omg the atmosphere Hartmann creates where you see someone's entire happiness and peace ripped away in a matter of minutes in slow motion just grips you by the throat. Like I said this writer engages all your senses and paints a scene so brilliantly. I normally don't love it when a dead spouse takes up emotional space in a book, cause you want that for the hero/heroine right? But lord this made me sob. Flash forward to 9 months later and Melody ends up in a therapy group for suicidal people struggling with mental health. There she meets stoic Parker Denison who is so prickly, mean and bitter. These two form a connection where they just can't stay away from each other. It's like a gravitational pull. The character growth and slow transformation the hero Parker goes through is so stunning. I almost don't want to call this a grumpy x sunshine book because while it is that it's also so much more than that too. You have a deeply scarred man who has walls erected around himself, walls that are covered with barbed wire who doesn't let anyone in, women in particular. He hates women and wants nothing to do with them. (view spoiler)[ As a child Parker was horrifically abused by his alcoholic mother who would burn him with cigarette cherries and beat him and lock him up in his closet for days and starve him. After his mother died he ended up in a foster home with a foster mother who was no better and cruel and kids in that house who bully and abuse him because of his trauma and the scars on his chest. (hide spoiler)] Because of this Parket never takes his shirt off, never been kissed and very little sexual experience. I almost want to call him asexual as he has no desire for sex even though he finds women attractive but he loathes physical contact of any kind. The only person he has in his life and that didn't give up on him is his foster sister Bree. Bree grew up with Parker in that foster house and protected him from neglect and abuse. What was also great were all the relationships and connections that you see water and slowly grow and flourish. Between Parker and Melody, between Parker and his sickly grumpy dog Walden, between Parker and a little lonely boy Owen who he meets at one of his construction jobs. The kinship he forms with that little boy is so touching. Everything feels full circle and fated. Hartmann truly makes you believe in fate and the question what if?.
“You said I look at you like I’m trying to fix you,” she says softly, her eyes scanning my face, searching for a crack. A hole. A way in. “You look at me like you’re trying to break me.”
“You and your smiles…” he says in a low voice.“So damn intrusive.” “Like the sun, right?” My tone is gentle and unoffended as Parker’s jaw tightens, and he whispers back, “That’s right.”
“Dance with me,” I urge him, fumbling for his wet hands and holding them in mine. I swing his arms side to side, shimmying us in a ridiculous series of movements that don’t at all resemble dancing.
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I dip in closer until our noses touch. “I’m falling for you,” I breathe against her lips, almost grazing them. “But I don’t know how to fall without crashing and burning.” Melody makes a sound, a little gasp, her hands rising up to clasp my face again. She arches her body into me, whispering, “I’ll catch you.”
It’s a smile that evaded me for months, one I craved to witness, to experience for myself, and now it’s mine. It’s just another offering of trust he’s given to me. I promise to keep that smile safe.
I let out a choppy sigh, instinctively holding her closer, losing myself in her warmth, in her citrus scent. She’s the only beam of light in this dark room—my only escape. She’s my moon.
[image]
“Melody… you’re my starting point. You’re my turning point.” Pulling her forehead against mine, a strangled sound escapes her, and I finish with conviction, “You’re the whole damn point.” Parker’s starting point is me.
There's just something about emotionally vulnerable characters that hits me in the heart. Parker is very much all bark and bite kind of hero. Someone who has been literally starved from love and affection his whole life to the point he's just given up on life. And when he starts getting that affection and kindness from the heroine he literally doesn't know how to handle it. This isn't just shallow grievances/hangups that you typically see in brooding CR heroes. His insecurities and trauma run deep. He's very much like a wounded animal who is given a life line and struggles to trust in fear of it hurting him. Even hand holding is a whole new experience for him and seeing that inner boy slowly soak it up just makes you want to curl up into a ball and cry. Parker Denison soaking up affection and tenderness is truly a sight to behold. Melody was patient and wonderful with him. A little too patient given how he snarls and pushes her away when he's terrified. But this author's way with writing such an emotional story with layered characters makes you hang in there and root for both characters. I could not pry my fingers off this book because of it. The way these two connect not just emotionally and physically but mentally is nearly poetic.
And I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I didn’t fall in love with the wrong heart. I fell in love with the right heart at the right time. I fell in love with Parker Denison.
And I'm just going to pretend that epilogue doesn't exist. I really don't understand the point of writing a beautiful love story where your couple fight to get to their HEA only to (view spoiler)[shove a epilogue in there where one of them dies when they are old and grey. Like....what was the reason?! Yes that's part of life and everyone dies eventually but I really don't want to see it author. It's not romantic, it's morbid and devastating. Because I totally want to see his wife dying in his arms which means he will be all alone until he dies and sees her in heaven. COME ON. This ain't it! If I wanted to read a Nicholas Sparks book for that kind of fuckery I would. (hide spoiler)] Huge pet peeve of mine triggered. It's like dumping a bucket of freezing water over your reader's head. You already did a flash forward to 3 years later in the previous chapter before the epilogue so I really didn't understand why that epilogue was even necessary??? This morbid fascination and interest in doing that to your HEA is beyond me and I will never understand. But aside from that, so good. Highly recommend.
Trigger Warnings: (view spoiler)[Death of first spouse, child abuse, suicide attempt, suicide (of secondary character), self harm. (hide spoiler)]...more
I don't know what happened but this was a disappointing follow up to Broken French. I'm now kinda wishing I put up a review for that one just to compaI don't know what happened but this was a disappointing follow up to Broken French. I'm now kinda wishing I put up a review for that one just to compare. Oh well. This tried so hard yet showed so very little for it. I was so eager and excited to get my hands on brooding hunky bodyguard Evan and mysterious Andrea's story when a sequel was announced but what we got left me wanting unfortunately. Nothing happens in this. Literally. The romance was boring. The chemistry was non-existent, the dialogue was super cheesy and stilted and read almost like bad YA fanfic at times with the way these two acted. Are we sure this is the same Natasha Boyd who wrote Deep Blue Eternity? Cause it certainly didn’t feel that way. I don't mean that as a dig but more like genuine shock.
Both hero and heroine drove me insane with the constant internalizing in circles and repeating themselves ad nauseam. It almost felt like Boyd had nothing planned for the plot so she had her MC's working themselves up and talking in circles just to fill up the book. The heroine Andrea is written like a hormonal confused teenager, who says one thing yet does another. She's always misreading everything and going from 0 to 180 and then back again a few pages later like nothing happened and it gave me a headache. It made no sense. She's constantly misunderstanding the hero Evan and lashing out but then flirting and giggling with him 5 minutes later. I was confused. She kept saying her attraction to the hero was "situational" how she'll get over her crush and wanting space from him, yet when he says the same thing to her and wanting space she gets upset with him. You can say it but he can't? lol She goes to such lengths in not telling him her new address because she can't stand his hovering and doesn't believe she's in danger but the minute she finds out she is in fact in danger she blames him for not protecting her. ...more
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