Review: Aptly Named For Sure!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 31, 2014
What can I say about this book?  It has mystery, thrill, intense emotions, passion, and heart.  The set up is really interesting, with two lives crossing and affecting one another so greatly.  While we don't get to know a whole lot about Sam in this, the first book, we learn so much about Kade.  His life, what he survived, it was brutal, and the man he is now is completely a result of that.  He suffers extreme trauma in high school, and instead of helping him work through that, all the choices made for him make everything ten times worse, causing him to question everything and everyone, and leaves him scarred and reclusive.  Zolendz opens her book with a preface about the research she put in concerning PTSD and this type of trauma in particular and it really shows.  Kade's character is extreme in a lot of ways, especially manifesting in outbursts of anger and thoughts of violence, all of which are delicately examined and discussed for cause and affect.  Where a lot of books promote highly alpha intense males as the ultimate in hotness, here that character is shown for all its good, and bad, and that is really beautiful.  Defintely a level of psychoanalysis to this read, so if your into psychology this takes a good look.The supporting characters are, in a word, brilliant.  They love so intensly, reminding us all that even in the worst of times we aren't always alone, even if we can't see it.  The way that Sam and Kade come to save each other, the intense attraction and connection between the two- amazing.  You can really feel their connection, the emotions so tangible and well written.  At times it is obsessive and insane and raw, but that works for me because as it is happening the characters acknowledge that it is crazy and exaggerated and, well yeah, a bit insane in the intensity of emotion, and for that it really works.  The only fault I can really find is how quickly the ending comes about.  It seems like we are building and building, only to have the result fizzle before it reached climax, and I'd have to assume that is because there is a second book, and the two together would really function as one.  There is a definite ending to this one, and it is a full length novel, but it still felt a little too loose and immediate.