Review: Solid 2.25 Stars
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 07 2, 2014
*Mild Spoilers*Even though I knew going into this one that I wasn't going to be gaga over these 3 and their situation, I did expect the "Love Triangle" to be a little more intense & developed, considering all the events that happened in previous books concerning Hawk, Dorothy, & Jase that led us to their book.I appreciated the little snippets of how things got rolling in the first place concerning their past, but it still just lacked something. It wasn't raw or really all that deep or emotional for majority of the book. Even the flashbacks lacked depth. They didn't tell/show me WHY Dorothy remained with Jase in spite of everything, all those years. They didn't show me why she ultimately turned to Hawk all those years ago & couldn't just walk away from him either. Why she felt torn between these 2 men in the first place and why she ultimately couldn't choose between them. NONE of this was given within their story.And I still for the life of me can't understand why these two men were so crazy in love & sprung on a woman like Dorothy to begin with. The woman had no education at all. She didn't even have a GED. No ambition or drive for life outside of wanting someone to love her in all her "bland personality glory". She had no back bone to speak of. No fire within her or pride for herself. So.... I just don't get this all consuming love & lust Jase & Hawk had for her, then or now.The story, all of it, just read as very impersonal and boring to me. Like we only received the headlines & not the true meat of the story. It just wasn't all that interesting for me.I felt that the book had good pacing & other things going on early on, mainly concerning just Hawk and his past. These things were a bit intriguing to me. But once I hit the 48% mark of this book, the story, pacing, everything began to drag and become quite lackluster. Honestly, this one didn't really start to become somewhat interesting or touching, til about the last 15% of the novel. Almost like Ms. Sheehan finally got her groove with the story & characters. But by then it was way too late. And the strength we are "Told" Dorothy finally embraces just was not convincing. At. All.But like I said before, I really expected this type of journey/outcome with these characters anyway. So I'm not really all that disappointed cos I was right, just wish there was something else to kind of grab onto or truly appreciate about the novel. Well, I can count on 3 fingers, instances that were truly funny to me. So I guess that's something.Jase- is a freakin cry baby. I didn't really care for his redemption/sobriety plot, until the tail end of the book. But I also never cared for Jase anyway. I did like Hawk, and honestly he's the reason why I read the book.But I have to be honest here, this was the most tame & unsexy novel in this series. WHERE WAS THE HOTNESS?! There was none. And I am NOT exaggerating here. Considering the standard already placed here for this series, this book most certainly missed the mark. It didn't even get close to the mark. If you weren't getting a fade to black scene, you got a HIGHLY glossed over one. So not only was there not a real story here, there wasn't anything to somewhat appease me for so many things that this one was lacking. *shrugs*So I understand why many readers were not happy with this book. It really should have been released as a Novella or better yet, as Ms Carrie pointed out, just a side story in Dirty & Ellie's book. (Which we are never getting) or you know what? This story shouldn't have been released at all, IMO.The Epilogue I don't get the "ick factor" or uncertainty that many claim they feel concerning this. Maybe cos it didn't bother me in book 1 either. But I gotta say ZZ definitely has me curious to find out. Honestly, I was hoping for his book in place of this one. I've wanted ZZ's story for awhile now.So.. No. I wouldn't recommend this read. If you want to know what the end result is leading into the next book? Borrow it and only read the last 20% and you will be good. Trust me, anything before that 20%, you're not missing out on much.