Review: A new adult story that had its ups and downs...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 11, 2014
This book turned out a really, really hard one for me to rate. On one hand, I honestly liked all the characters featured in the story. On the other hand, the story had some very jarring moments where I was thrown out of the story because the ebb and flow just wasn't totally refine.Let me explain.Emma, as a lead character was very likable. She was strong without it being tossed in your face, and she was vulnerable like any real person in every day life. Her best friend was a colorful addition and seemed to compliment her and bring out the best in her. She had moments where I was like, "GET UP GIRL!" I waited, and she eventually did.Breck, now, I really liked Breck. For one, he's a 'bad-boy' that played bad-boy right. I mean you weren't gagging on his Alpha and he was entirely willing to change which was very endearing in a lead male in this genre of fiction.Jess and Jason were, like I said, a colorful addition that complimented the story.Then there was Gavin... when am I going to get more of that hunky stud? For the most part I was engaged and feeling the story for what it was and I had a hard time putting it down. Then it started to go wrong as the author was writing the 'conflict' portion of the story. First off, this should have been introduced way sooner. It was sort of thrust in our faces and we had to accept it with a whole lot of tell and not much show. I was shown an evil socialite girl. Then said socialite girl did something so totally out of character of a socialite her age that I started to laugh. The author decided that after the 50% mark she was going to toss in as much angst as possible to the point where I was going as a read, "COME ON ALREADY! NOT AGAIN!"There was one scene of a sexual assault that really could have been the end of it. The story would have been shorter by far, but that scene alone was enough to squeeze my heart and the author could have totally fed off that with Emma. But she added in a series of scenes with harsh violence in order to tell the big Breck past secret that it got lost and it fell flat when it was finally revealed for me.As a whole, I very much enjoyed this story. I wanted everyone to end up with a HEA and I was rooting for them. I call this a win and I see Ms. Stewart's writing style very much improving from her first release, which I couldn't finish.I would like to note that this author does NOT slut-shame at all. Even when vile females are being evil, the author did a very good job of handling that situation without perpetuating a vicious cycle for this genre of fiction.I recommend this to fans of Abbi Glines books, it is very much the same themes and keeps you reading until the end.*I received a FREE copy of this book via Xpresso Book Tours in exchange for an honest review for the Blog Tour*