Review: 2 stars for me personally, but gave it 3 for the writing. I don't like such sad, somewhat mean stories
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 13, 2013
Bailey returns to her small hometown after being away for 6 years-a few of those being in jail. She is a broken, sad, empty woman. She is 27 years old and was released from prison. Her crime is unknown for awhile, but you can guess it pretty easily early in the book.Darren is the local doctor and is also a native to the area. Bailey and Darren grew up together and were close even though they were many years apart.His little sister was Bailey's best friend.He is brokenShe is brokenBailey goes to the hospital for a cut hand, and is greeted by Darren, the doctor, with only hate and disdain. He really hates her. He is really mean to her. He is also attracted to her. He is really mean to her.I did not like this book. Not because it wasn't well written. The author does an amazing job description the conflict in Darren. His hatred of Bailey combined with the attraction (emotional and physical) that they shared many years ago before she went to jail.They spend most of the book going back and forth. Connecting at an emotional and almost physical level, then he does something to completely break her into pieces. At the same time he does things to take care of her. So I can see how some people can read his positive actions as enough to forgive him, but if a guy was THAT mean to me- I don't care WHAT kind of past we shared - I would leave him immediately.Most of the book, both Darren and Bailey are almost emotionless except for the anger he feels towards her. She is always sad. He is always empty.They seem to only rely on the relationship/friendship/attraction they had before she went to jail. That was 6 years ago!! She was so young.They rarely talk without anger or despair. She is sullen and mope-ish. She is a puppet and does whatever he says. What kind of relationship is that?How can they claim that they are falling in love when they are just remembering how things were 6 years ago??? Before the 'crime'??? Their dialogue is always short and full of pain.Doesn't she have any pride? She messed up big time. But even then, she seems to let him dominate her. He gets to be incredibly cruel (yes, he DOES feel badly, but that doesn't excuse his actions), and she constantly shows up for more. I hope young girls do not read this story (they shouldn't since there are a few explicit sex scenes) because it says to them, "if you make a mistake that affects someone, then that person is allowed to treat you badly since they are in so much emotional pain..."I can understand if he hurts her once or twice. But he is incredibly angry and cruel - almost to the very end.This book drained me emotionally; not because I felt engrossed in the angst of their pain, but because the main characters just seemed to mope around all the time. Hollow, drained, lack of life/happiness, empty, apathetic, etc. Wow. How am I possibly supposed to care about these people? Again, if they were like this for 1/3 of the book, then the other 2/3 their life came back (in spite of themselves), I could see it.If the author could have written descriptions of some great dialogue/moments of sharing between then, that would be great. Show that their love from 6 years has manifested itself as something deeper, more mature. Show the inner struggle he had without being so cruel to her - that would have been great. But nope. None of that.Just more mean Darren, crying Bailey, sad Darren telling her to come back to him with no sincere gut wrenching apologies to her or he throws out some magnanimous gesture since she is so destitute, then she goes back for more and repeat.I think this story was a great idea. Great plot idea.But I really didn't like the execution.I wanted to abandon ship, but just wanted to finish it -was curious if the author would do something wacky like kill off a main character or a curve ball like that.It does have a HEA - not that I really cared since I did not like either main character at all.No Cliffhanger.Am really glad that so many reviewers liked this book. I cannot imagine how difficult it is to write a book and publish it. It's easy to write a review.But just wanted to give a heads up to readers that don't enjoy this kind of storyline.