Review: 4 Beholding Stars!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 5, 2014
Beholden to You was a captivating, beautifully written and deeply heartfelt romance. The story follows Natalie and Mac, who both have one major thing in common; a tragedy-ridden past. Both have lost their parents and have since been resigned to lives of sadness and loneliness. They first meet one Thanksgiving holiday through mutual friends. But that meeting is a short one. It isn’t until a few weeks later when they embark on a celebratory trip to Vegas, for those same mutual friends that things really begin to spice up!!What was really unique about Beholden to You is that it starts in the middle of the love story for these two. This element had its pros and cons for me, but we’ll get to those in a minute. Following the prologue which covers their initial Thanksgiving meeting, the story begins in Vegas, the morning after a VERY crazy and memorable night for these two. What I liked about this was that the story takes off running right away. By 6% in, I felt completely invested and connected with what was going on.  What I didn’t like was, because we jump in following a very major night for these two, it had a bit of an insta-love feeling for me. I was left wishing that one of them would flash back to that crazy night that they shared in Vegas. I felt a bit deprived not getting to read that part of their story.Now that that’s out of the way, I will say that I otherwise really enjoyed this book! It is a spin-off from Carlie’s The Killer Next Door series, but can totally be read as a stand alone. Natalie and Mac had a great dynamic. Very touching. There is a lot of sweet romance between these two, but at the same time, plenty of hot passion too! I absolutely LOVED Mac! He was definitely a unique leading male character, at least for me. He hasn’t slept around with a ton of women and, while given his past he certainly could, he doesn’t have a ton of issues. He has his company, his friends, and his love for Natalie, and that’s about it. He is what he is and is very honest about it. He was sweet, domineering, and oh-so-protective and respectful of her. If you like your leading male characters to have that knight in shining armor quality to them, Mac is definitely your guy! Natalie was a great heroine as well. Not a whiny annoying one, which is always refreshing. Her demons are a little closer to the surface than Mac’s are, so she is still battling them. But really, there is no drama for the sake of drama between these two. They do endure a lot but, but, to me, everything that was thrown their way made sense and seemed like the story kept flowing in the right direction.This book had a bit of a fairy tale quality to it, which I really enjoyed. Not in an over-the-top way. In a damn-I-wish-that-was-me, escapism way!! Natalie hasn’t been exposed to much and Mac wants to place the world at her feet.  And the ending was beautiful with a happy, swoon-filled epilogue that left me smiling.This was my first book of Carlie Sexton’s but definitely not my last. I really enjoyed this author’s unique writing style and think she has a lot of promise. I’ll be looking forward to more from Carlie!