Review: Great Series Opener
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 5, 2013
I did enjoy the whole story of this one - an abused wife running from her sadistic, violent husband to hide in the obscurity of a big city. The abuse side of this was all handled very well, the systematic abuse over the years and the final decision to get away and the execution - all very well handled. There's great world building too - all the scenes lived vividly in my imagination.It fell down a little for me as I felt I was constantly being told rather than shown what the characters were feeling - too much narrative, not enough reaction. Blaze, although being a fantastic alpha hero, never really did get much time to show how his feelings for Brynn grew - he was just infatuated right from the very first moment he saw her. I'd have preferred to see this aspect of the book expanded.Brynn runs with her younger sister, Marie, who is at high school and has only been raised by their neglectful, selfish alcoholic mother. To me, Marie sounded like a sage old best friend - she sounded far older than her years.The abusive ex was really rather too much of a stereotypical bad guy - he's 100% bad, 0% human. I would have liked to have seen his character better developed and understood his motivations better. I think he may have a Norman Bates style mother-fixation but this was never fully explored.This is the author's debut novel and I think it shows potential and I will try the next book in the series.3 stars