Review: Unfortunately, for me, the two sequels don't live up to the amazingness that is Charade.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 02 12, 2014
I read Charade basically when it first came out. I remember raving about it, loving Colt and Cheyenne to pieces. Recommending it to everyone who took time to listen. Then came Adrian and Laney’s story. Faade was decent, but it missed that spark for me that I felt in Charade. Plus, the narratives were very similar to the first book. Then I read Masquerade. *sigh*QUOTE"Life is effed up, it hurts, and it's not always pretty, but darned if it can't be beautiful too."Maddox was a character I very much liked in Faade and I was eagerly looking forward to his story, especially after having read the little teaser chapter at the end of Faade. I expected great things from him. I did get some of them, but mostly… it all fell flat in my eyes. Bee was seemingly a great addition to this cast of broken characters and I liked that she didn’t let anyone walk over her and the best thing about her? The tattoo shop, for sure. I’m pretty convinced that I won’t ever get a tattoo myself, but I love them on others. The first couple of chapters were great. They have a one night stand and expect not to see each other in the future. Well, Ms. Future here had other plans.I usually love these kind of stories—broken hearts being mended, complete opposites (or, as it later turns out, not so very opposite after all) coming to care about one another and alllllll the physical attraction tension, of course. I found myself only caring about the latter, to be honest. Why? Well… it’s hard to explain. The make out sessions were hot, I’m not going to lie, but the parts where they took their time to heal from some pretty big wounds dragged so much that I really did not care. Plus, we have already seen almost the same story through Maddox’s sister Laney’s eyes. They went through the same thing in the past and now it’s Maddox’s turn to learn how to live with it. I, again, found myself not caring much.Bee’s story was very different from what we have seen from the rest of the group. At first I thought it was rape or something, but once I realized it was not, her story really became interesting and it went down a route that we don’t see much of in New Adult literature. In any age group lit, for that matter. I appreciated that, but, again, found myself not caring much. It may as well have been the writing, because the narratives are so similar in every book in this series. They’re basically the same and that’s why I found myself wanting to skim the second half of the book, because I felt like I had already read this story.There were some pretty quotes and thoughts in this book though and the example is in the quote above. If you’re a fan of Nyrae, I’m sure you’ll be pleased with it. If you like New Adult, angst, hot romances, lots of physical attraction and tension? Go and give this book a try. I don’t think that anything in this series lives up to the amazingness that was Charade, though. For me, this book fell flat and my high expectations weren’t fulfilled. For that, I feel sorry, but I’m not giving up on Nyrae’s books. Masquerade is the exception for me when it comes to her writing.Overall rating: 1.8 out of 5.0