Review: Gotta love Nana Pearl!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 15, 2014
"She could love you for the rest of your life or break you in half if she had to. A true Southern Belle."Scarlet Johnson has worked her butt off to graduate early and attend SCAD on a scholarship, but now she may lose it all since she’s landed herself in jail – all thanks to her losing her cool after finding her boyfriend, Dustin, in a very disturbing situation.  Thankfully the judge goes easy on her and is letting her off the hook after doing some community service.  Now everyone thinks she’s the “crazy ex”, and she doesn’t deserve to be one being punished, but she can’t tell anyone the truth about what really happened with Dustin.Ryder Abbott is a party boy, rich heir to the family cotton business, and H-O-T – and he knows it, cocky bastard.  After finding himself in some trouble after a night of drinking, he’s lucky to get off with just community service, but he’s still not happy.  But this time, daddy’s not getting him out of it, it’s time for Ryder to learn a lesson.When Ryder sees Scarlet at the Habitat for Humanity house they’ll be working on, he is immediately attracted to her, but she shuts him down just as fast.  She’s not dealing with another spoiled, rich kid, she’s learned her lesson with that.  This only makes Ryder more determined – at first just to get her in his bed, but it doesn’t take long for her to work her way into his heart.  Scarlet tries to resist, but it’s hard when Ryder keeps popping up everywhere and helping her out of bad situations.  She likes him, but her past with Dustin has filled her head with insecurities about dating guys “outside of her social class”.  Both of them have a sadness in their eyes from their pasts - can they help heal each other and make each other truly happy?  When danger threatens Scarlet, Ryder will stop at nothing to save her.I fell in love with the characters in this story, especially Nana Pearl!  Being from the south, I could relate to so much of this story (especially the language), and I loved that I was familiar with a lot of the places.  Secrets Behind Those Eyes is a great, quick read, and a feel good story with just enough drama thrown in to keep in interesting.  I love how Scarlet makes Ryder want to be a better guy, and I can’t wait to see where life takes them.  Although I am very curious about Gable and Ivie…looking forward to their story next!