Review: Chained by SK Fordham
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 3, 2014
*** Gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review ****** Reviewed by Kristen for Drama Queens Book Blog. ***Chained, essentially, is the story of a woman who is trying to figure out how to move forward with life, after a terrible tragedy unexpectedly takes her husband from her and their two sons.From an emotional standpoint, this book is fantastic!Chained is a heart-wrenching read from start to finish. You can feel Stella's pain throughout the entire story . Not just from the loss of her husband, but from several devastating events that occur.You can see her confusion every time she thinks about loving someone who is not her husband. She wants to love Dean. She wants to make a family for her sons. But at the same time, she feels guilty and undeserving of those things.--- What didn't work for me: ---Although I feel like I got the gist of the story, and really enjoyed that part of it, the plot jumped around a little too much for my taste. You are bounced between past and present several times in each chapter, sometimes without any sort of transition, that it gets to be very confusing.The relationship between Stella and Dean is almost non-existent. Yes, there is an attraction that they both feel. Yes, they eventually act on their sexual urges. But by the end of the story, they still know as much about each other as they did at the beginning.There is a lot going on in this book. It's almost too much to follow.You have the story of Stella trying to figure out life with her boys.You have the story Stella and Dean trying to pursue a relationship.You have a bunch of random events that take place to add more drama to the story.And to top it off, you have a mystery person that comes out of nowhere and starts sending Stella threatening notes.Despite all of the stuff that happens, the pace of the book was VERY slow, in my opinion.--- Conclusion: ---Taking into consideration that this is a debut novel for SK Fordham, and also book #1 in a series (Yes, it ends on a pretty climatic cliffhanger), I think with a little bit of fine tuning this book has the potential to be really good. The emotional aspect keeps you hoping that Stella finds what she's looking for, and the mystery of wondering who is sending Stella the notes, and what they want with her, keeps you interested in what book #2 might have in store.