Review: 3.5 Stars. Better than I expected :)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 15, 2014
Ok I loved the foundation and bone structure of this book. I surprisingly also loved the main protagonist Emerald and enjoyed her inner thoughts and voice. I seriously did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did and I was getting ready to hate Emerald before I even read about her, but the author was able to stunningly craft such a strong, messed-up, vulnerable, yet still very likeable character as well as an interesting enough storyline, all through Emerald's POV. If there is one thing that turns me from a book, it's having to read about irritatingly selfish heroines in the guise of the "good virgin girl" that treat perfect men horribly yet justify it somehow as "doing the right thing" or playing childish mind games with them in an effort to "unconsciously" fish for attention (bleh!!). Not Emerald. She was so well written, that through all the layers of her personality and past, I found myself rooting for her.The negatives for me was the romance between the h & H. I'm hoping it's just me, but I just didn't really feel the sparks. The start of their meeting was super cute and flirty. I loved the sarcastic back & forth and I loved his initial persistence. Somewhere in the middle of the courtship it started to become sluggish and less exciting. Maybe there wasn't enough romantic dialogue and I felt I was more being told about what was happening during the potentially swoony moments instead of hearing them say it. The steamy scenes were also a little flat for me. Again, I maybe felt I was being told about it, not actually feeling it. Maybe I just needed more insight into the H Carsen's thoughts but I totally understand he's supposed to be a sexy mystery so will have to wait until the next book to find out however, there was definitely some small element missing in the romance and steam department but I can't yet seem to put a finger on it.All-in-all, I quite enjoyed this book even if I didn't get a new BBF from it. I will definitely pick up book #2 Beautiful Temptation. Not because I'm remotely curious about the mysterious Carsen Black, but because I want to know that if we eventually find out what his story is or even get parts of his POV or more dialogue from him; we will finally get the swoon worthy "awwwwww" factor out of him.