Review: Novella fell short
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 02 20, 2013
Novellas are tricky in that the author has a limited amount of pages to create a connection between characters and readers. With more pages and a little extra plot, this book would have been very good.First, let me say I enjoyed Ms Anna's writing style. Voice is important, and that kept me reading. Unfortunately, the characters hit the page and there wasn't enough development for me to really connect to them.Olivia is an EMT. Cool. A caring, nurturing, possibly hero-type personality. When push comes to shove, she shoves back. So when her character goes from "I'm going to rip this psycho kidnapping killer's eyes out" to "I want to jump his bones" in an abrupt 180...without any explanation why...I hit my first serious disappointing hurdle.Garrick Blackthorn is an interesting character. He's built and gorgeous and clearly alpha. His preternatural disposition is obvious to anyone that reads the genre. Initially, he's true to his "do the job" attitude. One he never wavers from. But then he does...again, without a real explanation. His inconsistent character responses were the second disappointing hurdle.Then there's the final conflict, which wasn't bad as far as novellas go. The resolution for Garrick's situation is plausible...but Olivia's reaction is clearly whacked. She's spent one day with Garrick, slept with him a couple of times, and she's prepared to make life-altering decisions immediately. At 40'ish (though she sounded 25'ish) I was shocked by the drastic reaction without any real reason. And that was the third disappointing hurdle.Will I read the next book in the series? If it's a full-length novel, yes. If it's another novella, I'm not so sure.