Review: Didn't quite gel for me
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 4, 2014
On a business trip to Vegas, Holli meets rock star Jack Dalton (aka Johnny Outlaw). When a night of passion turns into more than a one night stand, they have to find a way to make a relationship work despite the odds stacked against them.I really wanted to like this book. It had all the makings of a good story but there just some ingredients missing. In Vegas, Holli and Dalton just didn't click as much for me as the author wanted. They had a lot of (poorly written) sex but the snappy dialogue wasn't really all that snappy. Most of what they said throughout the book read more like inspirational poster quotes than real life conversation. And the quotations at the top of every scene were the same--unoriginal and awkwardly written.Also, I found it hard to believe that, toward the end of the story, Dalton could recover from a devastating blow after all the craziness, simply by spending a week in Hawaii, getting drunk. It seemed unlikely. Now, if he was getting drunk in Hawaii with a psychiatrist, THAT I might believe.Their relationship was seriously volatile and Holli was so waffley--does she want to be with him? Or not? I also felt that socializing with Danny was a stupid thing to do. Not because Dalton would be jealous, but because she knew Danny was into her and all of these encounters were just leading him on. It was uncool IMO.I did like that they tied up all the loose ends at the end of the book. Although the scenes with Dalton's Dad really rang false. His reasons for being so dismissive and rude to Dalton just didn't hold up--there just wasn't enough real backstory there to make his hollow words seem true. And then, for no reason, all is well at the end?? Really?There was alternating POV between the two characters but it only happened a few times. Mostly the book was told from Holli's POV. So when they switched to Dalton, it felt forced. By the end of the book, we're supposed to believe that he loved her from the moment he saw her and it's shown by the way he remembers to buy her favorite soda. IMO there should have been WAY more moments, both bigger and smaller than this one, illustrating his feelings for her. Just wanting to punch people who spend time with your "girl", doesn't mean you're in love. And for Danny to have whitewashed Dalton's violence, even slightly--like wanting to hurt men who spend time with your girlfriend is a valid expression of your feelings--really annoyed me. This is why so many women stay with violent men. We shouldn't be championing this behavior. It should be considered wrong. Period.In any case, there was potential for this book to be much better but it never reached it IMO.Too bad.