Review: Good debut!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 17, 2014
Mia is running from someone. At the beginning of Ahead of the Darkness she's settling in to a new life in a small town in England. She's closed up tight about revealing anything about herself. She suffers flashbacks and she's afraid of so many things. She finds the local gym and falls flat on her face while on the treadmill when she meets Drew, a tall, good looking Scotsman. Hello! I love these awkward, clumsy kind of meetings. But Mia doesn't stick around long since she's thoroughly embarrassed.Not to worry. She runs into Drew again when she goes out to a nightclub and he's tending bar. After a much longer and even more embarrassing night with Drew she finds herself with a job. Drew is a bartender short and Mia wows him with her skills.The sexual attraction is strong between these two but Drew has a hands off policy concerning the employees. The more Mia gets to know Drew, and she runs into him often, the more she realizes he has his own secrets. And he runs so hot and cold he leaves her confused. He's possessive of her, he likes to spend time with her, and he's helping her overcome her fears. But he's yet to make a move.I liked the characters. There were a few moments that made me laugh out loud. The Star Wars references were cute and Drew singing karaoke was priceless. Nicole did a great job creating and prolonging the sexual tension that when it finally happened I had to fan myself. It was hawt! She did a great job inserting the flashbacks at the right times to keep me guessing as to what/who Mia was running from.But, I thought around the halfway point it started to get a bit monotonous. Nothing was really happening and the story wasn't really progressing. Then there was a lot going on in the final scene and it left me slightly confused. A few questions were left unanswered and the book left off on a cliffhanger.Overall I thought Nicole's debut book was pretty solid. I will be reading more from her.