Review: Survivor of domestic abuse finds her HEA in the arms of two men in Small Town USA
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 11, 2011
First book in "Pine Valley" series. No further books at the time of this review.Plot:When Cane finally makes her break from Sam all she wants to do is disappear. But Logan and Duncan have other ideas. They're going to keep her safe, and keep her with them, whatever it takes.Comments:- Romantic suspense with two men, one woman, set in Small Town USA.- 4081 kindle locations, 53,799 words- m/f/m and m/f - caring, generous. Cane has been abused in the past and it does play a (albeit very minor) role in her private time with the men. Aiming for a committed threesome.- Some editing and proofreading issues on my electronic version. Nothing too dramatic, but also nothing that couldn't be fixed by a good editor. Typos, over reliance on a spell-checker, grammatical errors, sentences that don't make sense but would if punctuation or missing words were replaced. (Yeah, yeah, I make mistakes too. But I'm an amateur; you get what you pay for when you read my review. I just think it's a shame when an author allows their work to "go live" when there are obvious, rectifiable errors. You lose credibility and it takes away from the story you are telling. Your work, which you put so much effort into, is devalued by petty errors).Opinion ***Spoilers***:There are a lot of things about this book I like. I like the background characters (Ali, Riley). The men are certainly hot and caring alpha-types. The climax is heart-breaking. The sex is hot and steamy, caring and generous. Ultimately, the set up for future books set around this town is intriguing. I can see the series working. And it is a nice HEA, one that I can see happening.But in the end the main plot of this book just doesn't work for me. Cane is running from Sam. So we need strength and believability, but I don't think we get it.- Cane. Cane just doesn't work for me. She fluctuates, she can't quite decide what to do. Her dialogue is stilted, the way and times she "opens up" unbelievable, and her past plays such a minor role. For someone who was so brutally beaten, abused in every way possible, for *eight* years as well as having gone through a date rape and being in foster care basically from birth, she gets over it remarkably fast. Okay, she mentally broke from Sam 6 months ago, when she started to plan her escape. This usually allows our heroine (in this genre) to accept love and hot sex just as soon as she meets her perfect man (or men). And Cane certainly does. Yet I just don't feel it.- Sam and his friends. Given the level of abuse Cane suffered, to never have had anyone question it, is very surprising. And then to have his friends complicit in it, to the point they want to share Cane? Seriously? Where's the anti-corruption squad?- And finally two strange men turn up in a small town where we've already discussed how strangers stand out, and no-one investigates. What sort of protectors are you?That whole major plot arc doesn't work for me. Which is disappointing. I don't mind the Saving the Hurt Woman through Hot Menage Sex storyline. It can work really well. But in this case, it doesn't. And because it is the major story line, I can't give the book more than 3 stars. This is not a book I would want to come back to. BUT I am interested in how the series pans out. I will be keeping an eye out for further books by Ms Davis.-CR-