Kara the Book'aholic
I'm a mother, lifelong-student, avid reader, and reviewer. I'll give pretty much anything a shot, but my guilty pleasure is romance, especially if it's dark and full of suspense.
Sadly, I think the story had a lot of potential, but the execution was severely lacking. It read as a failed attempt at a dark, twisted adult contemporary. And I walked away feeling like the author was trying to delve too deeply into the psyches of the characters, and there were a lot, but most notably Sean, which really wouldn't have been bad if the reader was able to see more of these behaviors rather than being told about them in tremendous detail, over and over.
There were a lot of info dumps throughout the book as well. For example, we were given the ins and outs of the Essex rave scene back in the 1990's, which added absolutely nothing to the story. Then for some reason, the author found it necessary to offer her version of definitions:
“…negotiator. This is someone who focuses their talents in arbitrating
arrangements between two or more parties. Most negotiators
act for a particular party involved in the deal.”
I should have dnf’ed it, but I kept hoping it would redeem itself, especially after reading all of the great reviews. Needless to say, that didn’t happen.