Author: Nyrae Dawn
Date of publication: 2 July 2013
Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult
Author's links:
Website / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads
My rating: 3.5 stars
Goodreads Blurb
Can love save them?
After her father commits a crime that shatters her family, eighteen-year-old Delaney Cross is tired of pretending everything is all right. Packing up her car, she sets out to find the people her father hurt. Her search leads her to places she’s never been—and into the arms of Adrian Westfall.
To the outside world, Adrian is a sexy, charming ladies’ man. But his playboy persona is just an act. Secretly his soul is tortured by a memory too painful to share. Only Delaney seems to see through his façade to the real man underneath. And for the first time in his life, Adrian feels he can begin to open up about his past.
Together, Adrian and Delaney share a passionate love they never expected to find. Yet both still harbor their own secrets. When the dark truth is finally revealed, will it bring them closer together - or tear them apart forever?
My Review
I was provided an ARC by the publisher via NetGalley.
This book is the sequel to Charade (which I also read and hopefully, will review it next week) and tells the story of Adrian, Colt's friend and Delaney who was connected to him through some very tragic events in their pasts.
I have to say that I liked this book more than the first one in the series. It was such a heart-breaking romantic story about overcoming tragedy and finding the strength to go on living and most importantly, to heal yourself and the others.
I liked Adrian a lot. He was a complex character who underwent real growth in the course of the story. I felt deeply for his suffering and self-imposed loneliness. Still, he was far too passive at the beginning and through most of the book and it took him a quite a while to realise that running away from the problems doesn't solve them, that trying to escape the pain doesn't magically make it go away.
On the other hand, I have some misgivings concerning the heroine, Delaney. She wanted to fix everything and everybody but went about it the wrong way. It was frustrating to wait past the middle of the book for her to come clean to Adrian and to herself.
The story itself was interesting and emotionally engaging. I liked that Colt and Chey appeared in the story, was well. Delaney's older brother, Maddox, was also an interesting character, and I am eagerly waiting for his story in the next instalment of the series - Masquerade which is due to be released on 7 Jan 2014.
Having listed all the positive features, there were also some things that I didn't like very much. Adrian's angst was too much at times. Somewhere around the middle of the book, the story lost some of its easy flow. It got stuck into neverending inner monologues of self-loathing and punishment for Adrian and self-doubt and insecurity for Delaney.
I also found rather annoying and out of place all the medical analogies used throughout the book in reference to relationship between Adrian and Delaney. They were supposed to be romantic but most definitely didn't feel this way to me. I think that someone who is supposed to be writer/poet (I did enjoy the short poems he wrote to Delaney) and has his way with words like Adrian, the author should have given him better lines to express his feelings for Delaney.
There was an interesting twist in the plot towards the end of the story that I didn't see coming and enjoyed a lot. It gave additional emotional impact to the whole plot. I liked the epilogue which completed the story in an optimistic light without being sugary sweet.
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