CarrieW

I liked this book despite the multitude of issues that plagued the overall story.

The first half covered the span of 9 days. It was fast paced, fairly action packed and kept my interest. The insta-love between the H/h was a bit of a turn-off but I was able to suspend disbelief once I got past the truly unreal scenario that a recently sexually assaulted woman would want to have sex within 48 hours of said assault. Then, just when I was starting to believe the relationship, the author drops cliche' plot device #1 & #2. But hey... I'll roll with it. Surely this story is just about to explode on multiple levels.

And then it doesn't. It barely even simmers. The 2nd half is all Tell and not enough Show. The plot draaaaaaaaaags. Especially compared to the action packed first half. I'm guessing the author's goal was to thoroughly explore the character's "after". And I do think she did a great job with the H/h's inner dialogue as they traversed the huge gap between where they were and where they wanted to be... both as individuals and as a couple. I just wished she had used a lot more interaction/dialogue vs internal musings. I wanted action. I got bored with the cautious dance these two were doing. It totally went against the characters that they were in the first half of the book. No way would Mr. Domineering-I-don't-follow-Rules allow the h to make the decisions she was making. And what happened to the knife wielding h that would take you down with her? SHE wouldn't have curled up in a ball and just cried. No way.

By the time we had meandered to the end, I had almost lost my connection to the characters. All the time spent with the h being "hurt" and the H being "sorry"... eh, just wrap it up already!

And then we get an epi that was good. Better than good. Despite it's distinctly Kristen Ashley-ish feel, I wanted more of THAT. So I will be reading Nicole James work in the future. I'm hoping she will continue this MC series so we get to see more from the crazy cast of characters.