Tovah is on the hunt to uncover hockey "good-guy" Isaac James secrets and finally expose them. She's been on the run from his family for4.5 rounded up
Tovah is on the hunt to uncover hockey "good-guy" Isaac James secrets and finally expose them. She's been on the run from his family for years, hiding her identity, pretending her mother is dead, and searching for a way to finally be safe. Little does she know she's already on his radar and has been for awhile, and he'll do anything he can to make her his.
Oh this one was SO GOOD. If you're not a fan of dark romance, skip it, if you are, you're going to absolutely devour it. This is everything I love about the genre. Dubious consent, possessiveness, degradation, stalking, kidnapping, and a completely unhinged MMC. The spice? It's spicing. Isaac discovering and embracing Tovah's masochism as it fed his own beast was absolute perfection, and seeing him fall deeper into his depraved tendencies had the pace on this steady and engaging.
Having the push and pull of Isaac's hatred and obsession, with Tovah's fear, reluctance and adoration was everything. Their chemistry was tangible on the page through each of them keeping secrets and harming each other, and seeing Isaac screw up and force retribution over and over again made this book seem shorter than it was. I barely stopped to come up for air in this one because it was just that addictive and the pages flew by.
We get some insight into his family and each of their pasts, but the story is more focused on the current day until the past and it collide. There is some of Isaac and his time on the ice as well, but this is definitely more of a dark romance with mafia roots, than a sports romance overall.
All in all, this is the perfect book for DR fans, and I can't wait to read the next in the series.
Thank you to The Author Agency for the digital ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own....more
I've read a few F1 romances prior to this one, but none actually explained the sport to this degree. I feel like I learned SO much about F1 that I'm actually tempted to watch a race now. I especially loved the female narrators excitement and clarity as the character, because it truly helped feel her joy and understand what is so complex about the sport.
I did grapple with the dual narration as the male narrators voice was so beautifully deep and gruff, and the females was so light and soft, that they struggled to accurately read the other gender's parts. Her version of the male lead sounded awkward and nerdy. His version of the female lead (and some of the side characters with French and German accents) sounded overly breathy and odd. I swapped back to the book after a few chapters because it was genuinely throwing me off. That being said, the narrators themselves were great, and I think they'd do amazing in a duet style or single narration.
The book itself was more heavy on the sport aspect, with the romance supporting it, and I found that I really enjoyed it set up in this way. We still got to see them grow as people and sort out their issues, but the highlight of the book was truly the sport itself.
If you're looking for an F1 romance with some spice, and lots of details, grab this one! I can't wait to read the next book in the series.
Thank you to The Author Agency for the digital ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ...more
Gracie is currently at rock bottom. Divorced, struggling to pay her and her Dads medical bills, behind on her next novel, and now injured? Things coulGracie is currently at rock bottom. Divorced, struggling to pay her and her Dads medical bills, behind on her next novel, and now injured? Things couldn't get worse. That is, until her meddling nephew calls in her ex-husband to come take care of her, and he jumps at the chance to rekindle what they once had. Gracie is left to wonder how long he'll stick around this time and how soon baseball will interfere again.
This was one of the strangest second-chance romances I've ever read. The characters were fine but not lovable. Her sister Mona is a terrible sister, and I'm still baffled as to why her nephew gets his own POV and chapters worked into her story. It doesn't add anything to the novel and just continues to have it drag on to be much too long.
Also, I don't know how two people could divorce in their mid to late 30's and then not be with other people? In 5 years? Still calling each other husband and wife and babe. Especially after he left her devastated after a massive personal loss to focus on his job and never chose to explain it. It was just awkward and dragged out, and we don't get the reasons behind things until too late in the novel to even have investment into the characters.
Then there's the epilogue that really didn't need to be included. If anything, it brought the book down further due to how awkward and clunky it was, and how it reinforces that despite remarriage, he's still going to continue to find ways to choose baseball.
Overall, I found this a slow and frustrating book, and I wouldn't recommend it.
Thank you, NetGalley, and Tyndale House for the digital ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own....more
Myrtle has lived a long life, and now, in her twilight years, she's decided to record her life history alongside her ancestors. Through her reading thMyrtle has lived a long life, and now, in her twilight years, she's decided to record her life history alongside her ancestors. Through her reading the stories and reminiscing on her own, we get a picture into her struggles and achievements through life.
I wasn't expecting this to be a magical realism book in the way that it was presented. We're given random views into the past in a disjointed way for a good chunk of the beginning of the book. That's interspersed with vague details of current day, before we get into the meat of the story, which is all current day. It had the potential to be an epic and interesting read, but in reality, it was sad and flat. The core of the story is a young girl who consistently gives up all of her time, care, and mental health to take care of her neglectful drunk of a mother and her mentally unwell and abusive twin. She gives up everyone she's ever loved, all of her dreams and freedoms, and all of her youth, to be dedicated to a sister who wants to ruin her. It's just slowly sadder and sadder that she's wasted all of her life, being at the beck and call of someone who treated her terribly, and she'll maybe get a decade or two in advanced age to live as she wants.
That, combined with the callous and cold way all of the female family members are abused, and its just casually brushed aside was unsettling. It's almost framed in a way that it's expected, or not that important each time a woman in the family line is abused, assaulted, and raped. It was astounding to me that it would be presented so nonchalantly just to advance the story. Especially when the entire premise of good and evil hinges on a conflict we don't get nearly enough details into, and is resolved way too easily.
This book left me unsatisfied, and I can't see what I would recommend about it, as the only impact it had on me was to feel sorry for the lead.
Thank you, NetGalley and HarperCollins One More Chapter for the digital ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own....more
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