Reviews

Jae wrote an exceptional novel of two stubborn souls that can't help but make way to your heart. It's a non-stop read from start to finish. This author did not take the easy route but instead wrote a book that rocked my world.

angieinbooks's review against another edition

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3.0

I appreciate Jae's ambition in taking on what is a very difficult subject matter, and I think she does a great job with it, so my review is not a discredit to the work she does on that front. And actually, I'm rating this an entire star up for that effort.

But overall this was a disappointment for me. It's labeled as a "Romantic Suspense" novel, but I didn't find it suspenseful at all. The first half of the book deals with the rape and the trial and the second half concentrates on the aftermath--Dawn's trauma and the budding romance between Dawn and Aiden and questions about how you enter a romance with a sexual assault survivor.

This was a fairly typical Jae experience for me, where I'm presented a really interesting concept that just doesn't hold up on execution. And I feel like Jae doesn't trust her writing to convey what it needs, so she puts too much in there, including a constant stream of her characters' thoughts either because she's unable to use descriptions to provide the reader small actions to understand her characters or because she doesn't think her readers can pick up on the subtlety and so she adds a character thought to clarify what the description means. And it really impacts my interaction with the text--it's overkill that makes it kind of boring, actually. So I really struggled with this book. And it's not because the subject matter, which is really hard. I was honestly just bored and didn't want to keep reading.

So, honestly, this is a two-star read for me that I'm bumping up to 3 stars for Jae's bravery in tackling a difficult subject.

nicolang's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

ash1542's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

tricia_r's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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