Reviews

Hidden Away by Maya Banks

melissacoello's review

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

tadams_sg's review

3.0

Ehh. It was good, but not what I was expecting. Not enough romance, not soon enough.

justheatherreading's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

cwall198282's review

fast-paced

5.0

katyanaish's review

2.0

This one is reaaaally tough for me to rate. See, I love Garrett. I have loved him since the first book. And I thought Sarah was a fantastic heroine, a real survivor, and absolutely not a doormat.

But here's the thing...

Spoiler

I can't get over the fact that he chose to seduce a rape victim, while lying to her about everything. I get he cared about her, I get the panting attraction, but... if he REALLY cared about her, he wouldn't have had sex with her when he was lying to her, when he was using her as bait for her brother. Yes, yes, Marcus was a bad man. But for whatever reason, he was good to Sarah, and she knew nothing about his other life. Marcus was her only rock, her only anchor, and he protected her fiercely, even killing a man who hurt her.

When someone has survived rape, trust is... a hard thing. To lie to Sarah, to use her and make her trust you, and then have sex with her because you think you love her... that's fucked up. Beyond fucked up. And from that point forward, I just really had a problem with the book. Because in my mind, nothing Garrett could ever, EVER, say or do would make up for such a flagrant betrayal of her trust. If he hadn't had sex with her, maybe. But to pretend to be someone he's not, and take advantage of her in that way... nothing could ever make that okay. If he was a decent human being AT ALL, he should have insisted on that step not being taken until the situation was over and he could be honest with her. If he cared about her, wanted to protect her, he wouldn't have done that.

The thing that makes it so particularly hard is... I really love Garrett. I think that as I was reading it, and becoming appalled, my brain kept trying to sweep away the details, rewrite the book in my head, to have him not be that guy. To have him be the *amazing* guy that he was in the first 2 books.

So I don't know. I can't, in good conscience, give this any kind of good rating, because that was seriously fucked up, and made any kind of HEA unbelievable to me.

But I love Garrett.

:(

Garrett and Sarah: A
Maya Banks: F

Best I can do.

kaoticblissmlt's review

4.0

Awesome

annoflore's review

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

echoingbooks's review

3.0

This book was enjoyable, that’s all I can say. I mean I wish I loved this book but again this book was missing the magic. This book did not have a lot of suspense. This book was more about Garret and Sarah’ s relationship and how he got to her to trust him. The fact that he had to use her to get to her brother, I didn’t like that at all. Yeah I know the brother was one of the most wanted in the CIA but really using family against each other is the worst possible way to go.

“I’m getting the impression that women, in any form, scare you.”
He shrugged. “They’re the more violent species. And unpredictable. I’d rather take on a wild boar. You can’t shoot women.”

I loved Garrett though. This book showed us that he isn’t always so uptight. This book also showed us how sweet Garrett can be. Now the sex only came later in this book but obviously that is understandable with Sara’s past and all. I mean this girl had a very big traumatic event happen to her and she needed to learn to trust again. I loved Garrett. I loved the part on the paradise island. Big swoon when he brought her a basket with books (!), chocolate and whine. The ending was beautiful although a bit naive. I didn’t feel a lifelong love at that point.

“Now wasn’t the time for emotional outbursts, but when they were safe–and they would be because she believed him without reservation–then she’d tell him what she thought about the man he was. The man she wanted.

And if he walked away, she’d never have any regrets. Love was a gift, but it was up to the recipient to accept and cherish or to reject the offering. All she could do was give unreservedly. And for the first time since her assault, she realized that she could give something she’d never thought to give again. Her trust and her love.”

There are two facts about this book that I din’t like:

The fact that Garrett lied to Sarah for almost the whole book. We have a heroine with serious trust issues, and then he lies to her? Fine, I get that he can’t say “Oh, I’ve been sent from the CIA to arrest your brother, who you love very much.” But still, I think he could have handled it a lot better. [And I would have liked some more grovelling, now she basically forgives him in a second.]
There was basically bailey any suspense, I needed more action!

“When would he learn that women never stayed where you put them?”

The best thing about this book was the Rusty subplot. Big yay for everyone standing up for her! And finally the brothers acknowledged her. I also have a soft spot for Rio <3 and we got to see a lot of him. This wasn’t the best in this series, but it wasn’t bad enough to put me off it either

“He drew away and stared down at her, stroking her cheek. “I hope to hell this isn’t one of those situations where you go a little crazy because we’re in a bad situation and you don’t think we’re going to get out so you do stuff you’d never dream of otherwise. Because baby, when we get out of here, I’m going to spend two days doing nothing but make love to you. And it won’t have a damn thing to do with anything but the fact that I want to be inside of you more than I want to breathe.”

ON MY BLOG:

geisttull's review

3.0

good book in the series. will continue to read this one.

justlily's review

3.0

I'm slightly disappointed here, I can't lie to you. During the first two books of this series, Garrett was my favorite brother. I loved his relationship with Rachel, I loved how he didn't like Sophie at first (sort of like I still don't really like her..........), he was just overall the best of the group. And this was his moment.

It wasn't great.

The storyline was meh, his new girlfriend is meh, there wasn't near enough Kelly interaction to keep me happy. But the thing is, it still gets three stars because I liked it. It was a romance novel and I liked it.

That's an incredibly rare feat.

We tied up some ends with Lattimer, we got a glimpse of a few upcoming romances...but overall this book felt like one Maya Banks had to write and not one she really cared about. The other two felt much more cleanly crafted and handled with care, while Garrett's story kind of got there "HERE THE FUCK YOU GO! NEXT!" treatment.