A review by the_sassy_bookworm
All His Secrets by Maya Hughes

4.0

I enjoyed this one for the most part. I thought after reading the synopsis that this was going to be a light, sexy insta-love type read, but it was a rather slow burn with mildly hot sex scenes. So I was a little bummed by the lack of heat, but like I said I still enjoyed it.



The deets...I found it to be well written and well paced. The plot (although a little heavier than I anticipated) was engaging and kept me turning the pages. I wouldn't say I found it to be overly angsty and there was no OW/OM drama. Like I mentioned above it was a pretty slow burn with no sex until 60% and the sex scenes were more on the mild side. There weren't very many secondary characters, but I loved both Esme and Derrick. Both main characters were relatively likable. I quite liked Melanie. I loved her interactions with Esme. She was sweet and had a big heart. Rhys was a bit more complicated for me. I loved how he was with his daughter (Esme), and at times he was charming with Mel. But I felt we were promised a hero with this "darkness" that scared women away and had them signing nondisclosure agreements, but except for losing his temper a couple of times, there was nothing dark about him. I'll be honest with all the talk about his "darkness" and him letting it out and wondering if she would be the woman who could handle it, I was expecting some kink. But no kink, nothing. *shrug*



I also had a couple of other issues that kept me from rating this one higher. There were a few loose ends (the heroines mother for example) that are just kind of left hanging, and the ending was incredibly rushed. From the big fight until the end it felt underdeveloped. Part of the problem is that we don't get enough of Rhys's POV about the aftermath of the big blowup. One minute he is a colossal asshole and the next we

find out he has been trying to contact her for weeks??

I needed a scene where he realizes that he made a HUGE mistake and it has cost him it all. Lastly, there wasn't enough groveling. He should have been crawling over broken glass and begging for forgiveness from both Mel AND Esme.

So a little bit of a mixed bag with this one. Some good. Some that could have better. But overall this one gets a solid thumbs up from yours truly.