Scan barcode
A review by faustin2nd
Sanctuary by Rebekah Weatherspoon
3.0
OK - I wanted to love this book as much as I loved the first one. The formulae should've worked for me: strong, Black, non-skinny heroine? Check. Interesting hero? Check. Mystery? Check. Fun supporting characters? Check. Good writing? Check. But somehow these elements did not come together as well as I'd hoped.
First of all, the way the heroine fell for the hero was not very convincing. In fact, their whole hook-up-turned-relationship journey seemed a bit rushed. I couldn't help but be skeptical about their HEA at the end. There was a secondary storyline regarding the hero's brother and heroine's friend that should've been explored some more to justify its presence. Clearly the author had a limited number of words, and she couldn't spare them to explain some storylines in detail. The heroine was not very likable, which is not a problem, but the author kept bringing up aspects about her personality and past without (I feel) tying them into the story so well.
The story is told from both the hero and heroine's POV, but whenever it switched to the hero's POV, it always seemed to present the hero in a totally different light compared to how the heroine saw him. Maybe I misread the situation, but there were a couple of moments that took me out of the story. It kind of reminded me of [b:The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie|5981872|The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie (Mackenzies & McBrides, #1)|Jennifer Ashley|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1322336718s/5981872.jpg|6155268], but with more sex and less heart.
All in all, a lot was going on in this book - a lot of details were teased and not fully explained, the romance was not as satisfying as the erotic scenes and its main mystery started out promising but ultimately didn't deliver. I liked it enough - it's not the worst book I've ever read but compared to the first book, it was a let-down. The first book concentrated on setting up a story about two people who liked each other and fell in love despite their challenges, while this one did not; which lost the entire essence of why I loved the first book in the series.
With that said, I will still read the rest of the series. I have hope that things will get better.
First of all, the way the heroine fell for the hero was not very convincing. In fact, their whole hook-up-turned-relationship journey seemed a bit rushed. I couldn't help but be skeptical about their HEA at the end. There was a secondary storyline regarding the hero's brother and heroine's friend that should've been explored some more to justify its presence. Clearly the author had a limited number of words, and she couldn't spare them to explain some storylines in detail. The heroine was not very likable, which is not a problem, but the author kept bringing up aspects about her personality and past without (I feel) tying them into the story so well.
The story is told from both the hero and heroine's POV, but whenever it switched to the hero's POV, it always seemed to present the hero in a totally different light compared to how the heroine saw him. Maybe I misread the situation, but there were a couple of moments that took me out of the story. It kind of reminded me of [b:The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie|5981872|The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie (Mackenzies & McBrides, #1)|Jennifer Ashley|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1322336718s/5981872.jpg|6155268], but with more sex and less heart.
All in all, a lot was going on in this book - a lot of details were teased and not fully explained, the romance was not as satisfying as the erotic scenes and its main mystery started out promising but ultimately didn't deliver. I liked it enough - it's not the worst book I've ever read but compared to the first book, it was a let-down. The first book concentrated on setting up a story about two people who liked each other and fell in love despite their challenges, while this one did not; which lost the entire essence of why I loved the first book in the series.
With that said, I will still read the rest of the series. I have hope that things will get better.