Author: Clarissa Yip
Publisher: Entangled Ignite
Published: March 10th 2015
Format: eARC | Pages: 171
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romantic Suspense
Source: Publisher
★★★✩ (3.5/5) Stars!
Clarissa Yip | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
First comes marriage. Then comes murder…
Lauren Burke waited fifteen months and twenty-three days for her divorce to be finalized. Instead, her ex-husband went one step further—he turned up dead. And the detective working on the case is none other than Kane Hollister—the man who ran off over three years ago and shattered Lauren’s heart into a zillion pieces…
It looks like Lauren, but she’s no longer the carefree girl Kane once knew. And yet he can’t deny the awareness that heats his blood at the sight of her. But when the death threats begin, Kane realizes that the killer has a new target…and it’s Lauren. Now he must protect the woman he’s always loved—and always hurt—from a vicious murderer. And when the sparks between them ignite, Lauren will have to make a choice between her life… or her heart!
I received a copy of this book, from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. In no way did this sway either my review or my rating!
This was very nearly one of those I-need-to-quit-while-I'm-ahead types of books for me. I even got to the point where I was sitting here contemplating what exactly I was going to say when I emailed the publisher to say sorry this wasn't for me. Yet as I sat here something in my gut kept saying, "You're only at 16%. Try to hold on and give it just a little more time. At least get to 25%, get a quarter of the way through the book and if you still aren't feeling it...well..." So I picked up my Kindle with determination to once again to make sure I put in a good effort to allow this book to capture me. Next thing I knew it was nearly midnight and I was almost to 65%! I'm so glad I listened to that little voice.
I haven't read any romantic suspense novels in a very long time. That's what the huge deciding factor was in me requesting this book. The blurb just sounded way too interesting to me to pass it up. I didn't have any sort of problem with that part of the book. I actually loved the storyline and the mystery and suspense aspect of it. Even though I was pretty sure I had the whole who done it and why part figured out about halfway through, I was even pretty cocky about it in my head, Clarissa Yip did a really good job of casting doubts on what I was positive was a sure thing.
I think that my main problem was that in the beginning both Lauren and Kane, it didn't matter whose POV I was in, they always had these very obsessive inner monologues going about the other one. And it was very repetitive at times. Maybe a few words changed here and there but they all came down to the same things. Why is he back here? Everybody leaves me. Daniel didn't love me. Just like Kane didn't love me. Why is she so cold now? What happened to the girl who used to be so open? There was a bit more and like I said, they thought these things repeatedly. It was sort of frustrating.
Once I got past that hump though I actually grew to really love these characters. Kane's back story was absolutely heartbreaking when it finally came out. I mean I was very nearly in tears. It explained a lot of his self-loathing and need to keep everyone at arms length and even his protective instincts and career choice. I loved how, even though she was trying to keep everyone out most especially Kane, Lauren couldn't help but push him and try to fix him in a sense. I guess it was more like they pushed each other even though they both kept trying to tell themselves that they needed to stay away from the other one. You could tell that for all their protests there was truly something great there between them.
Besides the whole crazy, serial killer thing going on, which had me on the edge of my seat by the way, there was quite a bit of other stuff going on as well. It wasn't just a murder mystery with some romance thrown in. Speaking of romance though, that part of it had me swooning and breathless at times. Lauren and Kane had these moments of sweetness and tenderness that were so heartwarming and then they also had this intense passion that burned so hot I'm surprised my Kindle didn't melt. Even when they were fighting it was filled with sparks. There were even moments of humor that had me laughing out loud. I swear if there is ever a book about Kane's partner Ryan, which I really think needs to happen by the way, I am going to be all over that!!
It's books like this one that leave me glad that I push myself sometimes even if I don't think I'm feeling it at first. It's worth the risk because now as I sit here, done, I can honestly say that I had so much fun reading it!
Thanks to Entangled Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book!
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