Review by Sunshine and rain
Oct 27, 2016I wanna love you... I mean, I tried to love you... Well, maybe next time. I talk often about the dreaded series "wall". With Book 7, this Author. Just. Hit. Hers. BAM!
I won't bother with the blurb summary as that is easily read right above. Let's head straight to my take on this book. It is perplexing that this book isn't a win. The characters are amazingly drawn, their back story is compelling, Mitch, in particular, is a hunk of burning love and the situation in which they find themselves is intriguing. The book has the right balance of intrigue, romance and smexy sex. So what in the Sam Hill went wrong?? Well I can tell you where. This became a primer of paint by numbers or book by recipe. Having successfully churned out several in the series, we are left with "put this here. Shake that there, swirl it around and voila! presto"
Any Means is not a total disaster but after the absolute yumminess of Book 6, I was like WTF? This book doesn't fit stylistically at all with the others. There was little of that smoothness that drew you into the story of the others and the almost formulaic approach to the story robbed it of flow. If I hadn't seen the authors byline, I would have sworn someone else wrote this book. It was that jarring to me. Her voice just seemed totally different. Perhaps because the story with Xavier (Book2) is where we first met Mark as Deacon, it is unsurprising that this book most closely mirrors that near miss, where the characters are super compelling but the story doesn't really deliver on promise. We met Mitch in a previous story as well and he's everything we thought he would be and then some. It is disappointing, then, that with so much promise, so much heat and true love hinted at between the MCs, the reader doesn't get emotionally involved with the story. (at least I didn't). Brilliant foundation, good bones, but unfortunately no flesh. 2.5 stars
I wanna love you... I mean, I tried to love you... Well, maybe next time. I talk often about the dreaded series "wall". With Book 7, this Author. Just. Hit. Hers. BAM!
I won't bother with the blurb summary as that is easily read right above. Let's head straight to my take on this book. It is perplexing that this book isn't a win. The characters are amazingly drawn, their back story is compelling, Mitch, in particular, is a hunk of burning love and the situation in which they find themselves is intriguing. The book has the right balance of intrigue, romance and smexy sex. So what in the Sam Hill went wrong?? Well I can tell you where. This became a primer of paint by numbers or book by recipe. Having successfully churned out several in the series, we are left with "put this here. Shake that there, swirl it around and voila! presto"
Any Means is not a total disaster but after the absolute yumminess of Book 6, I was like WTF? This book doesn't fit stylistically at all with the others. There was little of that smoothness that drew you into the story of the others and the almost formulaic approach to the story robbed it of flow. If I hadn't seen the authors byline, I would have sworn someone else wrote this book. It was that jarring to me. Her voice just seemed totally different. Perhaps because the story with Xavier (Book2) is where we first met Mark as Deacon, it is unsurprising that this book most closely mirrors that near miss, where the characters are super compelling but the story doesn't really deliver on promise. We met Mitch in a previous story as well and he's everything we thought he would be and then some. It is disappointing, then, that with so much promise, so much heat and true love hinted at between the MCs, the reader doesn't get emotionally involved with the story. (at least I didn't). Brilliant foundation, good bones, but unfortunately no flesh. 2.5 stars
