Cheri

Not for me

Revisado: 01-01-24

This book was a surprise to me. It is long. I mean LLLLLOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG. I usually like long books, but I point this one out for a reason. I wasn’t feeling the book early on. It is slow and boring. I originally gave this a 1 star, but after I finally started to get into, just barely I might add (somewhere around chapter 15), I upped it to about 3 stars. Took way to long to get into it to me. If you don't hook me by chapter 3, you are not going to do well with me. I struggle with the 3 stars. That is only because I did get into the story enough to want to finish it and find out what happened.

By chapter 7, I really wanted to quit the book, and this book is like 72 chapters long. But I very rarely quit a book (like maybe 1 or 2 times in 10 years rare). And I already used a credit on it and who knows if I would get it back. I felt like with all the back and forth in time, I felt lost. I felt like I didn’t know the characters in this book. And so many of the characters behaviors were disturbing, from not caring what happened, to telling a grieving mother she thinks her missing daughter is a slut, to worse. I think by chapter 15 or so, I finally got into it enough to know more of the characters. I still hated that we kept going back and forth in time. I’m not talking about time machine kind of time jumping. I’m talking about the story would go between the lives of the two young teens before they went missing, to just after they went missing, then to about 15 or so months after and the finding of them. And this was over and over again throughout the book we time jumped. I usually don’t like that kind of time jumping. If it all happened in order, like the first few chapters would be before, then the next few, just after they went missing, then the rest of the book the final year after, that is what I normally like. But I don’t think this story would have worked that way. The reason, this is like a mystery that must be solved, so the reader is like the detective in that everyone gets the information little by little. True I did feel from the beginning that the “bad guy” was that person all along. But there was some surprises along the way. I started this book with the impression that these were just two young teens who had a baby and were really dedicated to making a good life for themselves and the baby. Then I got hints that she might not be as innocent as I originally thought. Then we found out the boy is emotionally abusing (controlling) the girl. So he is not so innocent and she is actually in a bad situation and wants out. True, she does seem to not always handle things right, but I doubt if she did handle it better that he would accept her feelings and wishes. What does end up happening is really disgusting. Some of the characters are so unfeeling, that I was wondering if they are just narcissist or sociopaths. I lean towards sociopaths.

SPOILER: The girl, Tulula, and boyfriend, Zach, are arguing and he says he is going to take her baby away from her. Tulula’s girlfriend, Scarlett, (aka the “bad guy”), ends up hitting Zach and killing him. The first words out of Scarlett’s mouth is “you wanted him to disappear”. Yes, she is already blaming Tulula even if both of them don’t really see it at that time. Then Scarlett’s mother comes in and drugs both her daughter and Tulula. Next thing, Tulula is locked in a hidden underground tunnel. In this tunnel is her dead boyfriend and spiders. She is very afraid of spiders. And Scarlett knows this. So when they both come out of their drugged states, Scarlett leaves her down there with the body and the spiders. She acts like it is for Tulula’s own good. Messed up, huh. Then her choice is to stay with them and basically leave her baby or go to prison because they are saying Tulula has the motive to kill Zach, not Scarlett, and that Tulula’s finger prints are on the murder weapon. Yep, they are framing her for Zach’s death. So they keep her locked up, drugged, and without access to the outside world for like 15 months. She even tells them she wants to leave and she would rather go to jail and serve her time. All she wants is to see her baby. So basically she went from one abusive person to the next (an even worse one). She finally gets saved and she is totally drug dependent by now and practically a shell of who she was. Totally disgusting, right, how they kept her hostage for so long, like 15 months. But at least she does know that what Scarlett and her mother did was wrong. While being rescued, Scarlett tries to tell Tulula that she loves her. Tulula just looked away knowing that is a lie. She finally gets reunited with her mother and son. All this time, several people knew what happened or at least had some piece of the puzzle. They didn’t bother to help. And those people who knew something, when they did help, it was like “well I thought someone would find her by now, and I didn’t want to get involved because I was about to go on vacation”. When I hear that, all I want is for them to go through what Tulula or her mom went through and have someone else say that about her case. I am glad that one of the people, Liam, who knew about it, did get some revenge against Scarlett. I don’t really think Tulula got any revenge. I actually wonder how much information Liam did have. And if he could have given the cops the information sooner. I don’t know if he even knew that Tulula was being held hostage or ran away. I don’t know if he knew that Zach was killed or ran away (a common thought throughout the book of what happened). I don’t know if he knew Scarlett did anything. He did find out about Zach when Scarlett called him nearly 15 months later and said to get rid of the body. She asks him in such a way that implied he had something to loose if he didn’t help. Talk about a manipulative girl. At least by then he was no longer under Scarlett’s spell. And he did leave clues and things to help the cops catch her. I swear I didn’t get the end game for the mother. She dug herself a hole she couldn’t get out of and it was like she just kept on digging it. That whole family was messed up.

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Terrible Book

Revisado: 02-13-23

I can't understand how others say this is a good book or best ever. This was bad. I mean so bad, I can't believe it was written by Nora Roberts. Apparently it was written in the 90s too despite audible saying it was written in 2014. I have to say, that really bothers me too (another reviewer mentioned this as well). I can understand audible saying it was done in audible format in 2014. But I want the original publication date. I swear that felt hard to find for this one. If you search through amazon, it will tell you the year for that media format, audible (2014), hard cover, paper back (1998), etc. And it still doesn't give you the right answer. I went to Nora Roberts website and still it gave the wrong information, said 2009, until you click on the tab for original publication, which said 1990. We shouldn't have to go through all that crap to find when a book was originally written.

The book description is short but describes only the last 5 chapters of the book. And even then it feels like it is misleading. I kept expecting the story as written from the book description, but didn't get that. There was way too much backstory. I feel like if you need to tell a backstory, then it should be confined to one chapter. Otherwise, then you should rewrite the book description to make sure it is accurately telling you what the story is about which includes all that back story. There was 45 chapters, and they pretty much go from her at the age of 3, to chapter 39, her at the age of 22 or so. But all of that is kind of the backstory. Then finally from chapters 40-45, that is the only chapters that matches the book description to me. There was a line in the book description that bothers me because of it being misleading, "But what Emma thinks she knows about that terrible night and the man she’s about to marry is only half the truth." That implies the man she is about to marry is a bad guy. However, by then she was already married and he was an abusive man. Or they could be talking about the new man in her life after her ex dies. But technically they were not about to marry. She didn't say yes until like the last chapter or two. And that man is good. He is the cop friend. So again, a misleading description of what this book is about and still only talks about the last 5 chapters.

SPOILERS IN WHAT I WRITE BELOW:
Chapter one started out as a woman running into a police station asking for help. Then we immediately go back to 1968, when that same woman was only 3 years old. Then for the next 39 chapters, we see her grow up. Wayyyyyy toooooo much back story, when it can all be wrapped up by saying Sex, DRUGS, rock n' roll, and TONS MORE DRUGS. Shoot, it took like 10 chapters or so for the bad thing to happen. Emma's little brother was murdered and little Emma (only 6 herself) witnessed it, and repressed the memory. Then after several more chapters we finally get to her at 13 yo. Nothing really happened in this age to advance the story, so it was useless in my opinion. Then at chapter 18, she is 18yo and it is 1982. Other than choosing her own path instead of the path her father wanted for her, this was kind of useless too. Then several more chapters later, and she is 22 and met a rock n' roll singer who is opening for her father. They marry. She starts to be emotionally, psychologically, and physically abused by him. He cuts her off from her friends and family. Though he wants what she can give him, entrance to her father, fame, and her money. She realizes that he manipulated her from start to finish. But she sticks with him because she is afraid. I am actually surprised he let her go out of town on her own. She uses the opportunity to run away. She gets her accountant to close all her credit cards and moves money around to prevent her ex from getting at it. But she still does not file charges against him. In the meantime, she reunites with a friend (childhood friend, son of the cop who investigated her little brothers death, and is now a cop himself). Then her ex finds her and nearly kills her but since he is beating her at a hotel, people hear. And the cop friend was informed the ex may be coming, he rushes over. Somehow with all the injuries, she kills the ex with her own gun. Somehow we are now at chapter 39 or 40. This is where we finally come back to what the book description referred. The secret... "who killed her little brother". For over 20 years, it was an unsolved case. Now, the cop has reopened the case and he is making some head way. Makes you wonder why his father, also a detective, didn't do some of the same things he did. But somehow, because Emma is doing a few things here or there that makes one of the perpetrators nervous, he attempts to kill her. And now we are back at where this story began, a woman rushing into a police station asking for help after someone tried to kill her. But the perpetrator got hurt himself in the act. And while in the hospital, he gives up the other perpetrator. And this other perpetrator, not knowing he is about to be named, he starts to go after the girl too. But at the same time, she finally remembers who and what she saw that night her little brother was killed. He attempts to kill her and is killed himself by the hero cop rushing to save her.

And by the way, since the times are 70s and 80s, and written in 1990, you have to put up with those time periods and the people's behavior. I was very frustrated with the father and mother (Bev) separating and taking 20 years to get back together. And maybe this is just me, but I wanted to scream at Emma for not realizing the signs of an abusive person and getting out early on before it actually got worse. You know like making excuses for the guy. Shoot, he was annoyed and frustrated with her for not having sex with him prior to their marriage. That was at least a yellow flag. Then on her wedding night, he comes in late after not calling her and drinking too much, and rapes her. So many red flags in that. And she wrote it off. At this point she is not beaten down yet, so why didn't she at the very least have a big red flag waiving and be wary of him for the future. I can understand not wanting to admit, I just married a man and he isn't what I thought he was. I can even understand for Emma wanting to give him another shot after that (though on a personal level, I would never allow this sh!t). But I would be wary of everything in the future and be looking for more red flags. Once the next one was waived, I would be out of there. For Emma to stay after the first or second time he abused her in some way, why didn't she just leave. She wasn't beaten down by this time. She just made more excuses for him. I think after the wedding night, the next abuse was a slap or a punch. And this doesn't even account for him trying to cut her off from work, family, and friends. So many red flags in those first few days/weeks after they married that should have been enough to SHOUT at her to get out.

There I just saved you 20 hours of frustration. And annoyance at the slow, useless pace of this story.

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My favorite of Samantha Young's books

Revisado: 02-01-23

I actually started with this book in the series and have to say, this is still my favorite. True, I have only listened to Books 1-3. I would love to listen to more in this series.

Book 2 is this one and is my favorite. I love how it was read to us. I love the reader. I love the accents. I love the story. I love the characters. I love the quirky bits from all the characters. I love how the story came together. The angst and the struggle.

I have read/listened to 3 in this series and one more in another series from Samantha Young. While I loved the first two books in this series, I have not loved the other two books.

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Love this book and Book 2

Revisado: 02-01-23

This is one of my favorite books (both this one and the second one). I have several audiobooks that I relisten to. This is one of them. Both books are great. I love how the reader did. So well done that it kept me enraptured. There are several angst filled issues that they have to deal with throughout this book. And they do it very well. I loved how things progressed in this book.

I don't love book 3 though. But I do want to read book 4 still (audible book). I hope it lives up to books 1 and 2. And I hope since I think book 4 will have another American main character, that they bring the American reader from these two books. I had an issue with the reader in book 3. I felt like the lady reader was a historical romance reader, which I guess subconsciously messed with me. And it was a little harder to understand everything said because of the Scottish accent. I love Scottish accents, but I guess I can't always understand every word. And with a story, it helps to understand the words. Not that I misunderstood much. It wasn't that bad. True, I understand why they chose a Scottish accented person to read Book 3, the main characters were all Scottish, with just 3 minor characters in that book that were American. In Books 1 and 2, one of the main characters in both books was American, so they chose an American reader who could do a Scottish accent sometimes. I thought she did very well.

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Feels different from the first two

Revisado: 02-01-23

I have read the first two books in this series multiple times and absolutely loved them. I would give them both 5 stars in all categories. This one feels like it was not written by the same author, or maybe I should say the first two books feel like they were written by someone else (since I didn't love another of Samantha Young's books). True, the story does use some of the same scenes from the first two books. I did have several issues with this book (those issues are below).

1. I prefer the performance of the reader in the first two books over this one. True, those were read by an American accented person because one of the main characters in each book was American. And true, those characters had cameo's in this book, but the main characters in this book is Scottish. So really I guess a Scottish accented person was appropriate. Though, the lady reader makes me think of a Historical Romance. This is not that and that kind of messed me up everytime I started listening again. And also while I love the Scottish accent, I did find it hard to understand what they were saying after I stopped and restarted listening. So this maybe my preference, but I would have loved other readers.

2. Plot seems slower than the first two books. The other books we could feel the plot move along. We could see it. In this book, it felt like the bad guys were just there. The other books built the suspense by showing how the bad guys were invading their lives or overtaking their lives. This one, it so didn't. This story felt about the angst they were dealing with, but no suspense. The other two books did both, the angst and the suspense.

3. Too many flashbacks. True most are in the first third of the book. But flashbacks make me loose space and time. Those should be limited to very few or all at the beginning and move on after that.

4. Too many therapy sessions that we are seeing. I guess it does help us know when one of the main characters has advanced in his thinking. Some of those therapy sessions seemed to be more information than we needed to do that though.

5. The female main characters name is Arrochar, however they mispronounced her name multiple times. If they want to pronounce it one way, then stick with it. But they did about 3 different pronunciations for her proper name and about 2 different pronunciations for her nickname.

So I would still like to say, I am giving this one about a 3 star, would be almost 4, because of the previous two books. But this one doesn't speak to me.

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Definitely not for me!

Revisado: 12-20-22

Sadly I am looking for more great writers and stumbled upon this book. But sadly I didn't find one. It felt like it was for someone in their teens or early 20's at most. I am 40. Apparently, I am looking for more substance in the story. Every once in a while I go with a shifter book and they are good, but I may be getting out of that stage too. There feels like too many unanswered questions left in this book. And there feels like a WTF moment and "Why Does That Matter" moments. Then there is those pieces that feels like, "well, that character wasn't the main character, so who cares, even though that character was and will be important," they don't resolve that part. So I am sorry to say, this book is not for me. If maybe I was younger and not looking for substance, suspense, action, love. Not just sex.

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Love this story

Revisado: 11-20-21

I don’t write many reviews. And I haven’t written one on this before now though I should have. See I’ve read/heard this book many times. I love this book.

Linda Howard is one of my favorites. She knows how to craft an amazing story. True every once in a while when I hear this story I do skip a few chapters in the beginning until the main characters are now older. But the beginning story is necessary and is still good.

I don’t love all Linda Howard books, but I do love many of them. Like Drop Dead Gorgeous (cleaver and funny), Heart of Fire (cleaver and adventurous), Now You See Her (solving the crime and cute), Open Season (so cute and solving the crime), Mr Perfect (funny and solving the crime) and many more. And by the way I have all of these and have read them all many times. This is why I want to always check out the Linda Howard books. And they are not always the same. Like some is more funny than others (love those) and one has the heroine seeing ghosts and painting murders, another has the heroine going husband hunting, and another has the hero and heroine trying to fight for supremacy in their relationship even if the girl tries to manipulate the hero, another in the jungle trying to find treasure. I love how all her books aren’t cookie cutter versions of themselves.

This one is about having a crush on a boy and him being suspected of killing his wife. Then some years later trying to bring him back to his home so he can take over. But his wife’s murder still hangs over him but he is older and a bit harder than he was. And he likes girl that had a crush on him. She stood by him when others didn’t and they have chemistry. I won’t give any more away.

But this is a great book. Keep it up Linda Howard.

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I think a teen wrote this

Revisado: 11-19-21

The writing feels like a teen. The characters have Obvious behaviors of a teen, not an adult. Shoot, there are moments where you say how do we go from running away from him to kissing him almost on the same page. Then to scared from a threatening phone call to Dave and Busters where they played games for a while before they talked about the threats. Seriously!!

The narrators are okay except some of the accents feel more American with a slight British accent than Brooklyn.

If these two are so good at hacking, why didn’t they. They put all there “eggs in one basket”. Then let others do the hacking for them.

the bad guy, who apparently needed a professional hacker to get in Mavericks system, suddenly knows how to hack mid way through the book.

These two barely have met and then they are willing to trust each other, even though one of them nearly committed treason. And don’t get me started on that one. Why wouldn’t the military have this data and keep it or NSA, instead of an independent contractor.

The relationship felt so one sided in that it seemed all about her.

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Too much Back Story and Back Back Story...

Revisado: 08-09-21

I do like Susan Elizabeth Phillips. But I believe this must be one of her first works or something. I hope one day she revisits it and changes it. Sorry, I struggled to give this book a three star rating. My below review kind of tells why.

Basically, There is back story, then there is back back story. And this story has a lot of both of those. The back back story: I mean we don't need like four long chapters on the heroine's parents and grandparents. They really don't have ANYTHING to do with this story other than how one of them created a very spoiled person. So really it was way overkill. You can give the necessary back story in a page or two. Then her actions would show her spoiled behavior. I listened a while, but I kept waiting for the story to start. I even skipped around until I got to where we are in the heroine's adult life.

I think someone figured out it was about 30% of the book has gone by before the hero and heroine even meet. That is way too much. I never like a book where so much time goes by without the two meeting. That just doesn't feel like a romance. And this story doesn't have all the laughs like other SEP books. Match Me If You Can and Call Me Irresistible were great. CMI is a book in this series and it takes place about 15 or so years later. If you want to ready SEP, I suggest you skip this book in favor of one of those. Then come back to this if you really want to later. Hopefully by then SEP will have fixed this one. Otherwise you will never give this author or this series a shot.

Back to the story:
While I didn't like some of the actions of both the hero and heroine. Or the way they acted because of what time period it was (1975-85). They both did things wrong, some even illegal. But we can't use the glasses of today when reading books of the past (so to speak). I had to keep reminding myself of that.

When they finally met each other, that is when the story finally started for me. I kind of hated her behavior and her spoiled self. And she really did need all of the hard knocks she went through until she was literally destitute with nothing but a quarter on a back road in Texas. Each hard knock took some of her spoiled behavior away. But it didn't feel like it was totally gone until then. Then she finally became real and likeable.

As to the hero, he needed something that took the whole book to get. I am glad she figured it out and forced him to work for that something. It made him a happier man in the end. And I am very glad he stopped being a douche to his son. I can see being stunned speechless and doing something really stupid when you find out you have a 10 year old kid you never knew about (I do NOT condone what he did). When he really tried to be make up with his son, he was doing so much better. Throughout the book, he was a pretty okay guy. Those moments above are the only moments I didn't really like him.

He always picked up strays and she was like that for a while. He tried to help her. By giving her a lift, giving her food, giving her a room to stay (this was during her spoiled days still). And when you really think about it, she needed it. If you would have taken the spoiled girl from the beginning and taken everything away right away, she would not have made it. She needed the gradual removal of all of her possessions and a slow down hill slop. The mooching off friends, the selling off her possessions for money, the consequences of her actions, the you can't get everything you want by batting your eyes, and the cold hard truth that she wasn't likeable. She needed all of that and more, or she would not have worked for it.

The ending was nice. I like the part where the heroine's in her "Mom" moment was yelling at her son for doing something completely illegal and stupid (he is a genius, but still 10) and the hero in his "Dad" moment, said "that is enough" and asked for a few minutes with his son. That was when the son and the dad finally bonded. Then when they left that room, all three of them bonded. That was incredibly sweet.

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Much better Narration. The story is amazing.

Revisado: 03-10-21

I love this story. So funny. The Blair character is true to form, crazy, clever, funny, manipulative, just a lovely woman. And we all love her for it. She keeps us on our toes, let alone her man. He has stay on his toes just to make sure she doesn't win. She apparently thinks of all these as wins or loses. She doesn't want to loose too often. She is fine with loosing every once in a while but she doesn't want to always loose. And who wouldn't. She is so my favorite character. I love her. Linda Howard did great writing this book and character. I would like more of these.

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