Doubleback (Lissa Ford)
Second chance theme in romance is like a catnip for me, and my friend Irene knew me quite enough to point me to the right direction with Doubleback (she even lured me by mentioning Josh Lanyon's Fair Game in the same sentence). CATNIP dangling over my nose!
Well, this definitely MY kind of read. The pain, the hurt, and the anger between the two men was written in a compelling way for me. I was hooked from the get go. I was drawn to the arguments as well as the tension that clearly was still strong between them. Although the core of Jude and Rowan's relationship issue was leaning heavily on the big "M" word (a.k.a. men's failure to communicate) but I was able to keep my irritation at bay. I guess maybe because as the sole narrator, I loved Jude's voice.
I was a bit annoyed at Rowan though and he needed a little more groveling to do, in my humble opinion. His argument about Jude's 'being closed-off' during the ordeal felt flimsy as an excuse when Rowan was the one unable to stay on Jude's side at the hospital. Yes, Rowan had his reason, with his memory of his father, but I had to agree with Jude when he said "I’m the asshole for not being transparent about my fucked-upedness, but you can cock block any questions I have about your past and that’s okay?". NOT cool, Rowan. Not cool. Things resolved between them a tad too quickly -- I could definitely take several more pages in order for Jude and Rowan to really talk before trying again (good sex doesn't mean it will solve everything, you know).
The mystery was nice, it didn't overwhelm the romance but also not being forgotten with the progress of Jude and Rowan getting back to together. Of course I easily guessed the perpetrator AND the motive as soon as the suspect appeared on page. It wasn't complicated nor surprising. But I couldn't say that it was disappointing either since I was not expecting a heavy suspenseful murder mystery. So the balance between the mystery and the romance was good. I also got lucky that I caught my most hatred endearment "baby" prior to actually reading it. Let's just say that deleting all of those "baby's" reduced the mushiness that I would've had experienced otherwise (haha!).
All in all, I loved it. It was a really good read and totally helped my reading mood for the better.
Well, this definitely MY kind of read. The pain, the hurt, and the anger between the two men was written in a compelling way for me. I was hooked from the get go. I was drawn to the arguments as well as the tension that clearly was still strong between them. Although the core of Jude and Rowan's relationship issue was leaning heavily on the big "M" word (a.k.a. men's failure to communicate) but I was able to keep my irritation at bay. I guess maybe because as the sole narrator, I loved Jude's voice.
I was a bit annoyed at Rowan though and he needed a little more groveling to do, in my humble opinion. His argument about Jude's 'being closed-off' during the ordeal felt flimsy as an excuse when Rowan was the one unable to stay on Jude's side at the hospital. Yes, Rowan had his reason, with his memory of his father, but I had to agree with Jude when he said "I’m the asshole for not being transparent about my fucked-upedness, but you can cock block any questions I have about your past and that’s okay?". NOT cool, Rowan. Not cool. Things resolved between them a tad too quickly -- I could definitely take several more pages in order for Jude and Rowan to really talk before trying again (good sex doesn't mean it will solve everything, you know).
The mystery was nice, it didn't overwhelm the romance but also not being forgotten with the progress of Jude and Rowan getting back to together. Of course I easily guessed the perpetrator AND the motive as soon as the suspect appeared on page. It wasn't complicated nor surprising. But I couldn't say that it was disappointing either since I was not expecting a heavy suspenseful murder mystery. So the balance between the mystery and the romance was good. I also got lucky that I caught my most hatred endearment "baby" prior to actually reading it. Let's just say that deleting all of those "baby's" reduced the mushiness that I would've had experienced otherwise (haha!).
All in all, I loved it. It was a really good read and totally helped my reading mood for the better.
4