Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I’m a fan of Tijan’s books and was excited to read her latest one. It had all of the ingredients to be a good novel. However, I cannot say enough about how horrible it was. Almost as though she thought of everything cliche and threw it in. She had too many varied storylines that didn’t flow together and the lack of cohesiveness led to character confusion. In the prologue, it’s implied that the heroine was assaulted. In later chapters, we can see the results of that as she struggles to control her reactions to being touched without permission (bar scene). Some of Dusty’s distrust of Stone stemmed from this incident, which centered around an obsessive fan. So imagine my surprise then when she bypasses her hang ups by sleep with him, zero hesitation. I’m all for female sexual empowerment, but, her entering into a casual sexual affair with Stone (even if they were childhood friends), at that point, didn’t align with the portrayal of her as a woman who moved to Texas to escape from the memories of past traumas that she had yet to fully heal from. There were a lot of angst storylines thrown together without purpose. Like when Dusty lied and told Stone his father came on to her one time. What was the point, how did it add to the storyline? I get it, his past behaviors leave room for harsh critiques, but, to falsely accuse someone of predatory behavior towards a minor is a “no-no”. I was left disgusted with the heroine and quit the book as a result. I’ll continue to support this author’s future works. By far, however, this is one of the worst in the portfolio. It was failed by an inconsistent plot and characterizations.