3 Smooches!
Synopsis
“Everyone I’ve ever loved has been taken from me and I can’t take the heartache anymore. It’s time to build that wall around my heart and let no one in, no exceptions.”
Ellie never did know her mother; before she turned twenty she lost her father in the line of duty; a freak accident stole her fiancé from her before they had a chance to start their life together. She wants answers, but now that she’s living in a new town and trying to start over, she’s finding that it’s not that easy. Maybe new surroundings are what she needs to make it easier to move on and forget all about her old life. It could have been…until he showed up.
“Having the sort of job that is as dangerous as what I do doesn’t allow for a personal life, no exceptions.”
Jack and his team of military misfits have seen their fair share of war zones and violent criminals. Skilled in precision rescue operations, they’ve traveled into some of the most terrifying countries and stood up to intimidating adversaries, but when a mentor of Jack’s calls them in for a favor that he is unable to turn down, he finds himself up against his most challenging fear of all…his heart. There is a fine line between getting close enough to do your job and getting so close that you get attached. That line used to be obvious, but now that he’s met her, things have blurred and priorities have shifted. Can he keep his feelings in check and still protect Ellie from an adversary more dangerous and twisted than she could ever imagine?
Review
I had such high expectations for this book after reading the fabulous attention grabbing blurb, indeed even the going into the actual reading of the first chapter I was hooked, it was edgy and suspenseful with enough mystery and intrigue injected into the plot that initially I was dying to uncover all of the sordid details and secrets but something got lost in translation. It never kept up with that burst of energy and suspense, somewhere around the halfway mark everything took a slight nose dive and rather than a steady pace we seemed to have been trapped in a never ending loop of tears, running away, hiding and a few unbelievable plot twists.
The two main protagonists worked well up to a point. Ellie our intrepid heroine has suffered severely throughout her young life and as a result is contending with a pretty severe case of PTSD in which Jack our hero with a secret identity, attempts to help her overcome, through perseverance and with the aid of his hero complex he forms a friendship with the struggling woman which inevitably becomes more. However in the entirety of the book, they kiss only once. That is literally it. No more kisses. No sex and not even an inkling of sexual tension in the air, it was too tame and focused entirely too much on unnecessary details.
‘“Jack, I…,” she started to interrupt, lifting her head to look me in the eyes.
“No Ellie, it’s okay,” I shushed, quietly. “This is really the only way you’ll get better. Don’t be afraid to let it out. I don’t mind one bit. So…,” I rubbed a hand up and down her back as I started singing again, “Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing ‘cause every little thing is gonna be alright.” Leaning her head back down into the crook of my neck Ellie relaxed into me and took a deep breath, clearing her throat. “Thanks, Jack.”
All the elements needed to make this a great story are there but like I mentioned, something gets lost along the way. The majority of the book is basically Ellie locking herself away in a room, crying as Jack tries to talk her round. Thankfully around the three quarter mark it does pick up again with a lot more danger and action and where a few questions finally get answered only to leave us with more questions again as the blasted book ends on a cliffhanger with no resolutions in sight. It was fairly well written and I can definitely detect a lot of potential but unfortunately it wasn’t very apparent in the lay out or the pace, it seemed a bit scattered and erratic.
~Nicole
