3.5 Smooches
Synopsis
You would never think that one person, one betrayal, one poor judgment of character could lead to a whirlwind of life-changing events….
Stevie Hampton grabbed her life by the horns at the young age of 25. She worked her way up in her career, had a place to call her own, and had a casual boyfriend, Craig Mundy, who was a SWAT team member in Ocean County, NJ. They had one sure thing in common: both were career driven with barely a personal life.
What Stevie didn’t expect was for Craig to disappear without a word for three days—with no returned calls, no explanation and nothing adding up. Stevie knew one person who would have answers—Austin Kurt, Craig’s partner. The two were inseparable.
But when Stevie unexpectedly sees Austin waiting for her in an empty parking garage, her life suddenly takes a sharp turn and within seconds she’s unconscious. She wakes up with endless questions – like why her life was now literally in the hands of Austin? And what part did Craig play in this disaster?
In a relentless fight to clear up the misunderstanding, harbored feelings grow and fester between Stevie and Austin. Both are blindsided by the hidden connections between them.
Events tested them.
People tested them.
Life tested them.
Stevie is the beauty but is Austin really a beast? Knowing the truth is the only way to set them free, but when the truth comes out can they get past all the mixed feelings and the damage that’s already been done?
**Author’s note – this is a full-length standalone novel. Due to strong language and sexual content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.
Review
“We were in it to have fun, never thinking it would lead to anything further.”
Stevie Hampton, a 25-year-old hair stylist from New Jersey, was all about her career. She worked hard for the success she was realizing, maybe even too hard. She had her own place, she had a devoted following of clientele and she had a contract to do hair and makeup for a major modeling agency’s photo shoots. She was at the top of her game, and a relationship, friendships and even family fell by the wayside as she pursued her career. She did, however, have a very, very casual, likeminded boyfriend, and they both knew the score – their careers always came first.
“Our relationship never felt pressing that we had to see each other every single day.”
Craig Mundy, a NJ based SWAT officer, served Stevie’s purposes as she did his. Their no-pressure, no expectations relationship was easy, even if Craig was a bit self-centered and quirky. She had a friend in Craig’s partner, Austin Kurt, whom she secretly crushed on. She thought she had everything she wanted, until one night during a work party of Craig’s when she sensed Austin’s attraction to her, and she realized that it was definitely reciprocated. Following the party, she didn’t hear from Craig for days, not all that unusual for them, but it was longer than they normally went without contact. The separation had Stevie questioning their whole relationship and coming to the realization that the relationship, and Craig in particular, wasn’t what she wanted. If she could only track Craig down to talk to him about it…
“What did I ever do to him? What was going on?”
While out with her coworkers for a girl’s night, Stevie is surprised in the parking garage as she is heading home for the night by Austin. Knocked unconscious, Stevie comes to with a pounding headache in a cold room she doesn’t recognize and unable to recall what had happened. She learns that her captor is none other than Austin, and he is positively furious with her for reasons she does not understand. Delivering terrifying threats that she believes he could – and would – easily carry through, Austin forces her to leave everything – her home, her family and friends, her career – behind so that he can take his revenge on her for her role in a betrayal Austin believes was perpetrated against him by Craig and Stevie. Stevie has no idea what is going on, but Austin does not believe her
“He took my life in his hand, looked at it, and threw it to the ground shattering it into a million pieces.”
Weeks go by, and Stevie is no closer to figuring out what happened and why exactly Austin kidnapped her. All she knows is that he believes that she and Craig somehow betrayed him. He will not discuss it with her, despite her repeated attempts. The only thing that is changing – and very, very slowly at that – is their relationship. Sometimes she thinks she sees a hint of doubt in Austin’s normally cold and shuttered eyes, only for it to be gone just as quickly. She occasionally see flashes of the Austin she thought she knew, but then he’s gone and the cold, remote and harsh person is become snaps back into place. She is sinking further and further into an anxious depression, and yet, she cannot help the attraction she feels towards him. It was there even before this situation.
“This felt less like a kidnapping and more like a forced situation just waiting to be figured out.”
Austin assimilates Stevie into his life with the cover story of being his girlfriend. Publicly, they are a normal, albeit unaffectionate, couple. At home, it’s awkward avoidance as they spend their days going about life separately. Stevie has free reign, she can come and go as she pleases, and she does, involving herself in the community and befriending the girlfriends of Austin’s two best friends. Stevie can sense Austin’s turmoil, his doubts and his attraction to her. She questions him constantly to find out if he’s heard anything that will exonerate her in his eyes, and all the while, her feelings for him are deepening. While she is still upset at the havoc Austin’s revenge has wreaked upon her life, she can understand why he did it.
What will happen when the truth comes out? Where do they go from here?
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There were parts of this book that I really, really liked. The premise is a good one – it’s a totally fresh plot line and it definitely intrigued me. I think that some of the way that this plot played out was fantastic. But there were other plot points that just didn’t work well, and I struggled through those areas. Parts of the book flowed very easily, building up the anticipation to what I hoped would be a great pay off. But that never really happened, and in some areas, it got to be very repetitious, dragging this big mystery on and on. My biggest issue, however, was with the ending. There was all this build up leading to this huge make or break, long-time-coming type of moment for them and their relationship, and it wound up being a couple of paragraphs of a very glossed over sex scene (the only one in the book) with a few lines of dialogue including declarations of love that segued right into a six month flash forward of the take down of the real villain behind all of this. Stevie’s confrontation with Craig at the end was disappointing, and the entire ending of the book felt like it just came to a screeching halt. All that build up didn’t really lead to anything, and it was very surprising.
This book held a lot of promise, and parts of it were really good. I think with perhaps a more seasoned team of beta readers giving honest, constructive feedback to this debut author on where it was going wrong, it could have been really great. For me, though, it was a mixed bag. 3.5 Smooches for a great plot idea, though!
~ Danielle Palumbo
