nikkismalls

This is a tricky one to rate because I enjoyed so much of the emotional growth and relationship building in the story, but I feel there were some pretty big problems with some of the execution. The story is told from first-person POV, which I think ended up being a great choice, as I got to see some the depth of Ella's responses and personality that I wouldn't have had access to otherwise.

However, I think it acted as a hindrance at the start primarily due to the 'big reveal' that occurs later on. Ella keeps eluding to an incident that just happened, but then puts it aside to be described later. Which, if done in third person where we are picking up hints along with the secondary characters, it would have been more effective. It just didn't really make as much sense to me, since we are in the protagonist's brain, to keep this dangling carrot when she would already know what the carrot was. Now I kind of want a carrot.

Additionally, the sex scenes felt completely out of place. You're riding along, watching someone going through a truly emotionally devastating time, and then BAM you're in an erotica novel with really graphic descriptions. Which would be completely fine in another context, but didn't feel right for these characters and their journey. It almost felt like I was reading two different books because of it, and I ended up skipping through some of them because it just ripped me too much out of the story due to it's imbalance.

Aside from that, I am glad I read it, and think the author can really go places with her ability to write complex characters that have a lot of work to do and are self aware enough to recognize that. This is my first Harper Bliss book, and I'll probably read another one at some point to see where she decides to go next.