izziede's review against another edition
4.0
A good story.
The Hero makes lots of mistakes and by 50% he's blow it and kicked the heroine to the kerb.
The rest is his acts of redemption to put right his mistreatment of her.
The Hero makes lots of mistakes and by 50% he's blow it and kicked the heroine to the kerb.
The rest is his acts of redemption to put right his mistreatment of her.
emilyhei's review
5.0
Dean Chambray doesn't do relationships, he sleeps with a woman and leaves. No overnights, no games, certainly no attachments. Dean's life is riddled with secrets he is a crime boss who is actually an undercover agent. Amy Copeland is a distraction, when he offers her a one night stand she turns him down. Dean is not often surprised but everything about Amy surprises him. he feels a pull and he desperately wants to keep her in his life.
Amy has had a tough life filled with mistakes until a moment shook her so hard she had a wake up call. Now Amy is trying to rebuild her life and the one big change she has is no one and done involvements. She breaks her rule for Dean and when he offers her something more, the two come to an agreement. Dean is rough and says it like it is, but Amy is not wanting barked orders and lays out what she willing to live with where Dean is concerned.
Fantastic story. i was hooked from the very beginning. Dean is a chauvinistic jerk but you come to love him and he completely adores Amy. Amy is an inspiring heroine, she made mistakes, owned them and is looking for a better life for herself. Will definitely be looking for the rest of the series.
Amy has had a tough life filled with mistakes until a moment shook her so hard she had a wake up call. Now Amy is trying to rebuild her life and the one big change she has is no one and done involvements. She breaks her rule for Dean and when he offers her something more, the two come to an agreement. Dean is rough and says it like it is, but Amy is not wanting barked orders and lays out what she willing to live with where Dean is concerned.
Fantastic story. i was hooked from the very beginning. Dean is a chauvinistic jerk but you come to love him and he completely adores Amy. Amy is an inspiring heroine, she made mistakes, owned them and is looking for a better life for herself. Will definitely be looking for the rest of the series.
izziede's review
4.0
A good story.
The Hero makes lots of mistakes and by 50% he's blow it and kicked the heroine to the kerb.
The rest is his acts of redemption to put right his mistreatment of her.
The Hero makes lots of mistakes and by 50% he's blow it and kicked the heroine to the kerb.
The rest is his acts of redemption to put right his mistreatment of her.
anitalouise's review
5.0
Awesome. Very strong characters who I really connected with. I have a penchant for bad guys anyway and Dean made me swoon. I completely understood Amy and what she'd been through and how that determined how she acted. Dean and Amy meet when Amy is celebrating her birthday with friends. She rebuffed his advances and in his view, NO WOMAN declines his interest. They meet again the same night under some odd circumstances and they realize there is something there. This was a unique love story between two adults, both of whom are a little damaged by life, that took place over the course of a little over a year - yayy!! no insta love. The writing was strong; the plot well done and the sexy times - oh my goodness - smoking hot. This was my first Allyson Young and it will definitely NOT be my last. Just a terrific read. Hated to see it end. Will definitely be a re-read for me.
katiev's review
1.0
Just not my thing.
For one, I read that the author was a social worker and I can believe that. I worked in IT at a mental health facility for children (mostly teens in state custody) for a few years. Over that time I picked up a quite a bit of the therapy buzz words, treatment strategies, and histories of some of the kids in the system to recognize them.
There was so much psycho-babble regurgitation going on. Talk about boundaries, triggers, taking care of yourself before you take care of others, etc. People in real life don't talk like that. Maybe if they've been in enough therapy it starts to slip into daily conversations, but I didn't get the impression that was the case.
Both the H/h were f'd up and knew it. The h was in a place where she was really trying to make some changes in her life, so I could buy some of her use of jargon. Still, the book was just too filled with it for my tastes. YMMV. It's odd to read about all these damaged people psychoanalyzing themselves as they continue to make bad decisions. In my personal experience most screwed up people don't recognize that they are screwed up, hence all the screwing up. Not to say you can't make a bad decision and recognize it, but dunno... this was just too much. Especially when the hero was supposed to be a crime boss and he was rattling off pearls of wisdom like 'your emotional state is your choice'.
Also, as another reviewer mentioned, there was quite a bit of pretentious language going on that didn't quite fit. Repetition of words, etc does get old, but there's a fine line between that and regurgitating a thesaurus.
This had some moments with potential. When she was kicked out by him and ran away, he tracked her down and basically kidnapped her back. Fun times, I thought. Shades of a good OTT Harley. Then she decides it's best for her mental health to just go along and not leave/be friends the very next day I was banging my head.
For one, I read that the author was a social worker and I can believe that. I worked in IT at a mental health facility for children (mostly teens in state custody) for a few years. Over that time I picked up a quite a bit of the therapy buzz words, treatment strategies, and histories of some of the kids in the system to recognize them.
There was so much psycho-babble regurgitation going on. Talk about boundaries, triggers, taking care of yourself before you take care of others, etc. People in real life don't talk like that. Maybe if they've been in enough therapy it starts to slip into daily conversations, but I didn't get the impression that was the case.
Both the H/h were f'd up and knew it. The h was in a place where she was really trying to make some changes in her life, so I could buy some of her use of jargon. Still, the book was just too filled with it for my tastes. YMMV. It's odd to read about all these damaged people psychoanalyzing themselves as they continue to make bad decisions. In my personal experience most screwed up people don't recognize that they are screwed up, hence all the screwing up. Not to say you can't make a bad decision and recognize it, but dunno... this was just too much. Especially when the hero was supposed to be a crime boss and he was rattling off pearls of wisdom like 'your emotional state is your choice'.
Also, as another reviewer mentioned, there was quite a bit of pretentious language going on that didn't quite fit. Repetition of words, etc does get old, but there's a fine line between that and regurgitating a thesaurus.
This had some moments with potential. When she was kicked out by him and ran away, he tracked her down and basically kidnapped her back. Fun times, I thought. Shades of a good OTT Harley. Then she decides it's best for her mental health to just go along and not leave/be friends the very next day I was banging my head.
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