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A review by bookish_notes
Salvation by Sloane Kennedy
2.0
I wanted to love this book. I think there are a lot of interesting characters in this series, and I want to know their stories But, there's just a lot that doesn't sit right with me. After reading Absolution, I was interested in learning more about the kind of man who would hire assassins to make the world a better place, but unfortunately, this story just falls short of my expectations.
Salvation introduces us to Ronan, a man who funds an operation to kill, and ruin the lives of very bad people. These people are the worst of the worst - pedophiles, rapists, etc. We learn that Ronan was once engaged to be married to a man named Trace, until he was killed while they were on duty overseas. Ronan has always been close to Trace's family, including Trace's younger brother, Seth. There's a fifteen year age difference between Ronan and Seth, but despite a lot of issues I find in this book, the age difference wasn't one of them. The author manages to make it very clear that Ronan has never felt or treated Seth as anything other than his fiancé's younger brother until Seth initiated a kiss between them three years before this novel starts (so, Seth would have been 18 at this point). Nothing happened between them then, and Ronan disappeared from Seth's life, even though he would occasionally turn up from time to time to monitor Seth from a distance.
Age-wise, everything is totally legal, and not creepy in that regard. However, there were a lot of issues that just didn't sit well with me about Salvation. Like with the first book, the characters have very tragic, dark pasts. I'm not entirely sure the one trigger warning at the beginning of the book encompasses everything that might be triggers in this book. Seth has been in love with Ronan forever, even as a young kid. Now, he's all grown up and runs his father's business, but it becomes apparent that he needs to see a therapist to deal with everything he's been through. Same with Ronan and how he fits into Trace's death. These two characters are...I don't know if I want to say toxic to one another? There's a lot of baggage they need to work out on their own, and when sex is added into the mix, it complicates everything.
Numerous times throughout this book, Seth will tell Ronan to stop doing something, like stop advancing towards him, or stop coming back into his life. But Ronan doesn't. He just keeps on pushing into Seth's life and is kind of a stalker with the monitoring and bodyguards he hires to watch over Seth. The second time they have sex, it's rough and without any warning at all (this is also Seth's second time at having sex with anyone), Ronan decides to just do everything without a condom and assumes that Seth will be okay with it? ALSO, after every single time they have sex, Ronan just disappears from Seth's life and it, rightly so, messes up Seth a lot. He might have a case of agoraphobia, and probably some form of PTSD because of his past, and Ronan just brushes him off every time. Consent is really iffy in this book and it's just super uncomfortable to read. By the end, I was skipping right through the sex scenes.
Plot? I liked the slow build-up to what's going on with Seth - the why and who might be targeting him. I loved Bullet, Seth's dog. I would have DNF'd this book so quick if the dog died (spoiler, the dog lives, thank goodness).
Overall, I just had problems with this book that made me feel uncomfortable, and that's not even including Ronan and Seth's backstories. I really want to find out what happened to Hawke and if he gets the men who, essentially, killed his wife. But do I want to read more books in this series? Maybe I will eventually, but it's not at the top of my list of books to read after books one and two failed to impress.
Salvation introduces us to Ronan, a man who funds an operation to kill, and ruin the lives of very bad people. These people are the worst of the worst - pedophiles, rapists, etc. We learn that Ronan was once engaged to be married to a man named Trace, until he was killed while they were on duty overseas. Ronan has always been close to Trace's family, including Trace's younger brother, Seth. There's a fifteen year age difference between Ronan and Seth, but despite a lot of issues I find in this book, the age difference wasn't one of them. The author manages to make it very clear that Ronan has never felt or treated Seth as anything other than his fiancé's younger brother until Seth initiated a kiss between them three years before this novel starts (so, Seth would have been 18 at this point). Nothing happened between them then, and Ronan disappeared from Seth's life, even though he would occasionally turn up from time to time to monitor Seth from a distance.
Age-wise, everything is totally legal, and not creepy in that regard. However, there were a lot of issues that just didn't sit well with me about Salvation. Like with the first book, the characters have very tragic, dark pasts. I'm not entirely sure the one trigger warning at the beginning of the book encompasses everything that might be triggers in this book. Seth has been in love with Ronan forever, even as a young kid. Now, he's all grown up and runs his father's business, but it becomes apparent that he needs to see a therapist to deal with everything he's been through. Same with Ronan and how he fits into Trace's death. These two characters are...I don't know if I want to say toxic to one another? There's a lot of baggage they need to work out on their own, and when sex is added into the mix, it complicates everything.
Numerous times throughout this book, Seth will tell Ronan to stop doing something, like stop advancing towards him, or stop coming back into his life. But Ronan doesn't. He just keeps on pushing into Seth's life and is kind of a stalker with the monitoring and bodyguards he hires to watch over Seth. The second time they have sex, it's rough and without any warning at all (this is also Seth's second time at having sex with anyone), Ronan decides to just do everything without a condom and assumes that Seth will be okay with it? ALSO, after every single time they have sex, Ronan just disappears from Seth's life and it, rightly so, messes up Seth a lot. He might have a case of agoraphobia, and probably some form of PTSD because of his past, and Ronan just brushes him off every time. Consent is really iffy in this book and it's just super uncomfortable to read. By the end, I was skipping right through the sex scenes.
Plot? I liked the slow build-up to what's going on with Seth - the why and who might be targeting him. I loved Bullet, Seth's dog. I would have DNF'd this book so quick if the dog died (spoiler, the dog lives, thank goodness).
Overall, I just had problems with this book that made me feel uncomfortable, and that's not even including Ronan and Seth's backstories. I really want to find out what happened to Hawke and if he gets the men who, essentially, killed his wife. But do I want to read more books in this series? Maybe I will eventually, but it's not at the top of my list of books to read after books one and two failed to impress.