I did not like the way this started at all. Nope. I nearly went ‘baaahhh, poop on it‘ at 3%, literally a dozen pages. That’s how much I hated how this started. But I was encouraged (by a semi-reliable source, ;) not to throw it down too fast. So, I didn’t, and it improved.

The storytelling shifts rapidly and ties together the lives of three women by one common man—all broken and burned people still willing enough to make themselves vulnerable in love. And it is a love story, though not entirely a modern romance. The love is more holistic. 

The supporting cast has some gems in Aggie and Colin and Mortimer where the Main Catch lacks in personality. So much time spent developing the women as they make horrific assumptions and baseless judgements, and the man remains wordless. I mean, he doesn’t even send his best mate in to explain things and put out fires—even a guilty man does that. But if he did, there’d be no story—or there would, but it would lack the deception necessary to tell this story in this way—taunting readers to eat up the rumours hinted at, and maybe many readers all too easily believe the worst of a man. Well, we’re right in part: there are a couple nasty men in these pages. Just maybe not the ones we think. She gives us a few options, a few asses to choose from in the crowd…

Then there are the romances—a few of them—enough to satisfy a romance novel seeker. Non-romantic love is the real story in the long run—as all good relationships really are beneath the surface. That was nice for a change.

I found certain characters simply used as foils lacking any further purpose, while others were all too obviously placed red herrings, and that seemed like cheap tricks.

Overall, not a waste of time if you have the time.