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After reading three books by Selena Montgomery, I have to say that the prologues for each of the books I read aren’t sufficient. I ended up reading this book after reading Book 2 (Deception) in this trilogy, because I didn’t know it was a trilogy (which was maddening to find out too late). The prologue for this story immediately follows the defining moment that changed Kell’s, Fin’s, and Julia’s lives and created a ripple effect, but we’re not told what happened. We’re just shown their reaction afterward and their plan to split up. We’re finally told about everything that happened in Book 2, secondhand rather than experiencing it. That’s what this prologue should’ve done. It would’ve been nicer to have known what Kell couldn’t tell Luke and to not have gotten the details secondhand in Book 2. It wasn’t mysterious, as I’m sure was the aim. Instead, it was an annoyance and then a complete letdown.
As for the rest of this story, it was rather slow. The one thing that kept me reading was Luke. I really, really liked Luke. Overall, though, it’s not a bad story. There’s some flaws, sure, and it was slow, but the characters redeemed it. Especially Luke. I said that already. Didn’t I?
It’s unfortunate that Book 3 for Julia was never written/published because we’re left with the leader of Stark still at large and questions unanswered. And sweet Julia never gets her man, which was promised to her. (Sorry, Julia.) I wish I could know who that man would’ve been and how he would’ve fit into the story to help them solve the rest of the mystery.
One final thing, the head-hopping really gets to me. (This is the case for everyone one of her books…Nora Roberts-style head-hopping.) In Chapter One, we’re told what a few jurors are thinking, which we shouldn’t know in Kell’s point-of-view. Then the very next line says, “Kell wasn’t privy to the thoughts of the jurors,” which, again, means we shouldn’t have been told any of that. Then in Chapter 8 we’re suddenly in a nameless intruder’s POV right before switching to Kell’s POV in the same scene. Those are things, as an editor, that bring me out of an otherwise good story.
3.75 stars…could be rounded up to an optimistic 4 stars.
3.75 stars…could be rounded up to an optimistic 4 stars.