Black Lies - Alessandra Torre

 

Brant:
Became a tech billionaire by his twentieth birthday. Has been in a relationship with me for 3 years.
Has proposed 4 times. Been rejected 4 times.

Lee:
Cuts grass when he’s not banging housewives. Good with his hands, his mouth, and his cock. Has been pursued relentlessly by me for almost 2 years, whether he knows it or not.

Go ahead. Judge me. You have no idea what my love entails.

If you think you’ve heard this story before, trust me – you haven’t. 

 

 

Ummm…. I think it’s possible that I am broken.  Before you readthis review, I will acknowledge the fact that many, many people absolutely adored this book.  Most of my friends have given it 5 stars wishing they could give it more.  For me, I just never had buy in. 

Part of that was that I just couldn’t connect with Layana.  She grew up feeling stifled under the weight of her parents and their expectations as she came from a well off family.  She was to go to the best schools, and meet and marry the best kind of man and spend her life dedicating it to her family and a charity.  She’s so upset by this and wants  to go outside of what is expected of her that she gets a degree from a great university and then *gasp* gets a job…the horror.  She holds out at said job until her trust fund kicks in where she promptly leaves her job and then dedicates her time to a charity a few days a week…so other than not getting married, what exactly are you fighting against? 

So for me, from the beginning I couldn’t connect with her.   

From there, I just had a hard time with the story.  There isn’t one specific thing…it was the lack of connection, the bouncing from first to third person in Brant’s head to first person in Layana to first person in Brant to Jillian and so on, it was hard to feel connected for me.  (That is a personal quirk, I have to love both characters to love a dual POV…and any more than two and I start to get unhappy).

 

The story wasn't always easy to follow because at some point even the main character knows the secret but it is still being kept from the reader and it's just frustrating...I've spent more time trying to get through reading this book and writing this review than any other book I've ever read. 

Here’s my other issue, I was pretty sure I knew what the big secret was…and I was right.  I tried to talk myself out of it, told myself it couldn’t be…but it was.  The clues were there and I followed them.  But I think Torre waited too long to reveal the secret to the point where I almost didn’t care what it was anymore.  When you have to have your friends talk you into continuing to read a story…it just loses something. 

All that being said, I am in the absolute minority of this.  Everyone else I know fell in love with this book.  It is not your typical romance…and when she says you think you’ve heard this story but you haven’t – she’s right.  But in the broken minority here, it just didn’t work for me.

 

 

Scratch - Rhonda Helms

The most painful scars are the ones you never see. In her DJ booth at a Cleveland dance club, Casey feels a sense of connection that's the closest she ever gets to normal. On her college campus, she's reserved, practical-all too aware of the disaster that can result when you trust the wrong person. But inexplicably, Daniel refuses to pay attention to the walls she's put up. Like Casey, he's a senior. In every other way, he's her opposite. Sexy, open, effortlessly charming, Daniel is willing to take chances and show his feelings. For some reason Casey can't fathom, he's intent on drawing her out of her bubble and back into a world that's messy and unpredictable. He doesn't know about the deep scars that pucker her stomach - or the deeper secret behind them. Since the violent night when everything changed, Casey has never let anyone get close enough to hurt her again. Now, she might be tempted to try.

Okay, the premise of this story really caught my attention, I mean - how often do we get to go behind the scenes with a deejay? I was really excited to see the club world through the eyes of someone who was so passionate about music.  

I knew that Casey was holding something back, she had a secret but I thought as the story unfolded and we learned everything about her, I would like her even more.  

Unfortunately, the connection never really happened for me.  I felt more like when I watch the news on tv and something bad happens.  It's sad, you feel bad...you have twinge of guilt for feeling happy that it wasn't anyone you knew, but that was it for me.  I never really FELT what Casey was feeling.  

Not that the tragedies are the same, but if you take for example, This is Falling by Ginger Scott it's a similar plot in that we know something happens but we don't quite know what it is...however in that story I felt what she felt.  It tore at my heart and made me feel.  

This story had potential but didn't quite live up to it like I had hoped. 


On the plus side, it was a quick read so if you think it might interest you, I'd say go ahead and give it a try.  There will be plenty of people who really like this story, but for me it was just missing enough story.  

**ARC provided via Net Galley**