Kris Blue

I mean, this book is fine. Like many others, I read it in no time at all, because--the flaws I'm about to call out aside--it really is a page turner. But to me, there are four major problems with this book. First, the initial incident that brings Lowen and Jeremy together at the outset of the novel is just so dramatic and bizarre. If some guy's head got squished and I was covered in his blood, I'd be absolutely traumatized. Yet it's never mentioned again, it only served as a tool to bring the two characters together. Second, look, I love a good sex scene, but there are so many of them and they are so poorly executed. When Lowen is reading Verity's autobiography, even she mentions skipping whole chapters because the sex grows tiresome. Same here, there's too much of it and at some point it just undermines the narrative. I found myself skipping the sex scenes, myself, it just got boring. Third, it's mentioned as a throw away comment that the brain scans confirm Verity has suffered a TBI, and that she really is paralyzed and rendered mute. Those are really, really specific things that do show up on brain scans. So, if Verity was faking it, there's no way she could have done so without a brain scan showing that she had recovered from whatever initial injuries she suffered, therefore proving out that she was, in fact, faking long-term brain injury. Lastly, the ending is...a lot. I got hung up on the fact that Lowen ate parts of Verity's letter. Like, why not just stuff the letter in your pocket and destroy it later? Beyond that, though, if you found out your partner had attempted to murder his wife--for whatever reason--not once, but twice, and then you helped him succeed on the third attempt...girl, what is wrong with you???? There is just so much wrong with the way this book ended. For being the page turner it is, once you close the cover and have a chance to process, it's not that great of a read.