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366 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 2, 2016
This was one strange book. I can see some potential, but it really needs an editor. Not just for bad grammar and such, but to clean this up a bit, because I've rarely seen so much completely unnecessary dialogue.
A lot of characters are introduced in this book in such a way that you might think they will be really important to the story. Many of them really aren't. Like Mason, for example. His betrayal is used as a catalyst for the story, and you'll probably be tempted to think this will turn into a triangle, but it's like the author wasn't very sure what she wanted to do with him. He keeps popping up for no reason whatsoever. It's never that interesting, it doesn't create much angst and his character is completely forgettable. He's simply tossed around here and there. Not to mention, she very quickly gets over her love for Mason. That, I learned later on, will be a common thing in the series.
The long introduction for her best friends is again, completely unnecessary. I thought they would be an integral part to the story the way they were presented, but that was not the case. In fact, she barely sees them in both books. It was odd.
So Callie gets her heart broken by her long time boyfriend who has been deployed for years. That relationship over, Kylar, another biker from a different MC, proposes they get married. He has something she wants (the name of the man who killed her older brother) and he says he needs a wife, one who understands the MC life. Callie, under the guidance of her own MC, whose members all adore and protect her, decides she wants to do it. There's so little emotion in her decision-making, that I almost forgot she had a reason to do it. Except, of course, she repeats it a million times.
I found the whole thing pretty ridiculous, but hey, it's romancelandia, and sometimes this type of ridiculousness (i.e. marrying a man at 18 for life because you're sure you're never going to be able to find love again and to find out the name of a man) is acceptable. Fun, even. And I won't even go into how, for someone who is always so logical and prepared, she never suspected that, obviously, the man surely has an ulterior motive for marrying her. But, whatever.
The biggest problem with this book, aside from the grammar, and the very small amount of emotion it evoked, was the way people talked. It was so odd, it's like 10 characters stayed in a room, and each of them waited for their turn to hold a long speech. Or the heroine would have something to say to 5 different people, and she'd just go through them: "Okay, now I'm finished with X, this is what I have to tell Y. Okay, I'm done with Y, it's time for Z."
And the amount of useless information dumped in these conversations..the times characters would repeat themselves..it was the oddest thing. It's almost impossible to explain, this is something that has to be experienced to be fully understood. And Chief, dear god, that man probably told Kylar 100 times that he'll hurt him if he hurts his girl. Nope, never happened.
Just like Mason's character is tossed away when he's not needed anymore, the reason for Callie and Kylar's marriage is also kind of tossed under the rug (in this case, the vengeance that Callie sought). She falls in love with her husband, and 4 weeks later or something along those lines, finds out Tommy's killer was killed and that was that. Over and done with in a few sentences. You'd think since this was the sole reason she was marrying him, and all the time she spent explaining that fact to all the characters in this book (a LOT), the second she got married she would ask for the name and get on with her vengeance.
I think the author's intention with Callie was to make her a badass chick, different from other MC books. And I definitely appreciated that, but it was just too unbelievable. The second something bad happens to her, she is ready with a huge-ass speech where she explains how she was wronged, how she will respond to it. It's clinical, not very realistic and there's just no emotion. She falls in and out of love in a matter of seconds, it seems, as if it's the easiest thing in the world. Apart from how unbelievable and eye-rolling that is, it just doesn't work. Just because logic tells you you shouldn't love someone after they cheated on you, or hid something important from, it doesn't mean you can actually do it. No matter how 'strong' you are. Not instantly, not like she does it. And if she does it so easily, how are the readers supposed to feel any emotion, or care for any of the characters?
[image error]That said, it was kind of entertaining, in a guilty-pleasure kind of way, although mostly when I skimmed and I even read the second book as well, out of some morbid curiosity. Let me tell you, that one is even more ridiculous.