Dirty Red (Love Me with Lies, #2) in The Indie Bookshelf

Jul 24, 2013 Karen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, adult-romance, ugly-crying, angsty

No time to write a proper review so I will make this quick. I finished 5 minutes ago and I plan on immediately cracking open Thief. I don't care that it is late and I have been marinating in The Opportunist & Dirty Red for the last 48 hours. I should probably take a break and let the impact hit me and then settle, but I seriously can't take another minute of waiting. Tarryn Fisher's writing is a drug... A DRUG I am jonesing for and cannot be pulled away from.

I have so many thoughts swirling aro No time to write a proper review so I will make this quick. I finished 5 minutes ago and I plan on immediately cracking open Thief. I don't care that it is late and I have been marinating in The Opportunist & Dirty Red for the last 48 hours. I should probably take a break and let the impact hit me and then settle, but I seriously can't take another minute of waiting. Tarryn Fisher's writing is a drug... A DRUG I am jonesing for and cannot be pulled away from.

I have so many thoughts swirling around Dirty Red. After finishing a re-read of The Opportunist last night(which since May 2012 I couldn't face again until all three books were released) I was once again thrown back, punched in the gut and contemplating throwing my Kindle across the room (And the last page and that vision of the damn tree KILLED me...again). WHY? WHY? WHY? My mind was reeling with "what if's" and my anger was brewing. I was braced for what was to be so I was able to skip the ugly crying this time around.

Enter, Dirty Red. How is it possible to hate someone and truly pity them at the same time? My feelings for Leah are just as complicated as she is. Hate is ruling at this point but what I witnessed in this story throws a wrench into all the loathing I have been clinging to. Now I totally get the title of the third book - Thief. It didn't make sense to me months ago when it was revealed. It is absolutely brilliant.

Dirty Red was a damn good read. Not a word or sentence wasted. I had forgotten the magic Tarryn Fisher seems to effortlessly weave. Past, present, past, present as she slowly unravels the story with a true sense of mystery, intrigue and total suspense. Just when you think Caleb, Olivia & Leah can no longer bleed...BAM! I have never read an angstier series but somehow it works and doesn't drain the reader in me; it fuels the storyline and keeps it climbing towards deeper revelations.

I am so glad I waited to read Dirty Red right before the final book was released because that epilogue would have eaten away at me for months.

Okay, times up; I am diving back in and not coming up for air until it is over. Nervous as hell to face the beating Tarryn Fisher is bound to dole out. She never hands over the story without taking a little piece of your sanity and a sliver of your heart. That would be way too predictable and that is simply not her style (she's cruel like that).

...more

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Jul 26, 2013 Keighley rated it it was amazing

I wasn't sure about being inside Leah's head, some of her 'mother techniques' had me reading through my fingers. And I did miss Olivia and Calebs story. But I found myself warming to Leah, shes a bitch but at least she is who she is, and shell do anything for what she believes she loves. If anything Caleb dropped dramatically from my starry-eyed opinion of him in Book 1, he showed himself to be kind of weak and flaky - not attractive.

This book was as much of a rollercoaster as Book 1, The Opport ...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Kathy rated it really liked it

Reading Dirty Red was a completely different experience than I felt while reading The Opportunist. Being inside of Leah's mind was quite...saddening and disturbing at the same time. I'm still not a fan of Leah's character, but I do understand her and her motives a bit better.

I knew the book was in Leah's viewpoint, but I still went in a little blind. I love going in without reading the synopsis, or having read the synopsis so long ago that I've forgotten what to expect. In this book, the synopsi Reading Dirty Red was a completely different experience than I felt while reading The Opportunist. Being inside of Leah's mind was quite...saddening and disturbing at the same time. I'm still not a fan of Leah's character, but I do understand her and her motives a bit better.

I knew the book was in Leah's viewpoint, but I still went in a little blind. I love going in without reading the synopsis, or having read the synopsis so long ago that I've forgotten what to expect. In this book, the synopsis doesn't begin to tell you about the book or what to expect. I was surprised throughout my reading at Leah's sinner/saint persona.

As the book takes you back and forth between the present and the past of Leah and Caleb's relationship, Olivia is always there in the back of Leah's mind. Leah is still a manipulative witch who doesn't accept responsibility for her actions, always passing the blame to someone else...primarily Olivia. Given her childhood through adulthood relationship (or lack of) with her parents, it's a wonder this woman isn't sitting in an asylum drooling and making motorboat noises with her lips!

It's no surprise that Leah is the dysfunctional beauty queen who wears her pretentious mask for all who see her. She has a history of using and tossing men out like last season's Milanos. But Caleb is different. She's never "felt" anything for any man before, and jealousy is certainly not what she expected to feel along with possession. Her possession of Caleb is clearly more of obsession mistaken as love. She has Caleb on a pedestal, but he is certainly not perfect, as we learned in The Opportunist, and we see again in Dirty Red. But, I can't help but still love the guy. *sigh* and *swoon*

Leah's life is spiraling out of control from the beginning with the birth of Estella, and her jealousy of other women around Caleb includes her own daughter. She's having a difficult time bonding with Estella, which could be the final nail in her coffin. She doesn't know how to be a mother, and her selfish side wants to continue drinking and partying with her girlfriends. Enter the Manny, Sam. Sam, who just happens to be Cammie's cousin, quickly becomes her close friend and mentor for motherhood. He tells it like it is and pulls no punches around Leah, but he does understand her, when she lets him in, and tries to help her with both motherhood and relationship advice.

Leah's fear of losing Caleb has her scheming, confessing, and using anyone to keep Caleb as her husband. The confessions made by Caleb and Leah are both heartbreaking and astounding. The final confession right before the epilogue?! Oh. Em. Geeeeee. It truly took me by complete surprise and ended the book on a cliffhanger of sorts. I didn't want to empathize with Leah, and I tried every way possible to push those feelings aside, since I am Team Olivia all the way. Just as I didn't want to like Noah, but I couldn't help it. I DID empathize with Leah. My heart went out to her at times until her childish selfishness reared, and she would do or say something that made me want to slap her and yank Caleb as far away as possible. In Leah's world, the only thing she understands is that the ends justify the means.

As the story progresses from beginning to end, the reader truly gets the picture of Leah's issues and from where they stem. So many things contribute to Leah's behavior. Fear, family relations, postpartum depression, a shameful secret, and a possible history of mental illness. Are these things truly contributing to her behavior, or is she so detached from others and sociopathic in her thinking and behavior that she again is justifying the means? We also see Seth, Caleb's older brother, and learn a bit more about him and his connection to and view of Leah. I can't wait to see if he plays a part in the next installment, because there is certainly something about him...just an instinct I have about him and his feelings toward Leah.

The lengths that Leah goes to keep Caleb as her own clearly indicate no boundaries. Tarryn Fisher has done a spectacular job at taking the reader into the human psyche of a frightened animal who is backed into a corner and trying to preserve the only thing, or person, she connects to love. To watch Leah's dawn of understanding was magical, connecting me to her character with empathy even more....until her vindictive and spiteful nature of "You hurt me, so I'm going to hurt you, too" came to the front once again. I definitely recommend this series and have already begun reading Thief before even writing this review. I just couldn't wait. It is important that these books be read in order to understand the character backgrounds and relationship histories, even though the book could be read as a stand alone in my opinion. ...more

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Jul 12, 2013 Lizzie rated it it was amazing

Woooooooow D: fue demasiadoooo Caleb sigue manteniendome en este estado amor-odio-frustración pff u.u pobre al estar atado a una mujer como Leah pero a la vez es lo que se merece por idiota ¬¬ igual espero en Thief me haga quererlo más y no solo darle un par de bofetadas, aunque igual me gusta que no es el prota bueno que no rompe un plato, se arriesga al ir x lo que quiere y no le importa las trampas que deba usar hasta que queda atrapado en las trampas de Leah.
Olivia no estuvo tan presente co ...more

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Apr 09, 2013 Laura rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I'm not sure how to review this without including spoilers, but I'll try my damndest.

"I didn't choose her," his voice breaks. "Love is illogical. You fall into it like a manhole. Then you're just stuck. You die in love more than you live in love."

Leah. Oh, Leah. I almost felt a little sympathy for her, then I snapped out of it :)

This is one of those books I HAD to finish because well, the good guys always win, right? RIGHT?

I have absolutely NO idea where Tarryn will go with Thief, but one thing ...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Lydia Laceby rated it really liked it

Originally reviewed at Novel Escapes.

Dirty Red stomped all over the spectrum of my feelings. I loathed Leah from the first page, even more than I did in The Opportunist. She was vile, selfish, and her self-absorption made me want to shove her off a building, particularly as there was an innocent, defenseless infant involved. But Fisher does something amazing with her writing. She waves a wand and magically you’re feeling sorry for her characters – even the most vile ones. By the end I wanted Lea
Originally reviewed at Novel Escapes.

Dirty Red stomped all over the spectrum of my feelings. I loathed Leah from the first page, even more than I did in The Opportunist. She was vile, selfish, and her self-absorption made me want to shove her off a building, particularly as there was an innocent, defenseless infant involved. But Fisher does something amazing with her writing. She waves a wand and magically you’re feeling sorry for her characters – even the most vile ones. By the end I wanted Leah to have her happy ending – okay, I mostly did because I was still not one hundred percent convinced about her. But I did understand her better, and I liked that – even if I didn’t love her.

Caleb comes across as man in this sequel to The Opportunist, rather than a boy. He steps up to the plate and takes care of his baby when Leah obviously has issues with being a mother. That’s not to say he doesn’t have issues. He does – he’s still in love with Olivia and he did what he did in the previous book (no spoilers!) which I still haven’t forgotten. He is not my favourite male lead character, but for some reason I want him to succeed and be happy too. Fisher strikes again.

Overall though, I can’t say I loved Dirty Red as much as The Opportunist. I did enjoy following along to Leah’s side of the story and learning more about her. I really appreciated that the novel was a continuation and didn’t cover the same ground as The Opportunist. There were frequent flashbacks though, which shed light on Leah and Caleb’s past, as well as delved further into Leah’s past and how she comes to be so messed up, which was needed to become sympathetic to her. I did find these became a bit too frequent for me though.

True to form, Dirty Red contains ample twists and turns, and in the end I didn’t find I had as much sympathy for Leah as I did with Olivia in The Opportunist. In fact, I never really liked Leah, where I actually liked Olivia and because of this, I don’t think I liked the novel as much. Or maybe the difference in my enjoyment was because The Opportunist was such a raw, unique read, and completely different from what I had been reading at the time. Regardless, I’m eagerly awaiting Caleb’s side of the story – the third installment in the trilogy – because, like a train wreck, I can’t look away!

Thank you to myself for buying this book. All opinions are my own.
...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Lindsay rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

This is a five star in the "love to hate" kind of way. ...more

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Feb 25, 2014 Bernadette rated it liked it

Shelves: juicy-angsty-awesome

Had to skim through to get to the good parts.

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Mar 03, 2014 Nicole rated it really liked it

Shelves: my-favorites, adult-contempt, series, top-favs, mature-adult

Loved this one so much better than the first one!

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Jul 25, 2013 Cindy rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2013, contemporary

These people... *shakes head*

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Jan 03, 2013 R.L. Griffin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I liked the Opportunist, but I loved this book. It was so interesting and the twist at the end was so unexpected. I can't wait for the next one. I didn't think I would like it because I hated Leah so much after the first book. Brilliant. ...more

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