Sarah Hegger

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lucy Flint ran away from home 9 years ago and left a mess behind. When she returns to her hometown, it appears that no one is happy and everyone is still holding a grudge, including her parents. The only thing that seems to be keeping Lucy together is a person she keeps calling on the phone in Seattle named Mads. As the book progresses, it's revealed why Lucy ran away and what she's been up to since.

I actually liked the way the author portrayed Lucy's path to redemption but was annoyed that we never found out what's wrong with her father and why he was such a bastard other than he was "sick and getting worse." It was a sweet romance but I wouldn't say it was the main theme of the book.

Overall, I liked the book but was a bit frustrated with too many and yet not enough details. Worth a read though, I think.… (más)

I FLOVED [b:Positively Pippa|32018234|Positively Pippa (Ghost Falls, #1)|Sarah Hegger|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1474646438s/32018234.jpg|52657660] so I was really looking forward to this second in the series. I have a couple things to get out of the way first. Yes, that's a lot of knit on the cover. Also yes, the models look significantly younger than the characters, who are in their early 30s. And also yes I really love how Sarah Hegger does multi-dimensional worlds and characters. And finally, my final qualifier before I go spoiler-y is that this book does not warn me in any way that some of it would be so....serious. The subject matter that was quite serious was stalking, and that's in the blurb, and it's pretty clear for the outset that's what Bella will be dealing with.
So, Bella is working on coming out of her shell and stepping up her game on life, she's making new friends, attempting to date some, and get over her life-long crush and love on Nate, who is Matt's (who is like a mega-hero if you like the sweet type) younger brother from Positively Pippa. We already know Nate is attractive and reformed, but still a little wild and not up to settling down. But he's also steady. His reasons and background on this are already clear from the prior book, once again, but it's all retold in a shorter version here as well. It's easy to see why the Evans boys are a little screwy on relationships and underestimate their self-worth.

Bella starts out in the beginning of this book dating another man, Adam, who is obsessive and winds up stalking her. The stalking escalated quickly, but I do not feel it was dealt with in a trite manner in any sense. If I found disbelief with anything on this particular plot line it was that Bella was believed and warned immediately. Nate is the sheriff, formerly of the unit dealing with special victims so I guess it all works out there. The stalking doesn't only escalate quickly it wraps up completely, no loose ends - very tidily. Not necessary, I have to say, once again. it didn't detract from the book, but it kind of did. Heavy spoiler Bella was kidnapped and almost sliced so ends up traumatized. And I just thought was this heavy of a plot twist worth it? these plot points did give Nate time to show his true character and the depth of his love so it worked. I thought Bella was a great character with relatable struggles, so that worked. What else worked? These characters. We saw our old favorites and they continue to be wonderfully drawn...

What didn't? The relationship felt a little too casual to me the whole time. And Bella is being stalked so some moments with him and bella felt to me like "timing dude!" In other words predatory. But he is a bit of a predatory character, frankly--not in a disgusting way just in a "yep, I'll get what I want way." This REALLY wouldn't have worked if Bella and Nate hadn't known one another for 27 years. But they did so it was fine. Fine. Not great. Just fine.

Post-traumatic even under spoiler above...I was worried the author would gloss over the issue, they love each other, HEA. She didn't. I will continue to wonder if that takes away from the book, but certainly glad it wasn't treated as trite. overall, this doesn't even come close to Positively Pippa for me, it was a solid 3 trending to 3.5. The main reason for this was the relationship tension wasn't tightly woven. It was more off/on again which was kind of crazy-making.

… (más)