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Thursday, January 16, 2014

ARC Review: Exquisite Betrayal by A.M. Hargrove


This book immediately drew me in with the blurb. It is definitely one of the most unique books that I have read, and I love that it was so different from what else is out there. As much as I loved the idea of this book though, I did have some problems with it. I really wanted to love it, and unfortunately I just wasn't able to. I will admit that I did enjoy parts of it though, and that is what kept me reading until the end.

Fallon is a book blogger and reviewer. She is headed to Vegas for a book convention and to finally meet up with her blogger friends. While leaving the airport, she runs into a really hot guy. They have an instant attraction, but they go their separate ways. Later on though they run into each other a few more times. Fallon thinks that the hot mystery guy Ryland is a freelance writer. However, he is really her favorite romance author R.T. Sinclair. Ryland Thomas knows that he needs to protect his identity from being found out. If his female fans found out that a man was behind the books, he believes that they wouldn't support him. So his sister Tilly helps him by making the public appearances for him. But the more times that Ryland and Fallon run into each other and the closer she gets to his sister Tilly, the more he knows he needs to open up to her. Fallon and Ryland are both no stranger to loss, and have suffered in the past. They both have issues keeping them from having successful relationships, but their connection makes them both realize that what they have is more than either of them have ever felt before. But in order to have a future together, they will have to move on from their pasts. Just as it appears that things are finally coming together, a major miscommunication occurs and wrecks all the progress that they have made. Can they lay everything on the table and learn to trust each other, or will they continue to let their insecurities ruin any chance of a life together?

I liked Ryland Thomas. I really wanted to love him, but he just kept acting completely stupid. There were so many times that he would seem to figure everything out, and then he would go and screw up even worse than before! I just don't understand why his character never seemed to really get with the program. I understand that he had been hurt really badly, but for the strength of the feelings he claimed to have for Fallon it just didn't make sense the things he did. I really wanted him to grow up and take a risk, but at the first sign of trouble he just shut down and ran. The fact that he never gave her a chance to explain anything was really what I didn't care for the most. He was thoughtful when it came to her though, and I liked how he was always looking out for her and trying to take care of her. I just wish that he would have also put more trust into her and the connection that they were forming. I liked Fallon for the most part. I did think that she was a bit of a doormat though. She let her mom treat her completely awful and continued to just take it. She also let Ryland get away with way more that most women would. I understand mistakes and allowing someone to have more chances. But it really seemed like she would make a big deal of how hurt she was and how she couldn't go through everything again only to almost instantly forgive him. I just didn't understand how she could allow everything to just immediately be smoothed over with almost no consequences and very little apology. Fallon and Ryland did have a lot of chemistry together. I think that they were hot together and definitely were able to generate a lot of steam.

My main problem with this book though was the pacing. I felt like this story moved extremely slowly and tended to drag quite a bit. I found myself getting bored easily at parts, and wanting to skip ahead. I kept thinking that I had to be getting close to the end, only to look down and realize that I still had half the book to go. Things just got too tedious and repetitive, and I kept waiting for Ryland to finally stop screwing up only for it to happen again. I also thought that there were a lot of things that happened that were either completely cheesy or flat out ridiculous. I will be the first to admit that sometimes a bit of cheese is a good thing...I am a girl after all. Sometimes you just want to soak up the romance and love and completely immerse yourself in a relationship like that. But this one was a bit too over the top and took it to a whole different level. I thought that this book had a really promising premise and I think that it could have been one of my favorites. The execution though just didn't live up to what I had thought it was going to, and unfortunately I thought that this one just fell flat on delivering. I think that there are plenty of romance readers out there that will find this one to be a really enjoyable read, and there is an HEA. If you like your romance to be a bit cheesy and over the top, I recommend that you give this one a try. For me personally, this one just wasn't what I had been hoping for and as much as I really wanted to love this book I wasn't able to.

**ARC provided Inkslinger PR**

Purchase: | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | iTunes |


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