ARC Review: Lost Wishes by Kelly Gendron

Lost Wishes is the fifth Troublemaker Series book by Kelly Gendron, but each book is a standalone. I haven't read any of the previous books, and I wasn't lost with this one. You do get to see characters from the previous books though, so fans of the series will enjoy seeing some familiar faces. I have to say that I was originally drawn to this book with the blurb, I knew it was going to be emotional and hard to get through at times and yet sometimes I apparently like to torture myself. I am kind of a sucker for broken heroes, and what is more broken than a man who loses the love of his life and only lives for revenge? 

Fallon O'Conner spends each day barely surviving. He fulfills his basic needs and waits for the man that killed his wife to be released from prison. In the three years that he has spent without his wife, Fallon has been with a lot of women yet he refuses to allow them to be at all intimate with him. He has sex, but he is strictly taking care of a physical need. But when Katie Rustle enters his life, he feels something different with her and knows that he needs to keep her far away from him. Katie was warned about the type of man that Fallon is, and she knows about his past. But she has a job to do, and she intends to see it through using everything she learned from being raised by a father that taught her being emotional was useless. But when Katie and Fallon are forced to spend more time together, they quickly begin to realize that they have no control over what is happening between them. 

I have to say that I liked Katie at times, but I also struggled with her at others. Right away she comes off as strong and independent, she goes after what she wants and doesn't put up with anyone's crap. But then in the middle of the book, I felt like she pretty much lost all that and sort of allowed Fallon to push her around. She wasn't as take charge, and it was a bit disappointing to me. I did like how she finished the book though, and I thought that she was exactly what Fallon needed. She supported him and gave him everything she could while also showing her own vulnerability. Fallon was harder for me to like, and for most of this book he was an absolute jerk. He would have a few moments that things would turn around, but there were some times when he was really hard to take. I understand that he was still grieving and had a lot of pain and anger he was dealing with, but I expected to see more change in him over the course of the book rather than just at the end. I thought that these two were good for one another and you could tell that attraction was never an issue between them. But with the character issues, it made it hard to really get behind their story.

I also had a tough time really buying into their connection and relationship, considering that the whole thing happened over the course of about two weeks. These two started off as complete strangers and then ended up in love with one another super quickly, especially for a guy that only lived for revenge for his dead wife. It felt rushed and came off as unrealistic as far as time frame goes. I think maybe if Fallon hadn't spent the majority of this story pushing Katie away and saying that he couldn't give her what she wanted, that things might have felt more believable to me. But when he spent the whole book doing those things, it was hard to believe anything would just instantly change so drastically. I also thought that this book was very repetitive when it came to the dialogue. Fallon especially was always saying almost word for word the same things, and it was very noticeable to me. Overall this book was an okay read, but if I am honest I was a bit disappointed with it. I was thinking that this story would be really emotional and deep, and it ended up coming off as predictable and rushed. There wasn't really anything new or memorable here, so while I did finish the book and found parts enjoyable it isn't one that I will probably think about or read again.

**ARC Provided by AToMR Tours**

Purchase: | Amazon | Kindle | B&N | iTunes |