ARC Review: Energized by Mary Behre

Energized is my first book by this author and my first book in this series. This also happens to be my first romance with some paranormal elements. I liked it but I didn’t love it. The book is about Hannah and Niall. Hannah has psychometric abilities which allow her to glimpse the memories of others when she comes in contact with metal objects. Niall is a soldier returned home with memories that nobody wants to have. When the two meet, Hannah sees into Niall’s memories and offer him some much needed comfort. They spend one night together and because of a misunderstanding don’t meet up again until months later when Hannah shows up in Tidewater, Niall’s hometown in search of her long lost sisters. Some other stuff happens, Hannah is the psychometric witness to a serial killer’s madness and we have ourselves a story. Hannah and Niall are trying to sort out their issues while tracking down a serial killer.

I kind of liked Hannah and Niall together but there was something about the writing of this book that I didn’t love. It was just too blunt for my taste. I mean I just had an overall sense that it could have been more nuanced which would have given the characters the appearance of greater complexity. I got where Hannah was coming from as she tried to draw Niall out but I always have mixed feelings about a heroine doing that. Yes, Niall was damaged and needed to be loved back to health but there is a limit on my tolerance for a heroine who puts up with that brand of BS. I think on balance it worked in this book because I was rooting for Hannah and Niall as a couple.

I think where things went a little sideways for me was in the clutter of the book. There was the story of the restaurant and the issues Niall was having with his brother. And just for fun, we get a glimpse into the brother’s POV so we can see him struggling with issues related to his sexuality. Then there were the other restaurant employees and their sub-stories. Like between Hannah and the psychometric flashes and the other girl who was reading people’s aura’s, the author was giving me a lot, maybe too much. And of course we can’t leave out crazy azz Mercy stabbing people up here and there to free them from the burden of life. We also see into Mercy’s POV. In the end all the POVs and the sub-stories just got to be a little too much clutter for me. I was interested in the story between Hannah and Niall and while all the other stuff was cool too, I just wasn’t here for all of that. So in the end I walked away feeling like this was a decent book with a pretty good mystery/suspense but it just wasn’t what I was looking for in the story.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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