Series: Standalone
Traits & Tropes: love triangle; age-gap; dangerous hero; enemies to lovers
Genre/Setting: Contemporary(ish); Suspense
Publication Date: 10.27.20 (this edition)
Heat Level: 3/5
Rating: 2/5
All her life Alexandra Gaither has harbored guilt, no matter how misplaced, over her mother's murder when she was just an infant. Now an assistant district attorney, Alex is determined to finally get some answers by revisiting her mother's small hometown in an isolated corned of Texas to seek new evidence that wasn't uncovered 25 years ago. There she faces off with three men who were with her mother, Celina, the night she died: her high school sweetheart, their mutual best friend, and the man who'd been a father to them all. They've all got charm and secrets and Alex is sure they're viable suspects.
Alex is determined to have answers no matter what, even as her one month deadline draws rapidly close and tragedies seem to dog her every step in the town.
I was not a fan of this book. It had so many issues. Somehow, I wound up not being able to put it down just to see how bad it would actually get. And it only worsened for me. Possible spoilers ahead as I get my thoughts out.
Nothing good came from anything Alex did and she was one of the most selfish, obnoxious, illogical, and unlikable heroines I've ever read. I couldn't root for her and she was everything the townspeople in the book criticized her for being. She was very much the meddling attorney, ruffling feathers and not knowing when to step back, even when people got hurt. She was quick to assume fault for things that had nothing to do with her, but not to own up to or make amends for her mistakes. I could've overlooked that and even admired her determination were it not for the fact that her motives were selfish and she had virtually no legal grounds to reopen her mother's case. She got even worse when she began playing Junior and Reede against one another, much as her mother had done in the past, and undermining Reede's authority as sheriff, not to mention constantly sniping at him, when he hadn't really done anything to deserve that animosity. She also had a very black and white view of justice and right versus wrong that I think was meant to make her seem like a worthy crusader but really just made her seem immature and grossly short-sighted.
Reede had this rugged, masculine charm thing going for him and had the potential to be the best kind of brooding hero, but I'm not a fan of other woman drama and he did make no secrets of sleeping with others after meeting Alex. Of course, they weren't in any type of relationship then and he owed her nothing, so there was no real reason he couldn't, but it's just icky to me. I never felt much chemistry between him and Alex , some mild lust maybe, but not the real connection beyond their desire to punish each other. That's likely due to the fact that she spent so much time blatantly accusing him of murder even after they'd been intimate. This brings me to the truly icky bit for me. I could've dealt fine with the 17 year age gap between Reede and Alex, but Reede having ben Celina's high school sweetheart was just too weird, even though they never slet together. The fact that he even considered at one point becoming Alex's stepfather and interacted with her as a baby was something I just couldn't get past and it killed what little romance their was for me. Plus reading scenes about his lust for Celina and then for Alex was just too much. Alex had too much to prove and just came off as arrogant rather than qualified and Reede didn't have enough going for him to save it. I found the other characters just wound up being tragic, especially when one of them did a complete 180 from the established character arc right at the end and utterly ruined the ending beyond redemption for me. Talk about short-changing your characters. I enjoyed the suspense aspect, even having guessed the real culprit fairly early on, but that's about it. This held my attention well enough, but I didn't for it and I won't read it again.
I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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