Helpful Score: 2
~ ABSOLUTELY ADORED SEAN (AND GENNY) AND HAD STRONG MYSTERY SUBPLOT (4 stars) ~
Another great Kery read! This is the fourth book of hers I've read since I started my Kery binge less than two weeks ago. I've never been a "romantica" reader, but in the past couple of months I've expanded in this sub-genre and found some surprisingly good books. My expectations were not high; I thought it would be all sex scenes, with a couple of paragraphs thrown in between them depicting some type of clothed activity to show the outside world still exists.
Anyway, this and WICKED BURN are my favorite Kery reads so far. They both have great leading characters, hot romance, and interesting subplots. EXPLOSIVE had a better subplot than WICKED BURN (a surprisingly good one, actually), but entire-package-wise, WICKED BURN and RELEASE definitely come out ahead, with the former probably being my favorite. This one is good though and very worth reading.
I loved both Genevieve (33 and 30) and Sean (37 and 34). Sean is a delicious hero and is vying with Vic (from WICKED BURN) for my affections, though they're very different from one another. Sean is in love with Genevieve and very open and clear about that from the beginning, he's so caring and affection towards her and his feelings never waver. In this instance, the internal conflict over the relationship is all on Genevieve's side, and considering what she believes it is understandable. Despite that, she doesn't hold herself back from Sean and never pulls the I'm-going-to-be-mean-to-you-to-push-you-away-because-I-actually-love-you move or any other similar manipulation, which I greatly appreciated (hate those).
Genevieve was a very realistic heroine in that she's similar to a real, actual, modern woman, as opposed to one of the two extremes that we often see. I mean this in terms of personality, profession, upbringing, sexual experience, etc. - characters are so often full of extremes and very unrealistic in that sense; both Sean and Genny seemed real, like people you could know.
It's a romantic suspense book and I thought the suspense subplot was excellently done. There were lots of twists and turns that were slowly revealed and while I had an idea who had murdered Max, I was not at all certain of what the motive was and frankly thought it was going to be some really forced and convoluted reasoning that was solely done because the story needed it, as opposed to because it made sense. This was not the case and I loved how Kery tied everything together.
While one of the two main failings in EXPLOSIVE was that the back and forth in story timeline was unclear and confusing at the beginning, here Kery got it right throughout. The first flashback didn't occur until ~30 pages in, so we're allowed to sink into the present day story and see where we are now; then the beginnings of their relationship is integrated and, of course, that fateful New Year's Eve. The back and forths were infrequent, smoothly integrated, and long enough that you don't feel like you're watching a ping pong match.
The entire book only takes place over a couple of days, but there are also the flashbacks and since Sean and Genny have known one another for so long before the present point we're brought in to, the short length of time didn't bother me as it normally would. I was actually bothered by the fact that it took 3 years for Sean and Genevieve to end their estrangement. Sean had initially tried several times to reach out, but Genny kept him at arm's length for valid reasons. She would have continued doing so had her house fire not forced her to find someplace else to stay, and had she not chosen the company penthouse to be that place. Three years just seems like a long time and I find it hard to believe, considering their strong feelings of love for one another (which I do believe), they would have stayed away from each other for so long.
Another great Kery read! This is the fourth book of hers I've read since I started my Kery binge less than two weeks ago. I've never been a "romantica" reader, but in the past couple of months I've expanded in this sub-genre and found some surprisingly good books. My expectations were not high; I thought it would be all sex scenes, with a couple of paragraphs thrown in between them depicting some type of clothed activity to show the outside world still exists.
Anyway, this and WICKED BURN are my favorite Kery reads so far. They both have great leading characters, hot romance, and interesting subplots. EXPLOSIVE had a better subplot than WICKED BURN (a surprisingly good one, actually), but entire-package-wise, WICKED BURN and RELEASE definitely come out ahead, with the former probably being my favorite. This one is good though and very worth reading.
I loved both Genevieve (33 and 30) and Sean (37 and 34). Sean is a delicious hero and is vying with Vic (from WICKED BURN) for my affections, though they're very different from one another. Sean is in love with Genevieve and very open and clear about that from the beginning, he's so caring and affection towards her and his feelings never waver. In this instance, the internal conflict over the relationship is all on Genevieve's side, and considering what she believes it is understandable. Despite that, she doesn't hold herself back from Sean and never pulls the I'm-going-to-be-mean-to-you-to-push-you-away-because-I-actually-love-you move or any other similar manipulation, which I greatly appreciated (hate those).
Genevieve was a very realistic heroine in that she's similar to a real, actual, modern woman, as opposed to one of the two extremes that we often see. I mean this in terms of personality, profession, upbringing, sexual experience, etc. - characters are so often full of extremes and very unrealistic in that sense; both Sean and Genny seemed real, like people you could know.
It's a romantic suspense book and I thought the suspense subplot was excellently done. There were lots of twists and turns that were slowly revealed and while I had an idea who had murdered Max, I was not at all certain of what the motive was and frankly thought it was going to be some really forced and convoluted reasoning that was solely done because the story needed it, as opposed to because it made sense. This was not the case and I loved how Kery tied everything together.
While one of the two main failings in EXPLOSIVE was that the back and forth in story timeline was unclear and confusing at the beginning, here Kery got it right throughout. The first flashback didn't occur until ~30 pages in, so we're allowed to sink into the present day story and see where we are now; then the beginnings of their relationship is integrated and, of course, that fateful New Year's Eve. The back and forths were infrequent, smoothly integrated, and long enough that you don't feel like you're watching a ping pong match.
The entire book only takes place over a couple of days, but there are also the flashbacks and since Sean and Genny have known one another for so long before the present point we're brought in to, the short length of time didn't bother me as it normally would. I was actually bothered by the fact that it took 3 years for Sean and Genevieve to end their estrangement. Sean had initially tried several times to reach out, but Genny kept him at arm's length for valid reasons. She would have continued doing so had her house fire not forced her to find someplace else to stay, and had she not chosen the company penthouse to be that place. Three years just seems like a long time and I find it hard to believe, considering their strong feelings of love for one another (which I do believe), they would have stayed away from each other for so long.
