Publisher: Penguin Group
Release Date: October 1, 2013
About the bookArlene's Review
Rock star River Wilde brought Dahlia London back from the brink of hopelessness with his unwavering love and devotion. But their entangled history is about to test the strength of their relationship…
Dahlia was certain she had found true love and met her "Once in a Lifetime’ when she reconnected with River. But Dahlia’s world comes crashing down when someone from her past resurfaces, and all of River’s carefully hidden secrets are exposed.
River wants to show Dahlia that life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass—it’s about dancing in the rain. But how many times can one broken heart be mended? Will River and Dahlia be able to stay together or will they be torn apart?
Torn is the second installment in the Connections series, which completes the story for Dahlia, River and Ben. And, if you read the first book, you’ll remember the epic cliffhanger Kim Karr left us with when she closed her story with that head-bang worthy journal entry/epilogue. I knew that as soon as I had access to this next book, I was going to jump right in to see how these characters dealt with the blows that were headed their way.
In Torn, Dahlia and River face the aftermath of discovering that Ben is still alive. Just when River and Dahl were about to seal their relationship with a huge commitment step… ahem… ahem think ring and an altar…. Ben comes back into the picture and he stops at nothing to try and get his girl back. This story was filled with endless drama and emotional turmoil to the point where I felt it became a bit much. Quickly into the book, there seemed to be turmoil just for the sake of propelling the story forward with no real direction in mind.
Overall, I liked these characters to a mild degree, but each one was flawed in a way that stopped me from embracing them to the fullest. Dahlia seemed to look for things to be upset about to the point where I just wanted to tell her to sit back, relax and reflect before making hasty decisions and saying things she’d regret. I still can't grasp the fact that she was over Ben so completely. I mean this was the guy she grieved for two years. She perplexed me quite a bit! Also, I’m sure I won’t be the only one to suspect that River has anger issues. I get that he has reason to be upset about certain situations, but resorting to violence and alcohol leaves much to be desired where I’m concerned. Lastly… Ben… boy would I love to read his journal entries in their entirety. He was one twisted cupcake!
Overall, I was somewhat satisfied with the twists and turns the story took despite the head-spin I got from the drama. I was left a bit perplexed about Caleb’s purpose in the book. I truly thought his storyline was going somewhere until it suddenly didn’t. I’m thinking he might be positioned for his own series later??? I don’t know…
Well Kim Karr did a great job in making me pine for Torn with her painful cliffy from Connected, but in the end, I feel this installment fell a bit short of my expectations. Entertaining, but not without its fair share of flaws.
Final note: Who is that girl on the book cover??? Dahlia is blond. That is all..
3 Suns
Connected had one of the worst cliffhangers I have ever read. I am not usually completely blindsided but man after reading that last chapter I was left with a WTF face! So when I saw Torn on Netgalley I just had to grab it and devour it to see what happened when Dahlia found out Ben was alive. I guess I kind of got what I wanted, but this book which looking back and remembering the first one is filled with way too many "I Love You More's" than the drama that I craved.
Ben being alive was HUGE! I never expected him to come back and when I started this book I just knew there was going to be some DRAMA! What we get though is small drama and the drama that I really wanted to delve more into got sidelined by Dahlias and Rivers need to bite each other and have hot angry sex all over the place. Oh temper tantrums! So many tantrums we are grown people! Sorry got side tracked with a rant...Ben back to Ben first...I know he was gone for three years but Dahlia had to have had some kind of lingering feelings for him. Did I want her to end up with NO but I wanted her to acknowledge that they were engaged and that yes she still loved him. What he did was wrong and she had every right to be angry, but they needed to at least talk about what happened. I just don't think feelings go away like she said they do. I wanted closure darn it! Don't get me wrong, Ben was a dog and I thought he was a dog in the first book but I really wanted to see them come to terms with their relationship. I guess maybe I have read too many NA books were the guys fight for what they want. Ben didn't really fight, he just let River have her. And again I didn't want Dahlia to end up with Ben, but I still wanted to see the fight. Honestly though I didn't care where Dahlia ended up I just didn't want to see River hurt. He was a great guy who did everything he could to protect her and he didn't deserve to be hurt.
My biggest problem with this book was the overflowing love between Dahlia & River. I swear of you took out all the pages where they were either confessing their love to each other or deciding that they just needed to talk to each other and tell them they were the one and the happy/angry sex scenes this book would have only been about 50 pages. I love steam don't get me wrong and River is steamy but I need story too, not just tantrums and sex. The first book was all about Dahlia coming to terms with the death of Ben and this book was just about her and River becoming stronger in the face of so many obstacles and that I liked but the delivery just wasn't there for me.
Oh and the BIG bomb that was dropped I suspected from the get go so I wasn't surprised but I am surprised that it was swept under the rug. What's the point in bringing up a life altering situation if it is just going to be forgotten ten pages later? Maybe it will be brought up in the next book which is Xanders but I highly doubt it. This series is going to be long and the next book is about Xander which I am not sure I am excited about. I am not a fan of his so I will have to think about reading his book.
2 suns
No comments:
Post a Comment