Tina's Reading Books

I really waffled between 3 & 4 stars. I wanna give it 4* for sentimental reasons because I like this couple. But really feeling 3* for execution. So I am going with 3.5 stars.

This is the sequel to Hearts in Darkness. The first book was a novella that ended in a HFN.

It was the first book by this author that I read and, imo, remains her best. I really enjoyed that one because it took a very simple premise and made it into an affecting and believable romance in a short space.

So I was very happy to know we were going to revisit Makenna and Caden and see how their romance was going. I was very happy as I was reading to see they were committed and still felt like the couple I met in that dark elevator.

Makenna is a great girlfriend who unconditionally supports Caden. I liked pretty much everything Makenna did in this book. She never was stupid. I am glad the author resisted the impulse to make her do some of the cliche romance novel things that too many heroines are made to do in their books. Makenna is rational and completely in it to win it with her guy.

Caden did most of the heavy lifting when it comes to the story's emotional center. He had a raft of issues in the first book and they are still there here in this one. Because things are going really well with Makenna and he is completely gone over her, his issues begin to surface with a vengeance. it is a case of 'everything is going so well, something is going to come along and screw it up' syndrome that some people who've suffered from deep misfortune seem to suffer from. Despite Makenna's best efforts to be his rock, Caden is the one who needs to confront his stuff inside him before they can move forward.

My two biggest reasons for not rating this higher are 1) I thought the author did too much of a good job convincing us of the seriousness of Caden's issues for him to have what felt like such a quick turn around in the end. And 2) There were a couple tv show level predictable moments that I knew would (but hoped wouldn't) happen. There was a little too much synergy in some things to not make me sigh a bit:

But aside from that, the book was a welcome revisit. And I liked how Caden interacted with Makenna's brothers and her father. Good family scenes there.