This book has been SUCH a disappointment. I was angry when I went to sleep and I woke up angry! Lets say that most of the book (round 80%) was OK. I didn't like Reece so much (he's an arrogant ass that thinks that everything he wants he can and WILL have... for me it's disgusting and NOT attractive trait in a guy..), he meets his teenage love Kennedy by total mistake and is immediately enthralled by her. Which means he'll do right about anything to make her his again, and she, having been left by him when she was 15 had enough but she can't resist his offer so she joins him for a voyage in his boat AS HIS EMPLOYEE just to he'll give her the opportunity of her lifetime for a dancing career. Yeah
he made her a valid offer but think about it, she is working FOR him on the voyage while he's trying to nail her. If he was a great guy he would offer her a voyage with him to show her his worth and GIVE her the opportunity not make her sort of work for it not look like she is just whoring around with the boss.. (per his usual actually..)
So most of the book is about Kennedy saying no to Reece while actually wanting to say yes, even though he hurt her when he left back then.
That's a nice enough plot. It's could have been a nice enough story about a poor girl taking on the rich guy, making him realize all the riches of the world couldn't equal to her smile. well, it COULD have been, but Leighton wanted this story to have a deep and dark place. She wanted to bring into the book a black hole of despair for Kennedy and she sure has! But I didn't believe it for one bit!
You probably heard the sentence "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". It's a nice enough sentence to say to someone you want to FEEL stronger even though he went through hell. But truthfully, the Psychology World will tell you that what didn't kill you, but did in fact really hurt you, will probably stay with you as a scar for the rest of your life. Every time you go through an horrendous experience it leaves a mark on you.
Everyone is different, everyone deals in different ways, some people need more outside help then others, some just don't have any help at all but we do what we can to survive and we carry the scars of the things we went through in our life even though most of those scars are internal ones and maybe most people won't know about them even if they are very close to us.
After writing this passage all I can say is that Kennedy is NOT a believable character. She behaves as though she was betrayed in a young age, and she was! Reece left her when she was young and vulnerable and she was so in love with him that it left it's mark on her. Period. Anything else in her history doesn't sound believable for a second. NO one deals THAT well with practically no help just one old woman she sometimes confines in...
So, I'd say right about the time we hear what Reece has been hiding from Kennedy the story deteriorated until it becomes a sugar-over-dose happy. BUT before we get to the overly happy ending we start with Reece being such a douche there are NO WORDS.. what Reece asks Kennedy is basically "Are you willing to be my own personal whore?" (add a dashing smile at the end..). I do think that Reece sees all women this way like they are a "vagina waiting to happen" and even when he realizes he loves her let's just say it takes him long enough to understand that she is not the usual whore he hangs around with. Then he does his "grand gesture" - half of it he had to do, but the other half he did "especially for her" was, just, unnecessary.. it was stupid he spend the time he did AWAY from her to do THAT.
Then when they finally get to the point that they are finally truly together we learn two more things, I mean heart shattering things. Both of them feel utterly unbelievable. First because as I've said Kennedy might act hurt for been left but to learn she went through another sort of hell besides the one we heard half way through the book was just too much. Not too much evil. Too much to be believable (Yeah, I know this word appears WAY too much in this review..) People go through shit. But again, NO ONE deals THAT well. But it's not just that - yes, man can be assholes, but they should be "in character" I mean both the man I refer to sounds off. Some people are just mean or bad, but most people who turn out to be bad was somehow like that before - they don't become evil over night! Which is what Kennedy's past suggest.
The other man is half believable though it still sounds strange as hell and the outcome sounds as it was orchestrated only to make yet another lollipop to be added to the sugar-overdose-happily-ever-after ending. I almost puked.. It could have been a moment that you feel your heart clenching but it was actually annoying considering the scenes before.
And in the end? Kennedy sounds like she will be content to just play house with Reece, I swear she would have gave away her dancing career just for him. and when THAT realization popped to mind I just wondered - Kennedy, who the hell are you? and I THEN I realized we know nothing ABOUT her, I didn't get what Reece found in her, or what she found in him except for the obvious they are both good looking and hot, oh, and stubborn! You don't get to understand what make the connection between them years ago but also what made it happen now except for the obvious - hot sex, a lot of that!
And one last thing. Babies. GOD! what with the obsession with babies? I don't know how much time passed from Sloan's book but she and Hemi aren't married yet she is already (!) pregnant (don't panic you get that at about 2 chapters into this book) which I can guess mean she still hasn't reached the age of 22. So all I have to say to that is REALLY? REALLY? don't woman have MORE they want in life then sitting at home raising kids for their rich husbands? because I don't think either Sloan or Kennedy actually have any REAL aspirations. which in my eyes just offend women in general.
I feel like two stars are the best I can give this one. I honestly feel cheated for this story to be SO unbelievable and so NOT realistic. not to mention offensive to women.
I hate writing these sort of reviews because I know that the author had probably made her best writing this story and bringing it to us, but honestly, I feel so angry I can't just "let it be" I feel I must express how it made me feel.
Not recommended.
Additional Details: Kindle Ebook, 310 pages, 26 February 2014 / On GoodReads
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