Twenty One
I was about to give this even up to 3.5 stars until about 3/4 of the book, because in a sea of incredibly contrived and stupid so-called "dark" romance, this one seemed to have a rather credible plot, reasonable characterisation, and mostly solid writing. Alas, it all went down the drain. For starters, although the characters were fairly smart, the silliness of the protagonist's demands to be released, even after being through so much, irked me - as if it was that easy!
The worst, however, was the back-end of the story, where horrible injuries start piling up, and yet, people who sustain them just keep going? I'm not well-versed in medicine, but I don't think human body works like that after all that pain and blood loss. I guess the author wanted to up the ante, but, as it was implausible, it did the story no good. Less would have definitely been more in this case.
The implausibility continued with the manner of getting rescued (how did that woman learn the phone number?) and the speed of recovery, and the happy resolution felt rushed.
And, of course, the answer(s) to the initial "mystery" were obvious to me since the beginning.
So, overall, another disappointment. Why is it so hard to find a well-conceived and executed story in this genre? (And why do I have an unlucky hand with my reading picks, lately? Here's to hoping I have better luck next time, I suppose.)
