This is the first book I’ve read/listened to by Lucia Franco. It is a difficult one to review. Mainly because I picked it up because of the bad press it’s received and was curious. I didn’t read any reviews prior to listening because I wanted to be completely unbiased in my opinion. I only heard it was an older man/underaged girl. I have a friend who married a man twice her age at 16 yrs old. Fifteen years down the road, they have a beautiful family. That is the background for my review.
Lucia knows how to write well. My opinion is that a narrator is the main one to allow streaming like movie when listening, but the writer develops the world through words and it was well done. Her storyline is well written with well developed characters. This book could get a 5 star rating if that was the sole reason for a rating.
Unfortunately, so far I’ve disliked nearly every character except for Adrianna’s father, Hayden, and possibly Holly. We didn’t see much of her. Reagan was awful, which isn’t bad in itself. There’s usually a mean girl involved to create havoc. But the main two characters, Kova and Adrianna, are terrible. She is self centered and a brat. Kova is disrespectful, confusing, and the worst being a cheater! I abhor cheating. Adrianna doesn’t care that he is cheating. It’s all about their lustful feelings. I just want to throw my Kindle when those two are together! And even though I have a friend that has been in a similar situation (minus the cheating), as a Mom, I want to go all momma bear on Kova. I see no love between those two. I understand the series keeps going, and maybe we’ll get more romance/love in the next book? Amazingly enough, I want to find out. With the cheating, it’d normally be a 2 star rating, but her writing abilities had me adding a star.
Sarah Puckett is amazing as a narrator. She did an excellent job with both female and male voices. She is definitely a new favorite narrator now. Her performance was spot on and the book streamed as a movie in my head. Perfection.