Cecilia London

This is a six book series. The review is based on book one only. Why do I need to state this? If you follow my reviews, you'll note that I normal write as I complete the series. Book 2 is available and book 3 is to be released Dec 7th. So, for this series, I've elected to review as I read. As you know, 3 stars aren't bad for me - "I liked it/will probably finish the series". Re-read it? Not sure. I'll have a final decision at the end.

Yes, I liked it. I didn't really like nor did I love it. However, the storyline and characters have some potential, so I will stick with it. The book did take me longer to read than normal. At 43% I did read some reviews as I had a complete misconception about the book as who had recommended it to me. Granted, she didn't describe the novel to me, yet it wasn't what I expect. It was a bit -schizophrenic. Thus the multiple shelves I review it by.

Political fiction - You really need to love politics to enjoy this part of the story. It plays a major part as book 1 is clearly set up to what will be happening and why. As other reviewers have commented, the prologue gives away direction. Also the book is written in memory/flashback to set up for present day. There are fewer chapters in present day but not the focus of the storyline thus far. Ms. London is setting the reader up to understand the politics of the time and characters of what happened in the past to get to the present. At times this does drag down the pace of the story, but I suspect it's necessary for later books.

Contemporary Romance - Here is where I was thrown. I read ALOT of sexy romance. Many of it highly erotic to same sex. So when I read reviews like "Hot" "Sexy" - at 70% of the way in I wasn't seeing it. Maybe there are a few choice words that Nora Roberts would never use, but yep, it was very 'light' sex for me. It was hard for me to pick this shelf as sex scenes limited to short paragraphs to put with my other contemporary romance. Now, the building relationship - i.e. - the romance. This is definitely Caroline and Jack's love story at the second half.

Adult Dystopian - This is where the book really fits. I know I'm repeating but I think it's important, book 1 is the set up of the series. Now this is also where I didn't really like or love the story. Like some other dystopian I've read, I have not connected with the characters. There is nothing that makes me want to have the main characters come out on top. I don't feel like I know the Hero, Jack, that well. He's handsome, sexy, former player, first time in love, but that's it. The character keeps telling me he feels bad about how he behaved in the past, but has nothing to endear him to me. The heroine, she's tough. Literally. Sometimes I like her. Sometimes her behavior irritates me as being a bit overreactive. But, I've got to give this series the credit. The storyline does have me intrigued and maybe this items that I am not enjoying will make sense.

So do I recommend it to you? Not sure. What I do recommend is that you read reviews 5 star, 4 star and less than 3 to see how it weighs on your TBR. I may get more enthusiastic reviews as I progress with the series. Like I've tried to convey, the storyline has potential and why I'm sticking with it.

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This is a six book series. The review is based on book two. If you haven't read my review for book one, basically I had hopes for this series as the plot line and writing style have huge potential. Like book one, this book, for this reader, seems to have multiple genre personality disorder. However, this book does solidly land in the adult-dystopian shelf. In the current adult-dystopian time line, the main character, Caroline, suffers brutally for her 'crimes'. In the reflective erotic time line, the chemistry between Caroline and Jack is off the charts whenever they are alone.


Let me touch on the erotic personality of the book. I never connected with Jack and Caroline as a couple. Yes, when they were together, the story line was passionate. But that's all I got. They liked sex with each other very much. But what about the other stuff that makes a relationship? Jack is supposedly by Caroline's narrative very attached to her children by the frequent reminder 'his face shows the hurt'. Okay thanks for telling me, but I'd rather you 'show' me. I almost feel like the majority of this portion of the novel could have been left out. It didn't give me much to go on to become attached or root for the hope of them being back together.

The dystopian personality was the one that I had the most hope for. The chapters start off strong. At 40%, it was feeling repetitive. Caroline's friends are brought in to get Caroline to tell the government what 'she knows'. I use the term 'what she knows' loosely as I am still not sure what she knows is harmful. These chapters are brutal but I never completely understood why the government singled her out to brutalize her. The others had also from what I gather spoken out. But they wanted her for...??? Not until Chapter 33, which is quick, do you get any semblance of maybe what's going on. Caroline has a suspicion that their President is corrupt and goes to Jack. Jack looks at her stuff and says yep. They voice their opinions in the public,sort of,- and that was...??? I found myself comparing this book to The Road by Cormac McCarthy. In The Road, you have no idea why the world fell apart. But The Road was a book of survival. A father's desperation to have his son live. In that storyline, I didn't need to know how they got there because I understood the why of the characters motivation. In this book, I have a very slight clue why they got there, and even a lesser clue as to why its important. This reader needs more details, not brutality for brutality's sake.


I have book three to read. Will I? Not right away. I really want to like this series as several trusted friends highly recommend it. I've read other reviews that loved these first two books - 5 stars. It could my personal preference for a faster paced storyline why I am not finding a connection yet.
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