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My Review:Title: Dire Straits
Author: Melissa Pearl, Anna Cruise
Series: Aspen Falls #4
Published by: Indie
Release Date: July 14th 2018
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 306
Genres: Romantic Suspense, Mystery
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 #LetsReadIndie Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 New Release Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Big Summer Birthday Bash 2018
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ IndieBound
My rating:
Blurb:The drowning wasn’t an accident.
Instinct is telling him to look deeper. To find the story…
Jarrett is a good reporter. He knows a front-page story when he sees one. When a woman is found dead on the banks of the river, the police assume it was accidental. But Jarrett thinks otherwise, and sets out on a mission to uncover the truth. A mission that involves a certain beautiful cop.
Jessica is a good cop. She keeps her head down and does her job, desperate to prove herself, especially to the person that matters most. The person who was ripped from her life so many years ago. But she is restless, fighting the desire growing inside of her to do more than just follow orders.
When their paths cross, both are driven to find answers about the woman’s death. The further their investigation goes, the more they discover, and Jarrett and Jessica soon realize that the case goes far deeper than a simple drowning. Digging for answers exposes new risks, posing a threat to both their jobs, their lives…and their feelings for each other.
You’ll love Dire Straits, because of its simmering romance, intriguing mystery and explosive conclusion.
3.5 stars — I was sucked right into the beginning of this one!! It was compelling, I was intrigued by our two main characters, and the mystery felt like it was shaping up to have an Erin Brokovich feel…I was curious how it was going to play out! But then somewhere along the way I apparently got a bit bored… Could be partially my mood, but I was avoiding reading instead of using every excuse to read. So essentially, this book started off strong, but didn’t finish quite as strongly for me.
Like I said, I was intrigued by both Jessica and Jarrett at the beginning, and I actually rather liked them. I loved that the romance felt a bit more obvious in this one (as compared to Dead Set), and they were actually kind of cute with the way they were crushing on each other and flirting. I appreciated that they were both struggling with their careers and futures, and that it all kind of came to a head at the same time. I even understood both of their needs for something juicier to tackle.
As far as the mystery went, for me it felt fairly obvious from the start, but there were a few twists and turns that still surprised me…just not the main gist. I’m not actually a big suspense/mystery reader though, so that wasn’t ever going to be the part that sold the book for me, but I still appreciated where that storyline went.
I think I started to lose interest as the mystery dragged out a bit…and also because I wasn’t getting as much bang for the buck in the romance department. I don’t mind fade to black, but then I kind of want some great kissing scenes, and even those felt short. *AGAIN* that’s just my personal taste, what does it for this reader, not a problem with the book per say.
And then the ending had me annoyed with BOTH of our MCs. I felt like their reactions/overreactions/emotional outbursts rubbed me the wrong way. Jarrett used Jess’s insecurities against her, and he was behaving a bit irrationally IMO. And when it came down to crunch time, I guess I didn’t understand Jess’s hangups as well as I thought I did. And even after all that, I felt like some little issues weren’t resolved after the climax (like Jess’s trust issues).
So yeah. This is partly just a mismatch for me, and partly me being hard on characters. But even saying all that, I was still pleasantly surprised by how much it sucked me in at the beginning, so I gotta give mad props.
NOTE: qualifies for COYER Scavenger Hunt item #43: Read a book that takes place during the summer.
I hate when you start a book and you think its great then you just lose interest. This happens to me a lot.