Unforgiven by Jay Crownover

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Title: Unforgiven
Author: Jay Crownover
Series: Loveless Texas #2
Published by: Forever
Release Date: February 25th 2020
Format: eARC
Pages: 433
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Romantic Suspense
Source: NetGalley
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2020 Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge, Lenoreo's 2020 New Release Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER With Friends
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Marked Men series comes an irresistible and suspenseful romance between a tough Texas Ranger and his first love--a woman in danger who insists she doesn't need his protection.

Hill Gamble is a model lawman: cool and collected, with a confident swagger to boot. Too bad all that Texas charm hasn't gotten him anywhere in his personal life, especially since the only girl he ever loved has always been off-limits. But then Hill is assigned to investigate her father's mysterious death, and he's forced back to the town--and the woman--he left behind.

When Hill left Loveless, he broke Kody Lawton's already battered heart. And now that he's working on her father's case, avoiding him is impossible. She can handle Hill and her unwanted feelings--until he puts his life on the line to protect her. Suddenly, Kody realizes that Hill could be taken away from her...for good.

My Review:

I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

3 stars — Well…this one didn’t work as well for me as Crew and Case’s romances.  I honestly found myself skimming the sex scenes for the last half of the book.  I think it really could have been edited down a bit and then the pacing would have worked better.

I also had a hard time connecting with Kody.  I kind of knew that might be the case going in — I wasn’t that intrigued by her in the first 2 books.  She’s very volatile, makes crazy decisions, and she takes out her anger on the ones she loves.  I know some people like that, and it’s something that really annoys me about those people, so I was never going to be on Kody’s side for that.  I’m also a super good girl, so I’m never going to be excited about all the illegal type decisions that Kody was making…the reasons didn’t seem good enough for me.

Hill was pretty sweet…but he was also kind of a doormat when it came to Kody.  There were times I kept wondering what it was about Kody that he fell in love with, and then I’d have to remember that they had all these deep conversations in the past that the reader wasn’t privy to.  That really didn’t help me feel the connection between them.  And other than the way he was with Kody, I’m not sure I really knew a whole lot else about him.

And I guess you can tell since I skimmed that I wasn’t really feeling the chemistry between the two of them.  The emotional connection felt a bit forced, and I need that to get into the steamy scenes.  I just couldn’t wrap my head around the two of them together.

The suspense/mystery was interesting — though I was hella surprised when it wasn’t resolved.  Didn’t see the next book coming.  I’m more interested in those characters, but I’m not sure enough to keep going in this series.  I enjoyed the previous books, but not enough to be blown away and clamouring for more, you know?

So yeah.  Characters are my bread and butter, and I just couldn’t connect with these two (though mostly Kody).  Ah well.