Lady Vigilante (Feifei)'s Reviews > Ricochet

4 stars!

I remember when I first heard about this book I read the blurb and went ‘oh shit,’ thinking that this book may just be the dark romance winner I've been looking for. And for the most part, it was! It’s a turbulent book filled with graphic violence and such raw savagery I’m pretty sure it overloaded my senses. It made me feel bloodthirsty. And being the weirdo reader who craves this kind of stuff, I loved every dark part of this book.

But while the dark premise of this book worked for me perfectly, overall it was not a perfect read. In fact, when I finished reading my gut reaction was to not rate this book because I had such conflicting feelings warring in my head. On one hand, the author’s writing is simply brilliant – so gripping and making me feel ten different emotions at once. But on the other hand, I just didn’t like the way loose ends were tied up and some plot revelations towards the end of the book (those who have read it will know exactly what I’m referring to). I’m just going to say that what’s revealed at the end has never, ever worked for me in other books I’ve read with the same theme, so my dislike stems from a personal preference and not a result of the author doing something wrong. After taking some time to mull things over, I finally decided on a 4 star rating for two very simple reasons:

1. This book is truly one of the few books I can say I had trouble putting down, and when I was reading it, I was flipping the pages fast.

2. The fast-paced, action-packed plot had my heart racing and stomach in knots. Plus you know the feeling where you’re on the verge of tears but not crying just yet and your throat feels like it’s burning from holding back? That happened to me while I was reading a couple of scenes where Nick was tortured and haunted by his past (dead wife & son). I can’t remember the last time I had such a visceral reaction to a book before.

I took off 1 star to account for the ending of the book I didn’t really care for and also because there were a few scenes where the book was straddling the line between contemporary and paranormal and those parts annoyed me. Don’t get me wrong, this book is definitely what I would call contemporary and the writing is impressive but because some parts of the book required me to suspend a great deal of disbelief I had to dock stars.

I know I didn’t even talk about plot or characters, and while I hate playing the ‘you have to experience the book for yourself’ card it’s exactly what every reader has to do while reading this book. For a good part of the story I hated both Nick and Aubree because a lot of their actions didn’t match their character but as I read, the pieces started to fit together. It’s definitely a book that constantly made me question my own opinions until the very end.

So aside from some minor hiccups along the way, overall I definitely did enjoy reading this entertaining, addicting story! Considering the books I’ve read this past month have been sub-par at best, I see Ricochet as a huge winner, and look forward to reading more from this author.

Ricochet is a dark romance standalone.

ARC provided by the author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.