From GoodReads:
"“I knew you were running the first time I saw you…"
Devon didn’t have a game plan when she decided to leave St. Louis on a Chicago-bound train for the summer. Just a reason.
One she couldn’t share with anyone. Not Hadley, her best friend from college, who lets her stay in the guest bedroom; no questions asked. Or Brennan, the bartender at the local restaurant they frequent, who she actively tries to avoid. Or Garrett, Hadley’s boyfriend, who befriends her when she has no one else to turn to.
"I just didn’t know what you were running from...."
Desperate to hide at all costs, Devon plunges into her new life in the city. Everyone around her starts to reveal sides of themselves Devon never expected. And just when she starts to get comfortable, her world flips upside down…
"...but I think all along you were running toward me."
4 lives.
All connected.
All with secrets that just keep following them."
My Thoughts:
I swear I really had high high hopes for this book, and it may be one of those books that everyone disagrees with me about, but it just didn't do it for me. I actually hate that I'm even writing this review, because I loved The Avoiding Series by K. A. Linde. I like her writing quite a lot, but this book I just couldn't get into.
I enjoyed the general concept of the story from the blurb. Four peoples lives, all intertwined, all with their own set of problems. But the main focus was on Devon, and her story wasn't the most interesting to me.
It basically went like this:
Girl is running from her life, and a "big secret", she needs a change asap.
Girl runs to best friend and her super amazing boyfriend to stay with them for the summer at their apartment in Chicago.
Girl meets super sexy bartender, who also has secrets.
Girl finds out her best friend is also keeping secrets.
Girls own secret eventually gets revealed.
Girls life gets thrown for a loop.
end story.
But the story itself seemed forced. I didn't really feel a strong connection with any of the characters. At some points I actually wished the book was more about Hadley than it was about Devon. Hadley's story seemed more dramatic to me.
At around 60% of the book, I actually wondered if I could bring myself to keep going with it. I'm not say it was a bad book, or poorly written, because it wasn't.. it was just.. slow. It was very slow moving, and I didn't find myself seriously intrigued until the last 20% or so of the book. But throughout the book I was wondering what this huge secret Devon was hiding was, so I definitely had to keep reading.
The part that bothers me, is that her secret, wasn't an "OH MY GOD YOU'RE KIDDING" secret, to me. Her dreams kind of pointed in the general direction of her secret. We get a LOT of her dreams in the book, and sometimes it took a few pages for me to realize it was actually a dream, and I just sat there confused over it for a page or two. But after reading her dreams, it kind of all fell into place and made sense, once it was revealed.
Throughout the book, I wanted more. Sometimes I wasn't even sure of what I wanted more of. Character development of Devon and Brennan? More background of Brennan's character specifically? More emotion? More details? I just thought I needed a bit more from each character to fully be pulled into the story.
Argh.. I really really feel terrible writing this review. I hope this is one of those books people will disagree with me about, because I really do love and respect K. A. Linde as an author. I love the fact that this idea was completely different than anything else she has written. That takes a lot for an author to go outside their norm, and I respect that about her.
3-3.5 Stars..
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