Synopsis
Sophie has enough problems in her life without Spencer turning her blood to fire, without his eyes freezing and burning her, without his hatred of her. Since his migration into the house next to hers, Sophia Valdez isn’t sure whether she wants to toss him under a bus or kiss that smirking mouth of his. But even as the temperature rises around them, leaping flames of passion, want and desire,everything either has ever known will be shattered by the lurking shadow hounding their every step, wanting revenge.
Spencer Rowth moves to the sleepy town of River Port with his mother and twelve year old sister, Suzy, to escape a deceitful father, an unfaithful girlfriend and a life crumbling much too fast for him to grapple onto only to be smacked upside the head by the last thing he wanted again. Sophie was everything he refused to want. Her temper, her wit, her laugh, her smile, the way her entire body goes up in flames under his hands are things he would rather slam a lid on and forget. Instead, he finds himself falling for the smart-mouth next door. But how long will he have before the evil chasing them catches up? How long before the very thing he never wanted becomes his only thread to sanity? And who is after them? What do they want and why do they want Spencer and Sophie dead? Warnings: Strong language and mild sexual content
I sat here for a long while thinking about what I wanted to say about this book. First of all Airicka Phoenix wrote an interesting story. But by 15% in I knew who the bad guy was. Some of it was very predictable, other bits were a little shocking. That being said the story itself was well written. The character creation was done in such a manner that we are inside the world of teenagers. The characters are definately the strongest part of the story. They are all extremely well fleshed out and you can literally see them in your head.
I loved how she kept the parents involved through the entire story. I basically loved Spencer, (the bad boy who was really good), and I loved how she made the peer group of Sophie. I even enjoyed the bad guy!
It is quite a long book, 475 pages in total and while it was interesting, I will admit that it didn't keep me gripping the edge of my book and flipping pages quicklly. I just read it at a normal pace, it didn't spark any strong feelings at all. Probably because I had figured it out so early into the story.
I'll call the bad guy the stalker... Now the stalker is easy to figure out and even understand. The author wrote his history well and you learn about him gradually through little things in the book and can actually put yourself into his crazy frame of mind. This has a two fold effect: you feel sorry for the stalker and actually want the best for him, and two you want to rip his head off and scream at him for being such an ass.
Now in my personal opinion this book warrants four stars. I would give it five stars but I knew the outcome way in advance, I felt with some editing it could be made a bit tighter, and I felt that some of the repetativeness of the arguments with the parents were a bit old. I also wondered why 3 months were squeezed into about 30 pages when the length of the book up to that point was huge for the short amount of time that passed. It seemed those months just sort of fast forwarded. The other thing I didn't like was how it just went BAM alls well that ends well and the book was over.
*Warning* There was some profanity, some make-out sessions, some drug use, some underage drinking, and some sex scenes not descriptive at all, and the quite visual abuse at the hands of the stalker. All in all I give it four stars.
Author Bio
Airicka Phoenix is the best-selling author of the Touch Series with short stories in Whispered Beginnings: A Clever Fiction Anthology and Midnight Surrender Anthology. When she's not hammering away at the keyboard, she can be found banishing pirates or crawling through the attic looking for lost treasure with her kids. She loves baking, gardening and reading. She also likes to travel and take pictures of everything she comes across. When asked, Airicka describes herself as a sarcastic basket case that has an unhealthy addiction to chocolate, old movies and really bad jokes. She loves to laugh, make friends and write. If she could have one wish granted, it would be to spend one day as a fly-on-the-wall inside Stephen King's mind. If she could have two wishes granted, she would ask for a castle dedicated entirely to her overwhelming collection of books. For more about Airicka, also on how to win giveaways, read author interviews and reviews.
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Thank you so much for this wonderful review! <3
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