So, this seems like an almost impossible story to mess up. It has a little bit of all my favorite things; murder, mystery, romance, rock and art. But that's about all I enjoyed in this story.
What's the story about? It's about Adele Proust, an up and coming artist in Houston's Montrose District. She's got baggage, but strong and empowered by her talent and her friends, she's moving on through life. And she's doing great. In the beginning, she falls in with Greg Fowler-a super hot, womanizing lead singer for The Fury-Houston's hottest post punk band. On their first date(so to speak) a fire breaks out at the club and she stumbles on to a corpse and is able to remember that scene so well that after the place burns down, and the cops kick her out of the area, she is driven to go home and paint it while Mr. Fowler writes a song next to her. And then this story takes a dive. And it only gets worse as the story progresses.
My biggest problem with this story, and my biggest pet peeve in general, is lack of character development. I did not like any of these characters, and was hardly hurt when some died, others were hurt-I couldn't have cared less if I tried. Which is a sad thing. But I have to blame the author, not any bias of my own. Her characters are uneven. They were inconsistent, and barely believable. At times, Adele is a strong powerful woman who can move mountains, and change the world one brush stroke at a time. Other times, she is a weak emotional mess that can't budge from the fetal position. And I can appreciate that, sometimes I feel invincible, other times not so much, but Adele spends half the book crying, the other half swearing she won't ever cry again. A truly terrible thing happens to her towards the end, but the whole scene was written so poorly that I couldn't muster up any emotion.
And Adele wasn't the only character to be inconsistent. In this story, she has two main love interests; Greg Fowler, and FBI Super special agent(he's not regular FBI, though he sure seemed like he was)Blake Ingard. Greg is a womanizer who is not very good at womanizing. He falls madly in love with Adele, but she keeps him at arms length. She refuses to believe he is capable of murder, and wants to clear his name. She also wants to bed him, and cares deeply about him, but she also hates him and tries so hard to avoid him and not avoid him and...ugh!
Blake on the other hand is intense, and sensitive, and heartless and caring. He is great and terrible, and hot and cold and maybe also as bipolar as the rest of the ensemble here. And she loves him and hates him, and ugh!!
This whole damn story was annoying to read. I can forgive flaws like inconsistent characters and wickedly unbelievable situations(of which there were plenty) if the writing were grand. But the writing is mediocre if I'm kind. The sentences were weak, the transitions from scene to scene were forced, and jolting, and even her editor failed her. I found more then a few grammatical errors and a handful of spelling errors, and though I wouldn't bash her if it were just that, I have to since I actually paid money, and found this book through a real publisher. E-book, yeah, but come on, we can't afford an editor? Add that to the unbelievable stretches of the imagination, inconsistent characters, forced dialogue, and cliche behaviors, and what you have is a waste of a few hours.
I want that time back. I got nothing from this book. Hell, the second star was for ending the damn thing, the first was an act of kindness. Don't read this. It's not worth it. She should find an editor, because the underlying story has hope, but she needs to work on her characters, and she needs to find Adele a therapist, Bipolar disorder is a serious mental issue
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