The Book: Fragile by Shiloh Walker
The Particulars: Romantic suspense, 2009, Book 1 in Rafferty Brothers duet, out of print, available in digital
Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: The back cover blurb intrigued. The SoCal Bloggers used to have these epic book swaps when we'd get together (back when we all were still reading print on the regular) and I suspect that's how this book landed in my TBR.
Spoilers Ahoy! Content Warnings: murdered dog, childhood sexual abuse, rape, drug use (in the past).
The Review: Walker predominantly writes paranormal (which isn't really "my thing") and I suspect I picked this up because it's billed as straight-up romantic suspense. While I was certainly pulled in from the first chapter, it ended up being an uneven read for me - mainly due to the plot structure and the fact that the heroine is put through the wringer.
Devon Manning had a rough childhood. Orphaned, sexually abused starting at 11 by her aunt's husband, a drug addict and living on the streets by 12. A social worker and her adoptive parents pulled her back from the brink and now Devon is a social worker herself.
Luke Rafferty is a former Army Ranger who worked in Special Ops alongside his long-lost twin brother (they were reunited when they were 11). After he nearly loses a leg he decides it's time to get out and find some semblance of "a normal life." He's now a doctor working in a hospital ER, which is how he meets Devon. He's attracted to her, but how to ask a woman out on a date when she's in the ER because she's bringing in abused children? It's not exactly "meet cute" material.
Eventually though they do start dating and this is basically the first 40% of the book. In fact, by that point they are clearly "a couple" and Luke has decided he's in love with her. The suspense part of this story doesn't ramp up until then. Prior there are a few minor incidents, but nothing that seems "sinister" to Devon at first. A missing day planner. A flat tire. A dead skunk in her back yard. It's not until a butchered dead dog is found on her kitchen counter that her and Luke realize someone is stalking her.
This sends Luke into full-blown protective mode, even at one point hacking into Devon's email (like, seriously?!), him moving in with her, and Devon pushing back at Luke, as well as the cops working her case. I get that Devon has a messy past but dude if I had some crazy psycho stalker I'd be an open book to the point of over-sharing.
Anyhoodle, our bad guy is caught around 75%. This gem of a human being ends up breaking into a neighbor's house, raping and beating that poor woman near death, and that lays the trap for Devon. Devon, naturally, escapes his clutches - which kicks off a bunch of guilt for Luke because he wasn't there to protect her. But we're at 75%. You know what this means, right? Yeah, we need to put the heroine in more danger! So our gal doesn't just have one psycho stalker - she has two. Bad guy #2 starts screwing with her head and he's dispatched with at the end of the story. I was still stuck on this poor neighbor woman who gets the major short-shift - but your mileage may vary.
In between there's a bunch of sex scenes. This read a bit like a hybrid between hot contemporary and romantic suspense and it didn't really mesh well for me.When I read a romantic suspense I kinda want that to be a big focus of the story - and it just wasn't here. The pacing didn't really work for me, although I was engaged by the characters and the story itself. It boiled down to execution.
Also, to be frank, this is pretty dark. I mean, the heroine has a TON of baggage and on top of that a bunch of tragedy is heaped on her over the course of the story (her BFF neighbor being violently assaulted, two crazy stalkers....). It's a lot.
I wasn't in love with it, but I'm half-tempted to pick up the second book about Luke's brother, Quinn, who, boy howdy, is a hot mess. It would necessitate a library check-out since it's not in my TBR and we'll see if I eventually follow through or not....
Final Grade = C+
