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Review

I really wanted to love this, but… 2.5 stars

I absolutely loved the Consolation / Conviction duet by this author, and went into those books not knowing that these ones actually come first. This book tells the story of Jackson and Catherine.

Catherine Pope dreams of finding true love. After being abandoned by her father as a child, she has had never felt like she is enough, and though she has found professional success, there’s nothing she wants more than to be the centre of somebody’s world. So her world is turned upside down when she finds her fiancé cheating on her. The pain of his betrayal reinforces her insecurities and she swears off men, determined to protect what is left of her heart.

Jackson Cole is an ex-SEAL, and runs a security company (as ex-SEALS seem to do). He also, somewhat bizarrely, runs a cosmetics company, and when that company hires Catherine as an independent publicist, these two are thrown together into a sizzling pot of sexual tension.

The chemistry between them is evident from the start, and as much as Catherine may try to keep things professional, Jackson’s sweetness, smooth moves and dirty talk are impossible to resist and they begin a hot affair that is both passionate and emotional, and they both find themselves swept up in the emotion of it all.

“You’re it for me”

Sounds great, right? The set up is good, the chemistry is good, and the romance develops really nicely, but Catherine is still struggling with her insecurities, and Jackson has secrets from his past that he won’t open up about, and that cause his own set of issues. It leads to a whole heap of back and forth that seems to escalate as their relationship deepens, and ended up driving me batshit crazy. I wanted to smack them both so hard as they each had an attack of the stupids, and it left me completely annoyed with the both of them.

To be honest, I struggled with Catherine for most of the book. I don’t mind a heroine who is afraid to fall in love, and watching her work through her issues to find happiness, but it just got to be too much in this one. She’s constantly mooning and complaining “he’s going to leave me” and comes off as an overly-dramatic, whiny and annoying fool, and I got tired of her constant insecurities when Jackson gave her no reason for it. He was there for her through it all, supporting her and being completely fabulous.

“I told you I’ll always find you, but you have to want to be found. Let me find you, Catherine.”

I listened to this as an audiobook so I’m not sure whether the excessive whiney-ness was due to the writing or the narration, but either way, I’m not a huge fan of Catherine. And then it gets worse….

Honestly, had I read this first I probably wouldn’t have been excited to go on with the series, but luckily, I know that Corinne Michaels can write a fabulous story. And with this one ending on a nasty (though annoying) cliffy, I will keep going in the hope that Catherine and Jackson can sort their shit out and redeem themselves.

2.5 stars, it was just ok.

The Belonging Duet

This duet forms part of the Salvation series. 
Check out our Series Info page to see how the books all fit together.