Short Review: Confessions

Confessions

by Cynthia Eden
Book 1 of The Battling McGuire Boys

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  2.5 Stars

Desperate to prove she’s being framed for murder, Scarlett Stone entrusts her reputation—and her life—to the man who once broke her heart.  Grant McGuire, a sexy former army ranger turned detective, has never been the same since military action.  But behind his cold demeanor, he still burns for Scarlett.

Taking her case is an easy but dangerous decision for Grant.  Together they must race against the clock to find the real killer, who now wants them both dead. More dangerous, however, is their sudden, reignited passion.  Grant will do anything for a second chance with Scarlett…while she’ll do everything to keep the secret she never wants him to know...

The disappointment I feel for reading this book probably comes from the fact that I have a feeling this isn't Cynthia Eden's best work.  In fact, I have already read four other books that were much better written, with better characters, and that were also much more memorable than Confessions turned out to be.

Don't get me wrong:  Confessions had a great concept to work with... I suppose if a great concept is the same as many other a great concepts in Romantic Suspense-landia...  A large group of brothers, all ex-military, all buff and hunky, all over-protective of their own, all with their own dark secrets, and you've got the McGuire brothers.  As well as many other groups of fictional siblings ever introduced in Category Romance or Romantic Suspense.

Confessions probably would have been a great piece of fluff, enjoyable and guilty pleasure for me, if I had actually enjoyed it.  But instead of turning off my mind and just enjoying the read, I found myself nitpicking so many things about it that I couldn't quite justify giving it a higher than 'meh' rating.

Really, the characters were terribly cliched and the plot a bit predictable.  In fact, even the writing felt amateur and I found myself wondering if this was actually written by Cynthia Eden, and if so, why the style felt so juvenile.  The romance was just hard to get behind because our main hero felt kind of stalker-ish and creepy, while the heroine was so stock standard damsel-in-distress that it managed to make my teeth hurt.

Anyway, I enjoyed the book up to a point and may read the rest of the series if only because I DO own the next two books.  The rest of the series and some of the side characters kind of appeal to me and my curiosity is slightly piqued.  So I'm hoping that the writing style will be more in line with what I know of Cynthia Eden, and the story lines less carbon copy.


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