Series: Games
Series Placement: #2
Author: Nyrae Dawn
Genre: New Adult Comtemp. Romance
Release Date: July 2, 2013
Published by: Forever
Published by: Forever
Format: Ebook and Paperback
Copy Provided by NetGalley
Book Blurb:
Can love save them?After her father commits a crime that shatters her family, eighteen-year-old Delaney Cross is tired of pretending everything is all right. Packing up her car, she sets out to find the people her father hurt. Her search leads her to places she’s never been—and into the arms of Adrian Westfall.
To the outside world, Adrian is a sexy, charming ladies’ man. But his playboy persona is just an act. Secretly his soul is tortured by a memory too painful to share. Only Delaney seems to see through his façade to the real man underneath. And for the first time in his life, Adrian feels he can begin to open up about his past.
Together, Adrian and Delaney share a passionate love they never expected to find. Yet both still harbor their own secrets. When the dark truth is finally revealed, will it bring them closer together—or tear them apart forever?
Reviewers Note: Facade is book two in the Games series and is a New Adult, Romance written by Nyrae Dawn. I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review by Forever (Grand Central Publishing) through NetGalley.
Break Out The Hankies! You’re Gonna Need ‘Em...
The Review:
I love a good heartbreaking, angst read. I love tortured characters that are so filled with misery, its hard to see how they will overcome it to become the hero and heroine you know they need to be by the end of the read. I love a book filled with passion and tension and a real story with real characters I can connect with. And if it has an unexpected twist, all the better!
This book? Gave me all of that from the beginning of this tragic story to the very end and its beautiful conclusion.
Characters...
Adrian is completely messed up. Something horrible happened to him four years ago and instead of staying and dealing with it, he ran. Living only a few hours away from the horrific events that unfolded that fateful day, he couldn’t quite bring himself to leave the state and the only family who ever loved him. He visits once a year but stays hidden and watches from the sidelines. Besides running, his only way of coping comes from a pipe filled with weed and losing himself in sex. He puts on a mask and hides behind quippy pick up lines and fake friends who he never has to explain himself to.
The only real people in his life are Colt and Cheyenne (from book one, Charade (Games #1)) who have found their own path out of the darkness and know enough to let Adrian run when he feels the need. Adrian is a deep thinking, soulful character and his story is filled with loss and heartache so strong, it consumed me while I was reading this book. A sadness creeped in and has yet to leave me. I felt so bad for him as his pain bleed all over the pages and as his story unfolded bit by bit, a dark cloud hovered over him with bits of sunshine in between. The sunshine? Delaney. But she has her own shadows to overcome and her own story to tell.
Delaney’s life crumbled four years ago after her father committed the worse sin imaginable and shattered the lives of two families. Her family fell apart, her father went to jail and her mother keeps falling into a deep depression, attempting to take her own life and in a cruel act of jealousy and a warped sense of punishment, she intentionally leaves it so Delaney is the one to find her. Her older brother who she adores is drowning in guilt for reasons she can’t figure out and all she wants is for the pain to stop and a long lost happiness to take its place. Taking it upon herself to try and fix everyone in an effort to find peace as well as give it, she sets out on a mission to make amends with the people her father hurt.
When she meets Adrian, she knew he would be suffering but she never expected to find a man in so much turmoil, it outweigh her own. And she never expected to keep secrets or to fall in love. I really liked Delaney. She wanted so desperately to find a way for them to all get past her father's betrayal and she truly wanted everyone to be happy and to be ok. She fights the pain that would crush most people with a strength that's worthy of the title heroine and you can’t help but love her.
Maddox is Delaney’s older brother and has been trying to take care of her the best he can. But he carries so much guilt over things that couldn’t possibly be his fault that he can’t see past his own anguish. I loved Maddox’s character and thankfully, we will get his story in book three, Masquerade (Games #3).
The only thing I wanted to change...
I loved the drama. I loved the characters. I loved the story. I even loved the misery that consumed me while I was reading this book. But what I could have done without is the nickname Adrian gives Delaney. “Casper” and “Little Ghost”... because she had ghosts in her eyes. I don't know what it was about that name but it made me cringe every time he called her that.
The Wrap Up:
I adored this book and all its angsty goodness. I haven’t read book one yet and didn’t need to in order to follow this series even though characters from book one were in the story. However, I will be going back to read Colt and Cheyenne’s story as well as moving on to book three when it comes out January 2014! I can't wait and I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.
Just Some of My Favorite Quotes and Passages
Quote Spotlight...
Space,I asked.She agreed.It wasn’t what caught my attention.Her eye.Me too,They seemed to say,I need space too
Thank you
Quote Spotlight...
“You’re bleeding,” she says.....“I've been bleeding for four years.”
Quote Spotlight...
“...real life isn’t made of happily-ever-afters.”As Adrian pulls away, I vow to do everything to make a liar out of him. To find a way for us to all have some kind of happily-ever-after, regardless of what we’ve been through.
Quote Spotlight...
“You haunt me.”
Quote Spotlight...
There’s a lot I don’t know about him, but I don’t think that matters. What counts is how I feel and Adrian makes me feel things deep inside in places I didn’t know existed.And I hope I’m able to reach those places in him too.Hope that it’s enough to save us.
Quote Spotlight...
Its like she has her heart in her hand and it’s broken. She’s holding it out and showing me me all the little pieces. Or maybe its my heart.
Quote Spotlight...
There’s something about Adrain that feels good. Feels right. I see the pain in his eyes and I want to extinguish it. To fight it until there’s nothing left to hurt him.
Quote Spotlight...
“...Do you want me to tell you another story?”...“Yes.”...“There was once this beautiful girl. She was sexy as hell.”... “She met a guy. Of course there was a guy and he wanted her so fucking bad he could hardly stand it.”... “And for one night, she was his.”...”Tonight she was his,”...
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