It’d hard to describe this book. It has so much promise, but for me, it failed to deliver. Lucas was so determined to declare his love for Regan in the prequel and then ruin her. Regan ran to get away, ran to another school, to another state vowing to never see him again, to heal and to forget he ever existed. She lied.
Regan betrayed herself. I’m all for forgiveness and redemption but it must be real…. not hearing a simple, ‘I’m Sorry’, and head straight to the bedroom with him. Why would she demean herself that way?
Now in this 2nd book, Lucas claims to have ‘feelings’ but they don’t show. He’s an ‘excuse maker’, not a man taking accountability for what he did. Is it his pride? Don’t know, but he is the one that needs a dose of reality, alongside Olivia. He takes no blame for his behavior that fateful night, saying it’s all Olivia’s fault. Sorry, but I didn’t see her holding a gun at his head. He chose to allow Olivia to do what she did, saying he ‘froze’. Uh, huh… suuuure he froze… and I have some really good swamp land for sale in Florida.
I didn’t ‘feel’ his remorse … Lucas came across as ‘get over it’, that happened six years ago. He claimed to love her but didn’t think twice about making her a laughing stock of his fraternity and the whole campus. I don’t buy he didn’t know about the YouTube video…. how did Olivia get the info to post if he didn’t cooperate? And the entire student body knew. What did he do, go around wearing ear plugs?
As for Olivia…. She’s manipulative, controlling, arrogant and selfish. She keeps playing the victim… it’s time for her to grow up by graduating from the School of Hard Knocks. And we need to ‘see’ that happen. But hey, Lucas falls prey to her fake tears every time. He’s a successful lawyer and he never ever saw through her?
And Drew can talk a good talk now but he sure did nothing to stop what happened.
No one, absolutely no one, paid any price for their ‘sins’. Olivia not only needs a comeuppance, she needs dethroned with the same degree of humiliation that she handed out to Regan.
Where was Lucas’ remorse or groveling? Him continuing to say ‘that’s in the past’ or ‘that was six years ago’ showed me nothing. I needed to feel his realization of the pain he caused Regan.
When Lucas realized Regan was gone and not coming back, why not find her? He had the means if he really wanted to. I really wanted to 'feel' bad for Regan but I couldn't. She was her own worst enemy. As for Lucas, how could he be trusted again when he's not looked in the mirror ... basically when all he says is he just 'got over it'. Where's the remorse, the realization of what he caused and could have stopped? But noooo, he still lets Olivia lead him by the leash... Oh yes, the last few pages he tells 'Livy' to get lost, but that's not nearly good enough.