3 extremely conflicted stars.
Is this story 100% captivating? Absolutely. The blurb says it all. Allie is pregnant by Ryker who's now in jail. She's kicked out of her home cause of the pregnancy and goes to Heath (Ryker's brother) for help.
Now, I can't actually fault the book and give it a lower rating because it explicitly says in the blurb that this is a romance between Heath and Allie, who's pregnant with his brothers baby. I don't like books where the heroine moves to a guys brother. But I thought this would be an exception.
But, what I did 100% expect is to is not like Ryker which would make me more sympathetic towards Heath and Allie's relationship. But actually, I really liked Ryker. During his POV, during Heath's visit to the jail to see Ryker, moments Heath and Allie recall her relationship with Ryker, I actually saw how 100% crazy Inlove Ryker is with Allie. Yes, he messed up, but never cause of his love. He's 22 in this book and sometimes you end up doing stupid stuff. Yes, the twist in the end of what he did was completely unexpected and dick-ish, but he fell for Allie HARD.
Also, what I wanted to REALLY accept Allie and Heath's relationship is more guilt from Allie's side. There was PLENTY from Heath's side, but I felt Allie was too okay with it. From the memories, she was extremely into Ryker as well. I would be dying from guilt tbh! I felt like she was TOO blasé about it all.
Lastly, I wanted to KNOW or understand 100% how her feelings for Heath are MORE than she had for Ryder. Their journey in falling Inlove was actually quite sexy and sweet! But I feel like it was missing ... Something to make be BELIEVE in it. I wanted to know why she feels more for Heath than she ever did Ryder, but I never got that feeling. I 100% believe in Heath's feelings for Allie. But I wanted MORE from Allie. While yes, she currently doesn't love Ryker, I feel as though she loves Heath right now the same level. And if he hadn't gone to jail she'd still be with him.
So instead of riding the happy and sensual wave of Heath and Allie's love, I couldn't enjoy it completely feeling what they were doing was wrong. Specially when I felt so bad for Ryder.
If I read a book about a girl going for her ex's brother, it better be a PROFOUND connection between her and the brother, and a good ass reason why she left her ex. Unfortunately here, this wasn't the case. I guess I feel a bit "icky" about Heath and Allie being together cause I feel SO bad for Ryder. I feel like he's given the short end of the stick being in jail pining for the girl he loves a crazy amount while his brother gets her. And damn, her lack of guilt was so annoying for me. If should've been a longer consideration process, their love connection should've been stronger.
What I did like?
Heath was amazing. Sexy as hell and so sweet! He's really romantic and many things made me swoon.
This story itself otherwise was good. It had good suspense and I feel like the next book is going to be full of it! I'm excited to see that if I decide to move on (depends on my ability to continue regardless of my "ick" factor)
Thus the 3 stars!
If Allie wasn't pregnant with Heath's brothers baby and if he's ex wasn't actually a good guy, this would've been 5 stars.
Will I read the second? I'm not sure... While a part of me thinks we'll get more about how Allie loves Heath more than Ryder, I don't know if I can get over the fact they're brothers and I actually like Ryker. Makes it hard for me to support her actions