Believe (True Believers, #3)

by Erin Mccarthy

[EBookObsessed]

All it took was one night of drinking has changed Robin’s life. One night to drink so much that she blacked out and did the unthinkable. She woke up the next morning in bed with her best friend’s boyfriend. Sober Robin would never have done that. Sober Robin would never betray a friend like that.

Robin has spent all summer absolutely sober and drowning in guilt and remose. She has isolated herself from her friends because they will know something is wrong and she can’t confess to them and make them chose between their loyalty to Robin or their loyalty to Kylie. Robin will do anything to keep Kylie from finding out. Nathan might be a cheating bastard who keeps calling her, but Kylie she loves him and Robin can’t be the one to destroy that for her.

So Robin has spent the last few weeks alone. When she meets Tyler and Riley’s cousin, Phoenix, who has just been released from prison, she finds in him another pained soul and together they find quiet and peace in each other’s presence. Both of them use their art to speak what is in their hearts.

But Phoenix is the son of a drug addict and an alcoholic, and he refuses to be dragged back into someone else’s world of addition. When dark secrets from their pasts come to light, will the bond formed between Robin and Phoenix be enough to save them both from self-destruction?

THOUGHTS:
I really like the way things started out with Robin and Phoenix. In the beginning there was just a need to be accepted by someone and not judged. In fact, in the beginning they spent a lot of time together not even speaking. They just watched movies together or went on a picnic and just gave each other a non-judgmental presence. He didn’t ask what she was hiding, and she didn’t ask why he was in prison.

You know my love for a wounded hero. Phoenix’s childhood with an almost non-existent parent, since his mother was always getting high, this left him desperate for the simple touches of concern shown by Robin. She took him for a picnic and he had never been. Robin gave him a party for his birthday which he had never had, even the idea of cutting a cake was overwhelming to him. Your heart broke for him that any measure of affection or attention meant so much.

When we got to the middle of the story though the relationship started getting a little too intense between the two and Phoenix’s affection for Robin started bordering on crazy-stalker. Phoenix has an issue with rage and when it finally comes out it is pretty scary.

By the ending, both Robin’s alcohol issue and Phoenix’s rage issue are being addressed professionally, but for awhile there I was uncomfortable with where the story might be going.

Overall it was an enjoyable tale, but I liked the quiet connection between the two in the beginning a lot more than Phoenix’s overly-intense obsessiveness in the middle which turned me off quite a bit.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

See more at http://ebookobsessed.com