Vow of Retribution

by Emma Renshaw

[Eve1972]

 
 
~WRITING - PLOT - PACE~
I honestly don't have a lot to say about this one. I didn't love it and I didn't hate it. It was a pretty middle of the road read. On the positive side of things, I really enjoyed this author's writing style. It was easy and had a nice flow to it. The pace was quite good, and the story moved along at a nice clip. The plot was engaging and kept me turning the pages. That said, I never really warmed up to the heroine (more about that in my "heroine" section), and I thought the ending was rushed a little farfetched. ---like...why didn't anyone call the police?? Last, it was all wrapped up in a sweet happy for now six months later epilogue. I usually prefer epilogues that are farther into the future, but since this appears to be book one of a series I am going to assume we will see this couple again in future books.


~HERO~
LIAM...Liam's character was really the star of this one. He was super sweet. He was sexy. He was a good friend. He loved this family. He had the patience of a SAINT when it came to Savannah. He was perfect book boyfriend material.


~HEROINE~
SAVANNAH...I couldn't stand Savannah for the first 50% of this book. Her hot and cold attitude with Liam drove me NUTS. The poor guy was being nothing but kind and patient with her and basically jumping through every frigging hoop she put up. And don't even get me started on the whole "tattoo" debacle. Why Liam had to apologize and chase her a$$ after she wigged out and ghosted him for a week was beyond me. She got slightly better in the second half of the book, but the damage was already done for me.


 

~SECONDARY CHARACTERS~
One of the BEST part of this book was the secondary characters. I adored Harper and Vicky, both BFF's to Savannah. I loved Olivia and Josh, Liam's sister and BIL. I mildly liked Hudson (the resident manwhore), and BFF to Liam. I was intrigued my Maddox, but my favorite secondary character by FAR was James. OMG...please, tell me we are going to get a book featuring that broody bada$$ with a heart of gold!?


~HEAT LEVEL~
Low to Medium. I wouldn't say this one was overly spicy, but we do get a few graphic sex scenes. I thought the frequency felt organic to the story. 


~ANGST LEVEL - SEXUAL HISTORIES~
Medium. The heroine's hot and cold attitude causes most of the angst in this one. There is also a bit of OM (baddie) drama, but I found it to be pretty underdeveloped and a little farfetched. There was no OW drama. Neither were virgins. It had been a long time since Savannah had slept with anyone (I am going to guess six years). I don't know about the hero. It is very briefly mentioned he had a "friends with benefits" arrangement in Chicago (he moved back to Texas), but really there is very little info about his past sex like. There is also a fairly graphic scene (she is recounting events to the hero) of the heroine being raped and tortured when she was kidnapped.


~IN THE END~
Like I said, it was OK. It didn't blow me away, but I didn't totally hate it either. Taking a peek, this appears to be this author's debut novel, if that is the case then I think she has a lot of potential. The story had good bones but needed some tweaking here and there. That said, this will definitely appeal to those readers that love their books without a lot of angst or drama caused by OW. Therefore yours truly is going to give this one a solid thumbs up and I will definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for a book (hopefully) about James!