Derailed

by Alyssa Rose Ivy

[Angie]

I put off reading Derailed for quite awhile, but I was pretty eager to get to it once I decided that it was time. Sadly, it just really did not work for me. I liked the idea of Molly returning to her childhood home to figure out what to do with her life after her fiance dies. That probably sounds morbid, but it's a change of pace from other books in the genre. I was also hoping that this would be a second chance romance that actually works for me, but this wasn't it either. Ben was just the absolute worst and I could not get behind him and Molly as a couple. Or behind him at all.

Derailed just frustrated me to no end. Molly is dreading seeing Ben again after she broke his heart five years ago. It's no wonder, because when she goes to see his band play, the song is about her and it's not exactly upbeat. From there they have some painful run ins where he basically tells her that he never got over her, and then that somehow leads to them having sex. I could totally get behind a purely sexual relationship that turns into something more, but Ben is such a possessive creep and Molly doesn't really call him out on it at all.

At one point, Molly goes out to dinner with a guy named Gavin (the star of the following book) and Ben goes ballistic. They are not dating. He has no claim on her. Molly also wasn't on a date with Gavin. It was a friendly dinner even though he was attracted to her. And the two of them are planning a bachelor/bachelorette party for their BFFs, but Ben doesn't want Molly doing that either because of reasons. She has to tell him that they're exclusive (but still just purely sex) for him to back off. Um, what?! First of all, she shouldn't be forced to be exclusive with him just because he's a jealous dick. Secondly, how does being "exclusive" stop her from having friendly dinners or spending time with Gavin (or other men)? It makes no sense!

Derailed was not the Romance for me. Ben really was an awful love interest. We're never given any reason for his obsession with Molly, or why he's so possessive of her other than being in love with her for forever. He had five years to get over her, but instead he wrote angry songs about her and essentially laid in wait for her to come back home and take him back. That's creepy, not romantic.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.