The Way He Loved Me

by Heather Tanti

[laurie]

I went in to this book thinking it would be a scary insight into a woman's acceptance of domestic violence, and instead got a poorly written, unrealistic mess.

The dialogue was stilted and beyond awkward, and nothing about anybody's actions were at all believable. We needed way more time to build the relationship and find the love that Amy used as an excuse to accept the barrage of violence that came her way. A guy you just met punches you in the ribs and rapes you, you DTMFA, no matter how dreamy his eyes are. A guy who has groomed you and convinced you of his undying love and been the perfect man who *then* gets violent, well, it's not acceptable by any stretch of the imagination, but at least the reader can see where the decision came from.

But then, quite frankly, nobody behaved in any manner that seemed realistic. We're lead to believe that Amy is intelligent and comes from a wonderful and loving family. To jump to I accept these beatings from someone who says they love me when we didn't even see that supposed love just didn't ring true. To then defend and follow a guy who literally showed up at her door and beat the ever-loving crap out of her? Nope. Sorry.

And don't get me started on the cops. One dumb cop, okay, sure, but all of them? Come on. We're following a violent rapist who has kidnapped a woman, but yes, by all means, let's go into the house where he's hiding by ourselves without even thinking of calling for backup.

Had I not been reading on my iPad, this book would have hit the wall when I was done. A good editor would have helped immensely in helping this author develop a good story and believable characters, and spend more time showing instead of telling (or not quite telling enough, in this case).


This book was provided by the publishers via Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. No other compensation was provided for this review and all opinions are my own.

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