Reviewed By Donna

TITLE: Zipper Fall

SERIES: Steel City #2

AUTHOR: Kate Pavelle

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 330 pages

BLURB:  Wyatt Gaudens, an advertising executive and adrenaline junkie, has fine-tuned the art of breaking and entering into apartments, misusing his considerable rock climbing skills. Once inside, he steals a pretty, shiny thing or two. When his friend Reyna complains that her jerk of a boss makes her workplace a living hell, he breaks into her boss’s home to get even. More than any other pretty thing, what really catches his eye the most is her boss, Jack.

Working hard to overcome his own lingering problems, investment specialist Jack Azzuri focuses on his second chance at making his business grow. But grief for his sister, Celia, recently killed in a suspicious climbing accident, sabotages his attempt to start over. When he meets Wyatt, he’s strongly attracted even though Wyatt is the last person he should associate with. With Jack’s explosive temper and Wyatt’s adrenaline addiction, the path to a stable relationship will be a tough climb. They might succeed if they can sort out what really matters, as well as learn to take the good with the bad. Wyatt hopes to speed their progress by solving the mystery that’s weighing Jack down: how did Celia really die?

REVIEW: I’m just exhausted now that I’ve finished this book. It seemed to take forever to finish and a couple of times I felt like I was mentally wading through quicksand. Actually, why is that a saying? Does one even wade through quicksand or do you just sink?

Anyhow, long story short, Wyatt works in advertising but is addicted to the adrenalin rush he gets from breaking into houses. When his best friend complains about her horrible boss, Jack, he decides that Jack will make a great target.

Now this is where it gets creepy. Wyatt develops an obsession with Jack. Aside from the B&E he indulges in some other questionable behavior that I found more worrying than sexy. I can’t really go into that too much without turning this review into one big spoiler but, wow, can you say psychopath?! Although, kudos for the best ring tone ever!

But while this was getting all super creepy, it was also very interesting. Creepy doesn’t necessarily mean bad. It is only fiction after all. It was probably one of the most original “hookups” I’ve ever read.

There was no instant romance when they first met. There was instant obsession on Wyatt’s end, and Jack was attracted to Wyatt but there was also a lot of frustration and anger. Which was so completely justified.

From there their interactions progressed to a point where I didn’t quite understand if they were in a relationship or not. Wyatt continued to do creepy, stalkerish things, Jack also became a bit creepy but they were also having sex and were together all the time.  Maybe it was just me but I felt as though I’d gotten a bit lost. The only thing I was sure of at this point was that I’d be using the word “creepy” a hell of a lot in my review.

I think what was confusing, but to be honest perhaps also realistic, was the hot and cold nature of both men towards the other. At first Wyatt was in aggressive (creepy J) pursuit of Jack but when he felt he was getting too attached, he freaked out and backed off.

Whereas Jack started out disliking Wyatt. He seemed to be only using him for sex and to utilize his marketing skills to help his business. Then all of a sudden Jack had them living together without consulting Wyatt first.

Perhaps if the story had been told from both characters’ point of view some of my questions would have been cleared up but Zipper Fall is told exclusively from Wyatt’s perspective. I was left guessing at what Jack was thinking and feeling during the upheavals in their relationship.

This next bit some people may see as a spoiler but it was something that really bothered me and I just don’t feel like I’ll be happy with my review if I don’t include it. There’s a scene in Zipper Fall where Jack and Wyatt are arguing and Jack crowds Wyatt against the shower wall and holds him there. Wyatt feels scared and intimidated and ends up bruised. After the incident, Wyatt is angry, Jack is feeling guilty and any of their friends who are told about it act shocked and horrified. Now, I don’t want to get anybody riled up here, I have absolutely no experience with domestic abuse, but, it seems to me that all the characters reacted really…stupidly, for want of a better word. I’ve read other reviews on this book and it seems no one else agrees with me but it annoyed me so much that it affected my opinion on the whole story.

What all these people (the characters in the book, not other readers) seem to have forgotten is when Wyatt gets upset he punches people! In fact, he has already punched Jack previous to the shower debacle. When Jack is apologizing for what happened in the shower Wyatt again punches him in the mouth, causing him to bleed, to make himself feel better. Yet Jack is still the only one in the wrong? And their solution to Jack’s “violent temper”? He should do what Wyatt does and throw plates at the wall. You can imagine how well that works out when Jack gets angry in a restaurant. How come Wyatt can hit Jack but Jack can’t hurt Wyatt? Not that either of them should actually be attacking the other. I think my big issue with this is it seems to perpetuate the outdated belief that only the physically weaker person in a relationship could be abused. But, moving on.

The suspicion surrounding Jack’s sister’s death acts as more of an interesting side mystery than as a main plot point. It allows us to learn more about rock climbing and it was a refreshing break sometimes from the drama of Jack and Wyatt’s relationship. I really enjoyed this element of the book.

Did I say long story short? Well I tried but there was just so much happening in this book. To tell the truth I’m still quite conflicted, I’m not sure really how much I liked it. At times I felt like groaning that it was never going to finish but at other times I was really enjoying it. I would definitely check out other books by this author because I did like the originality of the story.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner Press Amazon Are