Reviewed by PizzyGirl

TITLE: An Unexpected Truth

AUTHOR: S.A. Meade

PUBLISHER: Pride Publishing

LENGTH: 177 pages

RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2017

BLURB:

A trust destroyed is a trust that is hard to recover…

Brendan Matthews is happy training racehorses for a living. He thinks he’s hit the jackpot when a wealthy orthopedic surgeon, Adam Ahmadi, sends six yearlings his way. Not only are the horses a cut above the rest, their owner isn’t too shabby either.

But not everything is as it seems. Adam has many secrets, most of them dark and deadly. When Adam’s past returns with a vengeance, he disappears, leaving Brendan confused and hurt.

If Adam survives, will his past destroy their future?

Reader Advisory: This book contains some violence and bloodshed.

REVIEW:

This is my first experience with S.A. Meade and I have to apologize because this story just did not work for me. The writing style and world were well done and I really loved that this one was unapologetically British. I liked learning about horse training and racing. But, the romance and the mysterious plot elements did not work for me.

I felt like this story started out well. It was pretty steady with both men being adorable in their shyness around one another. And the way they were longing for each other but afraid to make it known was so young love like. There was a line in the story describing a kiss shared between Adam and Brendan and I feel that this line truly captured the first part and my first impression of this romance.

“It was all gentleness and warmth.”

Then at chapter six the hints about a mystery appeared and I was hopeful that the pace would pick up. But that is where the weirdness started and the story lost me to my brain. I could not get past the randomness of Adam’s first disappearance and the rather lame reason for it and the way he chose to allow his “wife” to handle everything for him. I lost a lot of respect for Adam and my desire for him to be Brendan’s love interest vanished. Brendan deserved a better person.

And since I was pulled out of the story at this point, I started to notice other things that did not work for me. I did not understand the attraction between the men, I certainly didn’t understand the love, and I really didn’t understand the way Adam’s lack of ability to communicate. Things were just not explained well for me and honestly, I ended up thinking Adam was a douche and I really never liked him again. I lost my desire for this romance to proceed and I never gained the ability to shut off my brain and just enjoy the story.

And then when Adam returned, I was utterly frustrated with the way the romance turned out. These men barely spent any time on page together so for two random disappearances and a shitty apology to be so easily overlooked bothered me a lot. I just did not understand how these men, who were still practically strangers at the end, could up and decide that nothing else mattered except for forever. I was never convinced this was more than lust and so in the end I never felt like this relationship was viable or meant to be.

I think this was a huge case of its me not you because I finished this story utterly frustrated and confused and I just did not care for Adam at all. I will have to give this author another try, but this story was not for me.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Pride Publishing

Amazon