Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Fade to Blank
SERIES: London Lies
AUTHOR: C.F. White
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 261 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 27, 2020
BLURB:
Accused of a murder he didn’t commit, vilified celebrity Jackson Young enlists the help of a rookie journalist to clear his name and write his biography.
Jackson has a secret though. One he must keep from becoming public. But Fletcher’s dreamy green eyes, Irish drawl and effortless charm makes it hard to suppress those long-buried feelings, even if it could compromise his innocence.
Uncovering the murky past behind Jackson’s rise to fame, Fletcher grows closer to a man he’d once declared as talentless, and their intense attraction starts to affect not only his professional integrity but the life he’d made since moving to London.
Falling for the subject of his book could be fatal for Fletcher, and Jackson should know better than to trust a journalist.
Fade to Blank is the first book in the London Lies trilogy set in 1999, and is a slow burn, enemies to lovers, hurt/comfort romantic suspense.
REVIEW:
This story opens with a former child actor Jackson, now presenter celebrity in jail. For murder. Of his girlfriend. Held on charges, with no bail and no trial scheduled due to lack of evidence. Seems pretty strange, but OK. Maybe the justice system isn’t quite as skewed to celebrity and wealth in the UK as it is in the US, but this wouldn’t happen here most likely 🙂 Most celebrities have to surrender their passports and can’t leave the jurisdiction. But whatever.
His family has abandoned him. His friends have abandoned him. He’s had a drinking and drug problem. And he’s got lots of secrets that he’s willing to share with Fletcher – the journalist who flayed him and set him off the night his girlfriend was killed. So aside from no support, he’s also got no memory of what happened, but he knows he didn’t kill her.
Fletcher is working for a rag tabloid to get his foot in the door. He’s a celebrity gossip hound but when Jackson approaches him to write a book – get the real story, he can’t resist. But it turns out there is a lot more than meets the eye. And he soon finds himself in danger and he’s not sure where to turn. And when he does, it seems he can’t trust anyone. Except maybe Jax.
So just to be clear, nothing is settled in this book. We are left not knowing the truth about the murder. This is a series, so I’m assuming that we will not get to the culprit – at least with any sticking punishment or consequences until book 3. That being said, I struggled with the first half of the book. I wasn’t much interested in either MC to be honest. I kind of didn’t care what happened to them or who the killer was. It took quite a long time for anything to really happen that made me want to know what the real story was. But then the last third of the book moved like gangbusters with a lot of information and action taking place in the space of a short amount of time. I want to know what really happened and who is really after Jax and Fletcher and what lengths they will go to in order to silence Jax and/or pin the murder on someone. Frankly most of the characters in this story are not likable with the exception of Jax and Fletcher. They are kind of all lying, conniving, unfaithful selfish prats to use a Britishism. I couldn’t care a whit about any of them. So I really hope it’s going to be worth my while to follow this series with these two holding the full attention. Recommended with the hope that Book 2 comes out quickly.
RATING: 
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