Love Undecided
by Denise Wells
COMING OUT MAY 23, 2018!
My rating: 3.5/5 stars
Kat’s suffered through and survived cancer not just once, not even twice, but three times now. And the chances of it coming back are almost 100%. Kat’s come to terms with her illness and her decision to avoid pain and heartache by not getting involved in a serious relationship with any guy.
Especially her sexy firefighter ex, Brad.
Brad had found the love of his life when he met Kat, and nothing—not cancer, not his current girlfriend, and not even Kat’s constant rejection—is going to change that. He knows they’re meant to be together. Now he just needs to convince her of that.
When the police and Kat get stumped in a case she’s consulting on, Brad uses this opportunity to get close to and win back the woman he loves…and, you know, help catch a bad guy too while he’s at it.
Problems:
1) It took me a while to figure out that what’s listed as the first chapter is technically a flash-forward to a scene that happens in the middle of the book (and quite a dramatic scene, I should add). This wasn’t made clear when Chapter 2 started, and you can imagine my surprise when the main character went on about her day as if Chapter 1 never happened. Of course, Chapter 1 hadn’t happened yet, I just didn’t know that for sure until halfway through the book.
**Update: After reading my review on Goodreads, the author contacted me to let me know that she’d found the error soon after sending me the ARC and assured me that it would be fixed before the book goes on sale at the end of May.
2) Thanks to all the chemo, Kat has the ability to intuitively sense things through the spasming of her pinkie finger. I’ve personally come to call it her PINKIE POWER. Funny thing, this PINKIE POWER of hers only came into play twice in the whole book. It brought so little to the story that I feel like it could have been taken out altogether. The information Kat learns through this ability could have just as easily been discovered through ordinary detective work. It’s such a random and under-developed part of the story that I almost question if there even is a PINKIE POWER at all or if this is just Kat’s internal way of justifying her own investigative instincts and hunches.
3) This book is a bit more explicit than I was expecting, what with the language and very descriptive sexual content. So just a fair warning if Rated X reads are not for you. And if that is what you look for in a good read…then count it as a praise. I think you’ll be quite satisfied.
Praises:
1) I was a little concerned when I realized that the major case Kat would be consulting on was the case of the Shower Stealer—basically a guy who breaks into people’s houses, takes a shower, and then leaves the water running in the middle of a drought. The fact that this was the serious case the police department was sparing no expense to solve had me rolling my eyes. FORTUNATLEY, the main character thought much the same and commented on the utter silliness of this case, so clearly this was intentional and made me feel a lot better. ALSO, rest assured that we do get to a much more intense case worthy of the department’s resources.
2) With this being a second-chance novel, I was worried that we wouldn’t get the same opportunity to get to know and fall in love with the love interest. But I shouldn’t have worried because the author does a great job of slowly revealing Brad’s character to us by his actions throughout the book as well as through thoughts in his own POV. Brad was easily my favorite.
3) The author is already setting us up for sequels. With Kat’s two best friends, Remi and Lexie, we can already see the stories that are coming and I’m very curious to see what’s in store for these two ladies.
4) Like Kat said, “Cancer sucks.” And not only that, but it’s a very difficult subject to tackle in a character’s mentality. Especially when trying to keep the mood light and comical. The author really succeeds in finding the balance between the heartbreaking inevitability of Kat’s condition and her ever sarcastic and exuberant personality. This book could be really depressing, and yet I found myself laughing throughout.
****I received a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.****
Shannon Stults 