Skip to main content

Review: 'Release' by Aly Martinez - Left with more questions then answers


From USA Today Bestselling Author Aly Martinez comes an emotional new standalone.

Growing up, Ramsey Stewart branded my soul in ways time could never heal.

At twelve, he asked me to be his girlfriend.
At thirteen, he gave me my first kiss.
By sixteen, we’d fallen in love, planned a future together, and had our eyes set on the horizon.

Love never fails, right?
But for Ramsey, it did.
Love failed him.
I failed him.
The entire world failed him.

At seventeen, Ramsey was convicted of killing the boy who assaulted me.

Move on, he wrote in his first and only letter from prison.
Start a new life, he urged.
I don’t love you anymore, he lied.

There was no such thing as giving up on Ramsey. Love may have been our curse, but he was mine—then, now, and forever.

So here I am, twelve long years later, waiting for a man I don't even know to emerge from between the chain link gates.

Review
One of the things that I love the most about books from Aly Martinez is the romance side. She shows the type of coupling that I would like to see in a relationship. It’s easier to lose myself in the story because I can always see a part of me in the characters. This story was the first story that I had a hard time to connect to. There were some things that I could connect, but it was hard for me to connect to Ramsey or Thea. 

With that said, I tried to separate the stories and expectations that I had from the past and look at this objectively. Ramsey and Thea meet under difficult situation. Thea wants nothing to do with Ramsey and he does not seem to care. It’s cute watching their hate turn into love as they get older until life comes and tears them apart. Ramsey doesn’t return to Thea the way he left and Thea does what she can to get her best friend back. This is where the problems I have begin.

I have always liked that the female characters in Martinez’s books are always strong women, but Thea was a bit whiny for me. She just gets so annoyed and whiny because Ramsey just doesn’t return to her with open arms. When he left, he has good reason to be upset but it takes her some time to realize that maybe he just needs to adjust having her back in his life instead of just jumping right into it.

The story itself was a great story. A lot of twists and turns and a big reveal. The only thing that I wished is we got more of a resolution with this. There is this big reveal, but we get half answers and it just left me with more questions then anything else. 


While it may not be my favorite of Martinez’s books, it was still worth the read. Especially if you can get it on Kindle Unlimited. 

Links
Amazon

Author
About Aly
Originally from Savannah, Georgia, USA Today bestselling author Aly Martinez now lives in South Carolina with her husband and four young children.
Never one to take herself too seriously, she enjoys cheap wine, mystery leggings, and olives. It should be known, however, that she hates pizza and ice cream, almost as much as writing her bio in the third person.
She passes what little free time she has reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, preferably with a super-sized tumbler of wine by her side.
Connect with Aly
Facebook Reader Group: http://bit.ly/2DEpPAh
Stay up to date with Aly by signing up for her mailing list today:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Wanda is struggling to keep control in episode 7 of 'WandaVision'

  If you are not already hooked on Marvel’s new TV show on Disney+ WandaVision then this week’s episode will certainly have you hook, line, and sinker. This week’s show is titled ‘Breaking the Fourth Wall’ and in some ways it breaks more walls then that. The show hits the 2000s and Modern Family seems to be the theme with some splashes of other sitcoms from the 2000s. I really enjoyed the commentary that Wanda and Vision have when they are talking to the camera. The glances and the 'knowing stare' from Vision are completely spot on.  Like the other episodes, this one is jam-packed with information so you need to make sure you are paying attention. Wanda is slowly but surely losing control of the Hex. The kids are noticing this and want to help but Wanda just thinks relaxing will help (not likely). In the reality part of the show, we discover that Hayward is trying to get Vision back so he can use him as a weapon (no surprise there). Monica and Jimmy meet with her friend (...

Review: 'Dominik' by Sawyer Bennett - Can Dominik tame Willow's wild heart?

In the 6th book of the series, Dominik takes the lead as he tries to get Willow out of his thoughts, but that proves more difficult the more time he spends with her. Willow doesn't want to tie herself down to this man, but the more she fights, the harder she falls. When you do book series like this, it's hard to like every single one. Especially when you unintentionally compare the books with one another. I had a hard time liking the relationship with Dominik and Willow. Perhaps its that we didn't really get to see the beginning (you hear about it in other books) or maybe I just didn't like the way that they are together. It just didn't tickle my fancy. They didn't have that 'it' factor that separates the story from others. I did enjoy the cat and mouse game that Willow was playing with Dominik. That part was entertaining. See a man of Dominik stature get frustrated and make moves that I am sure are out of his character. But even that got old aft...

'Sinful King' by Claire Contreras is now available

The Sinful King, a new, sexy, 100% stand-alone novel by New York Times bestselling author, Claire Contreras, is LIVE! If you had any ties to Marbella, it was impossible for you not to have heard the stories about Prince Elias and his debauchery. Every summer he arrived with his security detail and friends in tow and rented out a row of cottages near the water. Cottages that belonged to my family. Each of those summers, my parents sent me away – summer camp and later, boarding school. Anything to keep me away from the royals and their partying. I hadn’t been home in years, but when I finally come back for the summer, I see that not much has changed. Like all the summers I’d been gone, Prince Elias is back, but this time with an incognito security detail and no friends. This time, there is no partying, no noise, no crowds. No reason at all to even think he was there. I’m given strict orders not to talk to him, not to even look in his direction, but he makes t...