Single Sundays: Heartless by Catou Martine

Synopsis (from Goodreads.com):
Heather Redmond spent three years hiding from the world, her innocence lost and faith shattered.

She’s mastered the art of forgetting the past. Now she’s ready to face the future. College is on the horizon, and she’s enjoying a quiet summer in LA.

The last thing she’s prepared for is a hot guy jumping into her convertible while she’s stopped at a traffic light.

Josh Hansen is Heather’s opposite. He’s fearless and sexy, racing through life on his motorcycle. And he always takes a leap when Fate gives him a wink. He can’t resist the wide-eyed, pretty blonde who seems afraid of the world.

Josh is determined to push Heather’s boundaries, body and soul. She’s afraid of her awakening feelings, and wants to take things one step at a time, but Josh isn’t used to driving in the slow lane, and soon they are speeding into passion and love.

When their darkest secrets come to light, Heather and Josh are forced to confront the painful past and either find forgiveness, or lose their love forever.

Review:

I picked this book up for free one afternoon from the Kindle Store. I am obsessed with New Adult reads so when I see a free one, I grab it. And this one was quite the surprise!

I really enjoyed this book! I’m always skeptical when books are free because they are often riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes but this one wasn’t. There was the occasional word missing from a sentence or a typo here and there but nothing that made me frustrated–they all just seemed like harmless, unintentional typos. It wasn’t the greatest book ever but I liked the story and I easily got hooked. I only planned to read a chapter or two in the morning and then ended up spending the whole morning reading it!

Part of the reason I got hooked was the mystery to the characters. Both have secretive pasts that slowly get revealed as you read. I also liked what the backstories were. I haven’t read a book that focused on that specific type of situation (without giving anything away I will say it does talk about religion and faith) before so I thought it was really refreshing to read and I think it was done tastefully (meaning it wasn’t trying to shove a specific viewpoint down your throat or was offensive in anyway). I will warn potential readers that there is some heavy subject matter in this novel that not everyone will feel comfortable reading so it might not be for everyone.

The main reason why I didn’t give this book 4 out of 5 stars was because of the plot timeline. Things just happen WAY too fast in this book. It’s basically an insta-love connection and everything happens within the span of 2 weeks. I think I would have an easier time believing everything if it happened over the span of a few months instead.

I also think this timespan hurt my impression of Heather. After reading the book, I’m not sure how I feel about her. Overall, I think her character delivery wasn’t as strong as it could be. She always seemed to appear one way then as another on the next page. I could cut her some slack given her past but given the timeline I just felt like we didn’t connect some of the dots on her character composition.  Same goes with Josh. They both just lacked that little bit more to their characters and I think if the book was a tad longer and had a longer timeline, this issue would be solved.

Conclusion:

A refreshing New Adult read that was super cute and quick. I recommend it for those who adore love at first sight stories and seeing love heal people. But warning, it does deal with subject matter that might be uncomfortable for some readers (such as abuse and religion).

Rating: 3.5/5

Shorthand Stats:
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Recommended for:17+
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