4.5

Book source ~ ARC. My review is voluntary and honest.

Detectives Liz Boyle and Tom Goran work in the Special Homicides division of the Cleveland Police Department. They handle the cases where a child has been killed. Liz is on the edge after an officer involved shooting and she’s seeing a therapist (and making very little progress) when they get the case of a five-year-old boy found dead in The Flats. The Flats was never the greatest part of town, but it’s really gotten bad over the years. What was this boy doing down here and who killed him? As Liz and Tom keep digging they come up with very little, until they catch a break. Will they apprehend the killer or will the killer catch Liz?

First off, I want to state I picked this book solely on the fact it’s set in Cleveland, in the Flats. I’m originally from Ohio and I’d been to the Flats a few times, so I was curious as to how the author would portray it. I haven’t been there since the mid-90s when my favorite place was The Powerhouse and the arcade within. I stayed mostly on the West Bank though and the book’s murder takes place on the East, so it’s possible that the East Bank has not fared as well as the West which is a bummer. In any case…

It’s bad enough a five-year-old is murdered, but Liz and Tom have virtually no leads. Well, they have leads, but nothing they can take to a judge. Dammit! Why is police work so tedious and, and…lawful?! Ok, so yeah there needs to be laws to protect people, but damn, how do LEOs handle it? Don’t answer that. I’ve read the statistics. Anyway…

This is one hell of a good mystery! I was kept guessing until nearly the end. The end! I love when an author stumps me. I love the process of the investigation and all the twists, curveballs, and sudden left turns it can take. This story gives a pretty accurate description of what police work is like, but condensed because this isn’t real life. We gotta get to the end and catch the Big Bad, you know. Excellent writing, great characters, and an awesome mystery. My only complaint is about Liz. It’s probably not fair because she is a flawed character, but some of her actions just pissed me off. I can’t help it, so there it is. All-in-all this is a mystery lover’s dream.

Tori heard Stephan ask “ So how rough do you like your sex?” Stephan was a mild mannered accountant by day and apparently closet BDSM enthusiast by night.  They were only twenty minutes into their first date and it was also a blind date. He also added he was into blood play. Ti=ori felt this was what you got for trying to clean up her act. Than he mentioned breathe play which involved choking and tori excused herself to go to the bathroom. Tomorrow will be soon enough to clean up- if Tori was over the trauma of this dinner by than. Tori walked past by the bathroom to the kitchen. She went from the kitchen to the back door. Once Tori gets home she remembers she was suppose to stop by her neighbor/long time friend Kathy's as it was her engagement party. Tori had helped plan the party. Tori tries to head to the bar but just doesn’t get there as she keeps getting stopped by people who had wanted to catch up as Tori has known a lot of the guests since she was in diapers. Since she pulled a disappearing act the last couple of months didn’t go by unnoticed. Tori had been a party girl living off her trust fund. But now she has graduated form college and wants to get a job and act more responsible. Tori didn’t want to explain to them she had avoided them while trying to clean up her life. After three drinks someone took the fourth one out of her hands and lead her to the dance floor. Than Tori finds out it is Chloe’s- her best friends - brother Miles. Girard and her arch nemesis as she blames him for what he had been involved in centering around Chloe. Miles had walked away form his million dollar company when he found out his parents used his sisters blood money as start up capital. Tori had been raped in H S  and the boys parents gave her parents money for not going to the police. Miles thinks Tori is a gorgeous mess even if she hates him. Most nights she would never allow him to touch her. The fact she is so pliable concerns Miles. Miles had watched her since Tori had got off the elevator. He knows something is wrong but she won’t tell him. The second clue that something was wrong Tori doesn’t say anything to Miles even after she’s wrapped in his arms. Normally Tori is a mouthy thing. This makes Miles worry. Miles had people always looking at him as strange his whole life and he’s been the absent minded genius with the too weird ideas for as long as he can remember and he’s not about to change now. Tori talks to her ex that night and he wants to hook up but Tori says no. Her ex is an up and coming actor who cant handle any rejection he released a sex tape form when they were together. Tori may say she hates Miles but she is attracted to him and he to her. Her father sees the sex tape. Tori ends up disowned by her family. Her father kicks her out of her house with a few clothes and no shoes or money.Tori’s father embarrasses Tori by implying she bought this on herself. it was her fault. So Tori has nowhere to go and ends up at Chloe’s husband’s -Ethan- beach house. So she must stay there until she figures things out. Miles protects Tori from her family as well as the media. He worked hard to get Tori’s sex tape taken off the net. Miles works for ethan now- Chloe's husband.

I really liked this book. But there were some things I didn’t like. I really liked that Tori stood up for herself and fought for herself. I didn’t like how Tori’s father wasn’t there for her when she needed him. Instead he turns his back on her and disowns her and kicks her out with basically nothing. This has some hot sex scenes. It angers me there is still a double standard between men and women to this day. I advise you to read all the books in this series in order for a smoother read. I did get annoyed at Tori at times, I really liked the characters and the ins and outs of this book and I recommend it.

 I received this ARC from Goddessfishpromotions in exchange for an honest review.

If you want to know what it is like to live a rich kid life this would be it: spending left and right and running away to get over a heartbreak. Something everyone does.. but not to London or Beirut for a few days. Maybe on vacation but hey if i could go on a impromptu vacation to a different country I would because a heartbreak or sadness. 

That was my only issue while reading the book but makes sense I guess; The story of missed love and re-connection that goes wrong so many times then leaves you with a cliffhanger due to it seems she FINALLY met the right guy. If this isn't a young adult read then I don't know what is because this screams it with the crying and the angst throughout the book. Defiantly will need to pickup the next book to know what happened!

I can't believe I sat through this entire book.

This is an example of what happens when an author tries to mimic a YA dystopian future, but doesn't flesh out the world enough. This is what happens when the author concentrates on all the wrong aspects completely. This is also what happens when the author puts in a very shoddy and superficial love triangle, has the main character make constantly bad decisions (despite being supposedly "clever" and "flawless", by the admissions of everyone else around her), and manages to cram far too much content into too few pages.

It's disappointing, really, because the first chapter was really well-written. The world seemed well thought-out, it was a novel idea, but by gods that's where it ended. About two-thirds of the way through the book, it felt like the author had no real idea what she was doing, and it just felt like an utter trainwreck by the end of it. With a sequel planned, no less.

Here's the setting, then: the book is set in a world where people are branded for being "Flawed". That's for making morally unethical decisions - be it lying, stepping out of line of society, stealing from society (that's also in a metaphorical sense, too, which leads to all sorts of trouble). It also includes helping out another Flawed person.

In this world, Flawed people are treated like subhumans. They are constantly monitored, are bound by a strict curfew, must stick to a diet of bland food, are despised by the rest of society, and no more than two of them are allowed to be together at one time.

Oh, and they are *physically* branded when they become flawed - the courts have a branding iron placed upon a part of their body, branding the letter F on their body, and they must wear a red armband so everyone knows they are Flawed.

The first chapter of the book begins with our main character witnessing one of their close friends being arrested for being Flawed, for no other reason than because she took her ailing mother to a different country to administer euthanasia to them. So far, so good. We can already tell that the justice system is fucked up. Tell me more.

Our main character is called Celestine North. She's a model member of society and is deemed to be near-perfect. Class-A student. 

What happens is that she sees an old man suffering on a bus, and helps him to his seat. An old man who is Flawed. By doing so, she has aided a Flawed person, and is deemed Flawed herself. And punished accordingly.

Despite being only 17, the major courts are very angry at her and have her branded 5 times at different places on her body (mainly because this becomes a very public case for the media, her father works in the media as well), especially when she refuses to admit that she was wrong.

This, uh, seems a bit excessive. 

Not to mention that the main villain, Judge Crevan, goes further and puts a sixth brand on her spine without anaesthetic, which is quite illegal and fucked up.

Basically, that chapter was very hard to read and is mainly about the main character being tortured excessively because that's apparently the only way the author can make this impact upon us.

This part also takes half of the book.

We already know this happens from the synopsis on the back of the book. By the time it happens, the book is half over. Uh...I'm sure you could have made your book a bit longer? It hardly feels like anything happened except Celestine's court case...

Somehow, the next half of the book concentrates on how Celestine finds a way to fight back against this tyrannical organisation. Almost as if she's hardly weakened at all from being branded six times and subjected to prejudice and torture. There's also a graphic bullying scene which is also very hard to read through.

You're telling me that this one character has been put through to hell and back and, without even a thought for her own safety or anything, immediately starts trying to bring down Judge Crevan for administering that sixth brand illegally - I mean we could have some more thoughts from herself on the matter, maybe? Just a little? It just felt like she did it for terms of plot alone...

Nothing was fleshed out enough. There's another Flawed boy called Carrick, and Celestine somehow falls for him. They say one sentence to each other. That's all. Yet she somehow spends most of the book searching him out because she feels a connection to him - she doesn't even KNOW him. it's ridiculous.

Which makes one love triangle after another - her boyfriend Art who mysteriously disappears after her trial, then comes back, then finds out she is going to a party with another boy, then throws a jealous fit and disappears (and he NEVER returns again). And then another love triangle with Art and her sister?? Are you serious? Why put him in the book at all?!

There are also so many plot holes because apparently criminals have a separate justice system of their own, and once they serve their time, they get to have a normal life. As in, they're not Flawed. It doesn't make sense. How can you make someone Flawed for helping another Flawed being, and say that makes them lower than a murderer? Why is the criminal not also Flawed? It makes no sense at all...

A lot of the book was also based on the political impact.

This is where the book really fails, because Celestine is made out to be this great paragon of a rebellion against the organisation, even though nothing like that actually happens. If the book had been twice as long and the rebellion happened near the end, then maybe it would have made sense...but barely anything is fleshed out at all! It's somehow fast-paced without anything happening.

Like, her teachers at school refuse to teach her because she's Flawed. The one teacher who agrees to home-school her turns out to have political motives for her to speak at some kind of gathering of the Flawed and it just gets ridiculous. I got the impression that the Flawed aren't allowed to have gatherings like this, but apparently it's legal? There wasn't enough detail about any of this at all.

Oh, and don't get me started on Celestine herself.

She makes so many bad decisions. She goes around poking her nose into all of these situations which would see her in tons of trouble, and gets almost nothing for her efforts. She is easily tricked into attending a party by one of her classmates (who then kidnaps her and locks her in a shed to try and make her miss her curfew). And she keeps trying to search for that one guy called Carrick for no real reason other than because he was her age and happened to be in the same cell as her. (Again, they never said a word to each other.)

I see a lot of people hating on Celestine, but she's not a terrible character. She's just extremely bland and not that compelling of a protagonist. Her sister, Juniper, is actually rebellious and seems to know what to do, and I'm surprised that she doesn't have a bigger part to play. Her granddad is cool too. It's like everyone except Celestine is a decent character.

Near the end, the story dives into ever-more ridiculous territory as Celestine somehow single-handedly starts a riot just by standing up to a police officer (just one), has a long extended conversation with her teacher's Flawed husband (he appears just one chapter before the end and yet talks for several pages about plot-important stuff, even though he is also really drunk at the time and I couldn't take anything seriously here), and finally we discover that the other judges are turning on Judge Crevan and are willing to help out Celestine if they join their side.

Like, all these people are so willing to help Celestine. It's not as if she's alone. All these political sides everywhere, except I don't care at all because the author has forgotten to flesh out all of the other parts of the world. It just doesn't add up at all. It's just a really badly-written dystopian future (it feels more like a dystopian present) and so little is left out.

I don't know why Celestine acts so stupidly throughout the book, yet everyone excuses her actions and says what a clever girl she is because she studied mathematics. (The teacher's husband tells her that she can use mathematics to work out how to get out of her situation. I did mathematics at university. He's an idiot.) I don't know why the author chose to delve into the political side and leave out everything that could have been interesting.

I don't understand the reason for the terribly-written love triangle, or the love interest that never appears until the end, or the boyfriend who disappears in the second half of the book, or the desire to make the villains so ridiculously evil and sadistic that I can't take anything seriously anymore. 

By the end of it, I had come to the conclusion that this book is so bad that it's good. And good god, I am not reading the sequel.