How I feel when I finish the rough draft of a new book.

I ran across this title in a box of books from our storage unit, and it sounded like it might be a good one. The main character, Hannah, is an author whose son witnessed her parents being killed. Hannah is also a former police officer who believes she knew who was responsible for the murders and why.

So, when she finds a copy of her first novel in the child psychiatrist's waiting room ...and it has that suspect's name in it, she starts an investigation of her own.

There's a subplot involving the murder of a senator's daughter, and these two stories are intimately connected.

I just didn't feel drawn to any of the characters whatsoever. I read the entire book hoping to feel connected to *someone,* but I fairly soon figured out that (view spoiler).

So, three stars. Just not really my cup of tea.

Really just not my cup of tea. It was interesting at first to read letters going back and forth between the two MC's, though you might have to suspend your disbelief (arguing and fighting though letters?) My biggest issue was that I'm just not a fan of the open relationship. The two guys basically had sex with everyone and anyone; together and separately. Even after they decide to really be together. (They even kept a score card at one point.)

So, I have mixed feelings about this book. I really loved how it was different from other stories with how it was told through a majority of hand-written letters between Paul and Gray. I loved the beginning and how Gray reconnects with Paul after so many years apart and they start becoming friends again. I actually teared up once or twice because of how much emotion you can just feel coming off the letters.

In my head I picture Paul and Gray as polar opposites. Gray is a professor and bookish while Paul is a construction worker, and part-time play director, who's big and macho. Paul and Gray's physical characteristics aren't really described, though, like hair color and body type and all (and if it were then I totally missed it) and I kinda wished it would have been. I like to picture what characters look like. But still. I loved Paul and Gray as people. They are both cowards when it comes to relationships and both have more mood swings than a freaking pregnant lady but they love each other. Paul is insecure and Gray is a neurotic paranoid that gets possessive and jealous of Paul's ex-fling but even through all that, it's such a powerful romance the emotions leak off the page. It's refreshing and frustrating at the same time.

Even with how much I loved the beginning of the book, though, my interest in it started to flag around the time when they started telling each other the sex they had with other people. Now, granted, they live 3000 miles away from each other, I get that and all but I don't like cheating and I don't like open-relationships. I don't want to read about that. I fancy monogamous relationships even if it's a long distance one. And I know how unrealistic that is but still, I like what I like and I don't like reading about sex outside of the main couple. It just got tiring reading about it all. They were even keeping a scoreboard for a little while. Of course, they never actually agree to being a couple until the middle of the book but still, they felt like one to me. Soooo, yeah.

What really baffled me, though, was how Gray would get jealous over Ethan, Paul's ex-fling, (before it was stated they were a couple. See, why I thought they were before they agreed to it?) and get pissy if Paul brought up that he talked to him but Gray didn't have a problem with how Paul gave details about a guy he brought home. Like, seriously? I'm not judging or anything but I just don't understand open-relationships so I don't like reading about them.

Aside from that, it was just too much sex for me. Don't get me wrong, I love reading about it and all but there's only so much I can take before I've had enough and it didn't help that I wasn't just getting sex of Paul and Gray but details (through videos, letters and talking on the phone) about who else they slept with, too. It was annoying and I didn't like it so I skipped over it. :-/

All in all, I really loved the beginning, not so much the middle, but the ending was good. Paul and Gray were both funny but the relationship is slightly superficial. I think if you don't have a problem with open-relationships (that kinda feels like cheating) then you'll love this book. Otherwise, skip it.

3.5 stars

I wanted to like this more than I did. And actually, I did like it quite a bit. There were just a couple things that prevented it from worming its way under my skin, and those things were the overuse of the word "baby" and excessive casual sex. I don't mind lots of sex in a book but I'm super girly and sentimental and I need emotion in my sex scenes. There were some of those here (hawt!), but there was also lots of sex for sex's sake with lots of different people and it got a little tiring after awhile.

The characters in this book were great. I loved Grey and Paul, and I love the dose of reality I always get from Chris Owen's works. Her characters always have real relationships with real problems that need to be worked through, and that was the case here. I really enjoyed that. I would have rated this book higher, I just didn't ever connect with it the way I need to to give a book 4 or 5 stars.