Book Information
Title: Trial Run
Author: Ella Medler
Publisher: Ella Medler
Category: Romantic Suspense
Length (Print): 338 pages
Synopsis
“Trust
me, he says. You’ll be safe with me, he says.”
Amelie
Watts is sick and tired of being treated like a child. She might be
willowy and delicate, but she has strength of the kind that doesn’t
show on the outside. Plus, she learned all she needed to know so she
could cope on her own. Now, if only her big brother would finally
release her inheritance! She would fly to the Bahamas and kiss the
backwater she grew up in goodbye.
Jason
Watts is fed up with picking up the pieces of his little sister’s
life. If only she would grow up already and learn to live life
without stabilizers! Her latest idea is insane, and bound to be her
most enormous failure to date. But how to make her understand?
Enter Rob
Tyson, incorrigible bachelor and Jason’s best friend. For a laugh,
they make a bet. Two people, a hastily acquired boat, and a tropical
paradise. What could possibly go wrong?
Review
Amazon/Goodreads Rating: 5/5
In Patti's Imagination Rating: 9.8/10
In Patti's Imagination Rating: 9.8/10
The bottom line? Did 'I love it' or think 'it was amazing'? Yes. I received the book for an honest review, so here is my detailed input. I'd highly recommend this book, and I can't wait to read her others (including the ones I've been meaning to finish for ages!) The review will appear at Amazon and Goodreads.
When I write reviews, there are always three things on my mind. First, did I love the characters? Second, was it hard to put the book down? And third, what sort of standard did the execution meet? When I give my rating, these are the primary criteria by which I judge.
It's rare that a book whose characters I loved will get less than 4 stars from me because, first and foremost, I have to be moved by - and want to root for - the leads. If the secondary characters are great, that's a bonus, but I have to feel something (not always love - I can hate them, too!) about the leads. On point one, Ella Medler scores 100%. I saw growth in both Rob and Amelie, they had amazing chemistry, history (though it wasn't greatly detailed) and made me love or want to smack them in equal measures. And Jason...well, I really wanted to punch him, so that's definitely an emotional response! I'd love to see him get a redemption story. (hint, hint, Ella!)
Was I able to put this one down? Able to? Yes. To some degree. Did I want to do so? No! I wanted to keep reading. Frankly, if my sister-in-law wasn't visiting for the first time in five years (after living across the country all that time), then I might have ignored everything else until the book was done. As it was, I stayed up too late to keep reading. That scores 100% for me, as well.
On the last point, I'm a little torn. The quality of the book is easily well over 100%. Grammar, spelling, plot structure, pacing, everything was fantastic. But I have a pet peeve, and if I don't dock for it on my more-detailed blog rating, then I'm not giving an honest review. There were moments - not a lot of them, but occasionally - when Rob, Amelie and Jason all sounded like ex-pats instead of Floridians. I know, I know. It's nitpicky. It is. But that drives me personally batty, mostly because it pulls me from the story into my head with the thought, "They'd never say/think that." It didn't happen often, as I said. I've seen many books written by non-American writers who obviously put no effort whatsoever into making their American characters sound like they are Americans. This was pretty rare in Trial Run, and since I know Ella isn't American, I forgive it easily because she did such a stellar job 99% of the time. So, I can't officially give the book a 10 on here, but since it's a 9.8, divided by two for the Amazon/Goodreads ratings, that rounds to the 5 (very well-deserved) stars for a gifted writer.
Excerpt
“This
way. We can shelter under those rocks until morning.” He grabbed
her hand to guide her steps.
She
pulled her hand out of his. “I’m not spending the night in there!
There are all sorts of creepy crawlies under rocks. I’d rather just
stand naked in the rain until morning!”
“Amelie, listen to me! You won’t make it till
morning in this,” he gestured at the raging storm. “Not without
shelter. Now be a good girl and do what I say. I promised your
brother I’d take care of you.”
Fire
flashed out of her eyes, and she backed away from him.
“I
don’t need you or anyone else to take care of me, thank you for the
offer. Just so you know, I learned all about surviving storms,
hurricanes, tornadoes – everything. I took courses online.”
Rob
let out a hysterical guffaw. “You learned all about survival…
online?”
Amelie
nodded forcefully, which only made Rob laugh louder. Suddenly
unsmiling, he turned on her. He was cold, hungry and tired, and he
was so done being the
nice guy. Done being friendly and polite. Amelie was no more than a
spoilt brat who believed the world at large owed her something, but
he was not her lackey, and most definitely not her prince charming.
And this tropical storm was just about the right time for her to
start acting like a mature person with her head well screwed on her
shoulders.
“Wake
up, little princess. I’ve got news for you. You see this big wide
world?” He swept his arms in a wide arc. “It doesn’t owe you
safety. It doesn’t owe you a living. And it doesn’t even owe you
the truth. Just because you read it online,”
he twisted the word, “it doesn’t mean it’s right. I, however,
am speaking from experience. So be a good little girl now and do as I
say. I know what I’m talking about.”
He
grabbed her hand and began towing her toward the rocks that would be
their temporary shelter, ignoring her attempts to pull away.
“Let
me go, you asshole! Let me go right now!”
He
ignored her.
“If
you don’t let go of me right this minute, I’m gonna have to hurt
you,” she warned, but her warning fell on deaf ears.
In
the next moment, she gripped Rob’s arm, right above his hold on
her, and twisted back. All Rob registered was that his elbow was on
fire. The damn woman had dislocated his elbow, and now she was
walking away, back down the beach and toward the thicker brush in the
middle. He hadn’t even been aware of letting go of her arm.
The
pain lessened and he felt the joint gingerly. Not dislocated. Damn
lucky. Still confused about her reaction and with his male pride in
shreds, he shouted after her.
“You’ll
be sorry! You’ll see! Don’t come to me when you’ve got
pneumonia. I won’t care.”
But
he did care, and as he gathered a few lumps of driftwood to wedge
against the squat rocky overhang and create a slightly drier tunnel
for himself, he couldn’t help but admire her spunk. It would still
get her ill, but there was nothing he could do about it at that
particular time. He’d try reasoning with her again in the morning,
he decided. She couldn’t get lost on an island, surely. The way she
was acting, no one and no thing would dare hurt her. She was probably
bossing the mosquitoes around, telling them what they could or
couldn’t do.
He
peeled off his soggy clothes and used them to line his makeshift
roof. They couldn’t get any wetter, but they could help keep him
dry, and being dry meant being warm – half the survival battle won
already. In the morning, he would focus on finding food and drinking
water, and then on building a decent shelter.
Just
before crawling into the tight space for whatever was left of the
night, he located the empty water bottle and sawed it roughly in half
with his hunting knife, then wedged the two halves between rocks, so
they would stay in place. He may as well let the rain water
accumulate overnight – one good thing this damn storm could do for
them.
He
kept his knife by his side as he lay down to sleep. Anger ebbed away
as he began to relax, now that he knew they were safe. Well… safer.
His last thoughts were of Amelie, and what a wasted opportunity that
was – of feeling her smooth skin close to his body and threading
his fingers through her wild hair, of testing the softness of her
lips with his own… her hips, her breasts, her nipples and those
sexy nipple rings… Despite the storm raging overhead, Rob fell
asleep with a smile of his face.
Buy Links
Tags: Romantic
suspense, 18+, love story, Addicted to Love Romance Collection, HEA,
strong female lead, contemporary romance, holiday romance, romantic
comedy
Author Bio
Ella
Medler is a U.K. author and free-lance editor. She writes fiction in
more than one genre, in a seemingly vain attempt to slow down her
overactive brain enough to write non-fiction on subjects she knows a
thing or two about. She also does not believe in the starchy use of
English, and ignores the type of rule that doesn’t allow for a
sentence to be finished in a preposition. Her books are
action-driven, and well-developed characters are her forte. Loves:
freedom. Hates: her inner censor.
Author Links
Other Addicted to Love Books By Ella Medler
No comments:
Post a Comment