Monday, December 29, 2014

Review: Sideswiped (Off the Map #2) by Lia Riley


It was only meant to last the summer . . .

Talia Stolfi has seen more than her share of loss in her twenty-one years. But then fate brought her Bran Lockhart, and her dark world was suddenly and spectacularly illuminated. So if being with Bran means leaving her colorless NorCal life for rugged and wild Australia, then that’s what she’ll do. But as much as Talia longs to give herself over completely to a new beginning, the fears of her past are still lurking in the shadows.

Bran Lockhart knows that living without the beautiful girl who stole his heart will be torment, so he’ll take whatever time with her he can. But even though she has packed up her life in California and is back in his arms for the time being, she can’t stay forever. And the remaining time they have together is ticking by way too fast. Though fate seems determined to tear them apart, they won’t give up without a fight—because while time may have limits, their love is infinite . . .






Have you ever seen The Sandlot? Well, there's a part in the movie where this kid named Squints says the word 'forever' and he makes it drag out ... for-ev-er ... foooorrreeeeevvvvverrrrr. Kinda like that. Well, that word kept popping into my head while I was reading this because it was taking me for-ev-er to get through even a page. Geez. 

I absolutely adored the first book in this series (this is the second). I gave it 5 stars and I was positively chomping at the bit to dive into this one. Instead of getting the great story I was imagining, it felt like someone smacked my hand and then hit me across the face with my Kindle. This was not the story that I had envisioned to follow up Upside Down. 

I don't even know what to say ... the magic was just gone. I didn't feel any of the spark that I had with the previous book. I found it almost boring. There was a bit of time between the first novel and this one and quite a few things had happened ... I wish that those weren't kept out of the novels. I think that what transpired were important events that if you're going to expand on the first book like that, you really need to include. I would have been interested to see how all of that stuff played out and watched the relationship between Talia and Bran grow. And then after that, I just totally checked out. I don't know if it is because I was upset with the events that we missed or if it was because the book just read as a bit of a snooze-fest. 

I was just disappointed. Very disappointed. I almost wish I could go back and not have started this at all because it took away some of the good feelings I had about the previous book ... was it really that good or was I reading it with rose colored glasses? We'll never know. But I'm definitely one of the few that didn't enjoy this one. There are tons of great reviews out there for it and I hope that it works out better for you than it did for me. It's just too bad that it didn't go in a different direction. Sideswiped was definitely 'Off the Map' for me. 






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