Review: Beware of Me (Dark Obsession #4) by Cynthia Eden

Criminal. Killer. Monster. Ethan Barclay has been called many things in life, and he usually doesn't care what people say about him. He's tough, hard, and brutal when he needs to be. But even the most dangerous of men can have a weakness. Ethan's weakness has--and always will be--Carly Shay.

Their pasts are tied together--twisted and melded by blood and death. Walking away from Carly was the hardest thing that Ethan ever did, but it was also his one good deed. He knew Carly deserved far better than him, and he wanted her to have a perfect life, a life that didn't involve paying for Ethan's sins.

Only now the secrets from their past have been revealed, and Carly's life is on the line. Ethan's enemies, Carly's enemies--the predators are closing in on them. But Ethan isn't going to let Carly be threatened. He will move heaven and hell to protect her. He won't lose Carly, not again, and for those foolish enough to try and take her from him...they are about to see just how deadly Ethan truly can be.

This is the second novel that I've read by Cynthia Eden. I really enjoyed the other novel (Die for Me) and I think that may have somehow tainted my views on this one. To be honest, I don't know. All I do know is that I wasn't as entranced with this one as I was with the other. 

I am not big on reading a book from the middle of a series if I haven't read the other novels first. I can't tell you how many books I've seen that look good but it's a mid-series book and I refuse to pick it up until I've read the previous novels. This one was like that also but it specifically said at the bottom of the blurb on Goodreads that this book was a stand-alone. Here's the deal ... I picked this one up and I felt like I was missing something. I felt like that for the first quarter of the book. There just seemed to be things that were out of context or something. I don't know. It felt disjointed and the only thing that I could come up with was that I was missing little tid-bits of info from the other books in the series. And I think that really contributed greatly to my not connecting with this one. 

That's not to say that this book is bad, it isn't. It's a good book but I would highly recommend reading the previous books in the series before you pick this one up. I think that I missed a big chunk of background info that would play a pretty big part in the plot and storyline. I didn't really connect with the characters from the beginning. I felt like I was reading a story but I wasn't experiencing it ... if that makes sense. I didn't fall into the story and get lost and I really missed that because I had it with Die for Me. 

While I felt disjointed from this book, there are quite a few surprises that I didn't expect that kept the story clicking forward throughout the whole book. Just when I would think that I had something figured out, something would happen and I was completely shocked with the new revelations. It's nice for a book to keep me on my toes and not be predictable. I wish that I had connected with it more in the beginning so that I could fully appreciate these twists in the end. 

I'll probably give this author another shot in the future ... probably not with a book in the middle of a series if I hadn't read the previous ones but another actual stand-alone would be great. 

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

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