Because of You (Playing With Fire #2) by T.E. Sivec: Review & Giveaway!

Because of You by T.E. Sivec
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This book broke my rating system...

So, do I rate it based on how it compared to A Beautiful Lie?

Can I rate it less than four stars, but still give it my stamp of approval?

Will you still read it in spite of the things I didn't like?

Am I over thinking this?

Let me try and break this down. I totally liked this book. I most definitely recommend this book, and I absolutely love this series, but my star-dar malfunction is based on a few things.

I more than loved A Beautiful Lie. I fell so hard for Garrett and Parker that I had a hard time letting them go. Notice I said Garrett and Parker. That would be issue one. Though I fell in love with Brady from the very beginning of the Playing With Fire series, I wasn't a huge Layla fan. I just never felt the connection between Brady and Layla as I did with Parker and Garrett. Overall, I just didn't like this book as much as ABL, but it was still good. T.E. Sivec knows how to seduce us with a damn good plot.

My only other issue was the timeline and progression of events.

I felt like I was having a threesome with the past and the present. This was now, that was then. I missed out on parts of the plot that I really wished I could have experienced instead of being told about them later. The skipping around made it kind of hard to follow and I felt like I needed a flux capacitor to navigate all the time jumping. It was heavy.

All bitching aside though, T.E. Sivec delivered yet another unique, addictive, action packed plot filled with steamy romance and twists that make your head spin. Her stories are extremely hard to put down and are more than just entertaining.

So back to my star debate. My heart says four, my head says three, and my unmentionable girly bits say ten. So if I add the one, carry the seven and subtract the remainder I get, 3.5?

Either way, this is a really good book to continue an amazing series and I recommend it to anyone who has unmentionable girly bits (or...unmentionable guy bits if that's your thing, rock on). It's a solid, solid 3.5~Stars and I can't wait for book three.

READ ON!

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Synopsis  
Brady Marshall has made a career of playing it safe. When he decides to do something rash and becomes a Navy SEAL, he thinks he's finally escaped the rigid structure of the high society life his parents forced down his throat. All he does is trade in one set of rules for another. He follows military protocol to a T, but it still results in the death of an entire team of Navy SEALS and puts his best friends directly in harm's way. He’s struggled to stay afloat and not drown in grief, guilt, and booze, but he's losing that battle quickly. When his baby sister flees her abusive husband and shows up on his doorstep with his young niece in tow, he has no choice but to clean up his act. He will stop at nothing to protect them and never let them down again, even if it means taking a job that goes against everything he believes in. If protecting a pop star princess who thinks she's better than everyone means he can keep a roof over their head, what other choice does he have?

Layla Carlysle has lived a life of luxury. She's been a star since the young age of fifteen, and every record she releases shoots straight to the top of the charts. She has people surrounding her every single day telling her how amazing she is, how beautiful she is, and how lucky she is, but she’s never felt more alone in her entire life. She wants nothing more than to break free and do what she really wants to do: write her own music, sing her own songs, and find a way to finally be happy with her life. The only thing standing in her way is her mother, Eve Carlysle. Eve has controlled every single aspect of her daughter’s life and will stop at nothing to achieve fame and fortune, even if that means using her daughter to get there. When an overly-amorous fan’s letters become increasingly more sinister, Brady will have to suck up his opinion of how the other half lives to take the job seriously. The pair will need to learn to trust each other and put aside their differences before the letters become a reality and someone’s life is in jeopardy.

Brady has been to hell and back, and he refuses to let anyone else get close to him again. Layla has never lived her life for herself, and the emptiness is threatening to break her for good.

Sometimes our lives are already planned for us, but because of you, all of that could change in an instant.

Author Bio:
T.E. Sivec is the pen name for Tara Sivec. Under T.E. Sivec, she delves into a more serious genre that is
her absolute favorite to read romantic suspense. She loves reading a book and feeling her heart speed up
with anticipation and wanted to be able to give that feeling to her fans.
 
T.E. lives in Ohio with her husband and two children, living the dream of being a fulltime
writer.
 
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Buy links: 
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