My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Release Date: August 26th, 2014
Buy link: Amazon
For political reporter Liz Dougherty, election day—a day of looking toward the future and saying goodbye to the past—seems like a fitting time to start a new relationship. But feelings for her former flame still linger...
The sexy second book in bestselling author K.A. Linde’s Record series decides whether it’s better to pick up the pieces and move on...or to pick up right where you left off.
Sometimes I confuse myself….and it's confusing!
Sometimes. I. Just. Don't. Know.
But here is what I do know.
I really enjoyed Off the Record (Record, #1). It gave me a taste of something I didn't even know I craved. It was original. It was well written. It was love discovered on the foundation of lust. It was growth. It was evolution. It was sacrifice. It was….Brady.
It just was.
On the Record was good. It was tantalizingly frustrating. It left me in anticipation for the next installment, but it also left me confused. Confused because I didn't quite enjoy it as much as I did book one. Something was a bit off. Something that didn't altogether leave me feeling the same high I felt with Off the Record.
I'll start by saying that I loved the beginning. It built anticipation. I loved the internal struggles over Hayden, and I loved how I never once felt like there was a love triangle. Not one bit. I know what you're saying, "That's four balls, two penises, a pair of breasts and one really indecisive vagina. I'm pretty sure that makes up the exact ingredients for a love triangle." But it just didn't feel like that. It felt more like two relationships running parallel to each other, but never quite being aloud to cross. Liz compartmentalized them into two opposite sides of her heart. I never felt her vacillating as much as she was trying to move on. It didn't have the annoyance of a love triangle. It was sort of perfect like that.
In the beginning, the pace was perfect, but something about the progression of Brady's character into the story felt off, the flow and development awkward. Brady's whole attitude and feelings seemed to change so abruptly from one interaction to the next. Yet if you really consider the vast amount of time this installment actually covers, it really isn't that abrupt. But it was something I, as a reader, really didn't get to experience. Brady had his own struggles and issues to work through, but it being from Liz's POV we don't get to see much of that progression. His progression.
I also didn't like the whole situation with Clay, especially Liz's abrupt mid-coitus turnaround. First she was. Then she wasn't. Then I was. Then he was. Then the phone was. True, it added for some good angsty drama later and provided elements to move along the plot, but like I mentioned earlier, it just threw things kind of…off.
I'm also still totally confused about what happened with Hayden and Liz in the bedroom. I've read that scene from front to back about thirty times, and I'm totally at a loss. A loss about what's discussed between Liz and Brady later. What she allows Brady to think. How she feels about it in that moment. Does she think that Hayden….? I kept thinking I had somehow misread the scene, or definitely missed something. But I am so confused. It left me wondering if the bedroom scene had been tamed down or edited down, and that would explain…well, it would just explain.
Maybe I'm dense.
Either way. Despite my confusion, in true K.A. Linde fashion, I found myself completely submerged under the weight of my unsureness, angst, and anticipation for hours after I had done reading it. Maybe I didn't like it as much as the first one, but I enjoyed the journey and am excitingly anticipating the next book in the trilogy.
READ ON!
Release Date: November 18th, 2014
Pre-Order: Amazon
With Congressman Brady Maxwell up for reelection and journalist Liz Dougherty about to graduate into a promising career, the ambitious couple’s future is brighter than ever. They share a passion for their work…and for each other. But when Brady holds a press conference to officially introduce Liz as his girlfriend, reporters hungry for a scandal bombard her. Now, her every move is under a vicious magnifying glass, and her life feels like it’s falling apart.
On the road to reelection, the passionate bond between the congressman and the journalist gets tested at every stop. Threatened by shameless media sensationalism and jealous exes, Brady and Liz now have to learn to trust each other despite what they read in the papers.
Links:
Amazon
Liz Dougherty has no idea that a single question is about to change her life.
Her first big reporting assignment for her North Carolina college newspaper has her covering a state senator’s impromptu press conference. Brady Maxwell may have everything it takes to be a politician—a winning pedigree, devastating good looks, a body made to wear suits—but his politics rub Liz the wrong way. When Liz’s hard-hitting question catches the upstart senator off-guard, it impresses Hayden Lane, Liz’s editor who feels she’s headed for a promising career as a reporter.
But Liz is also headed into a secret romance with Brady that could destroy both their ambitions. Though he’s a bachelor, potential voters might frown on Brady cozying up to a reporter. And Liz isn’t sure sneaking around is enough for her—especially when things between her and Hayden might be less platonic than she thought.
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