Title: Connected
Series Info: Connections #1
Author: Kim Karr
What if a ‘Once in a Lifetime’ could happen twice?
Suffering from a past full of tragedy, Dahlia London's soul has been left completely shattered. Happily ever after is a far cry from reality in her world. But, when she is reconnected with her past, the bonds that form are irrefutable.
When River Wilde, lead singer of The Wilde Ones, comes back into Dahlia’s life, the intensity that fires their relationship combined with underlying feelings that have never died lead her to believe she has met her soulmate.
Struggling with confusion as old connections fade and new ones begin, Dahlia's grief begins to lift--but guilt remains. River wants to be the one to mend all that is torn within her.
But with a past that is never really gone, can their future survive?
3 HEARTS!
POINT BREAKDOWN
Plot: 38 points
What did I like about this book? The love that Dahlia shares with both Ben AND River is pretty adorable, and probably more so with River. River makes Ben look like a mistake! And maybe he was...you will need to be the judge of that.
What was I a little disappointed in? Well, for one, I had a hard time deciding which guy I liked best. They were both a little too lusty for me. I mean, I honestly wouldn't want to go out with either of them LOL. But I liked the way the relationship between Ben and Dahlia progressed to the point where it was at. With River, that whole instantly-on-fire-for-each-other thing? I don't buy it. Soul mates or not. Love at first sight or not. It's just a little too unbelievable. Is it hott? Sure it is. But it makes this book seem more...paranormal in nature.
However, the love that flowed through Dahlia and River was obviously more intense then the love she ever shared with Ben. So in that respect, I liked the relationship between her and River more. That is why it was so hard for me to decide. Like I said...both Ben and River seemed like womanizers to me, but River seems like more of one, and that is probably because we see him more in the book. But they way Dahlia and River's relationship took off so quickly was a little disappointing. I like a slow building relationship.
The OVERALL of the plot was pretty interesting though!!! Like...the whole thing with Ben (you must read the book to find out), and the secret that Xander keeps asking River if he's told Dahlia, which, BTW...we don't find out about the later in this book, and there is a cliffhanger so you will have an urge to read the next one.
Anywho...to summarize:
Overall plot: Pretty good!
Relationship between Ben and Dahlia: Meh...
Relationship between River and Dahlia: On FIRE!!!
Progression of relationship between River and Dahlia: Meh...depends on what you like.
Oh and the cover???? OK...really hott, but I don't like Dahlia. Toooooooo skinny. River looks great though!!! Well, I'm assuming that's River. Could be Ben but I doubt it LOL. Still a great pose!!
Characters: 15 points
I can't say that I have anything against Dahlia, except that she is written as being very skinny, and the cover reflects that as well. I don't have anything against skinny girls, but I feel like when they are THAT skinny, some of the hottness quality is taken away. I'm not sure the average guy likes girls THAT skinny. Not very seductive. Maybe I'm wrong!! I'm obviously not a guy...
River is adorable for the most part! In the beginning he was a little too cocky and straight forward for me. I mean, there was little room for relationship progression after the day of the interview. All the excitement was thrown out there a couple chapters in. I think Dahlia would have hesitated a little more if River had, which is why I don't blame that on Dahlia. But after their relationship was more developed, I couldn't get enough of the love he had for Dahlia! It seemed SO sincere...like really. I'm surprised they didn't get married a could weeks after the interview! LOL.
Ben didn't seem exciting enough for Dahlia to be in love with. The one day he really treated Dahlia right was the the day he felt like he had to. IDK...just didn't seem right. Although the beach scene seemed really cute! I will give kudos to him for that :)
I don't really know how I feel about Xander, Bell, Nix, Garrett, Caleb, Aarie, Serena and Grace. They are in the book, but we definitely don't see a lot of depth of character for any of them. Maybe with Grace there is...she seems like a great motherly figure. But I'm a little confused about her and I'll tell you why, but it's a spoiler (see number 2)! In fact, I have some more spoilers to share, so I'll just mention them all here.
Highlight the text between the two **SPOILER**s to see the part of my comments that contain spoilers. You can copy and paste the text to a word document and change the text color if you want to see it (I have it set to white). I just don't want you to accidentally see the text if you don't like reading spoilers!
**SPOILER**
So...Ben isn't really dead. I honestly predicted this pretty early on. Some people put, "Wow! I didn't see that ending coming!" in the comments, and I'm like, "Really? Seriously?" LOL. But there were a couple things that didn't add up.
1) Does Ben's family know he's alive? It seems like they do when you read the ending! Isn't that just as dangerous as Dahlia knowing? It's like he doesn't want to put Dahlia at risk, but his family...meh LOL.
2) If Grace DOES know Ben is alive, why was she encouraging Dahlia to move on?? Wouldn't she want her to wait until her son can come back?
3) Does or doesn't Ben's secret story come out? I can't figure that out...
4) How were there journal pages at the house after the vandalism, yet Ben had his journal with him before and after that happened?
5) How did the bad guy never find Dahlia when she was at her own house alone all that time, which was also Ben's house I might add, but yet find her when she was with River somewhere? Did he get what he wanted? Did it have something to do with the bracelet? I was confused about all of that as well. I mean...and why did he wait so long to come to the house and look for whatever he was looking for?
**SPOILER**
Writing/Depth: 25 points
Even though I was confused about a couple things, I have to say that Karr did and EXCELLENT job writing the intimate scenes!!! Unbelievable...truly she did a wonderful job :) The little bits of humor were also great! I wanted more bantering! It was so cute... haha
There was a lot of head cocking, lip licking, neck action, winking, and whispering. Maybe a little too much at times, but I don't know what the relationship would have been like without it, so I really can't complain too much LOL. In each individual situation, they were incorporated well. Oh and great length of scenes throughout the book!
Great job Karr :)
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