A Love Restrained

ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

Title: A Love Restrained
Author: Becky Flade  
Publication date: 10/4/2017
Kindle Unlimited: No
Cliffhanger: No

So, I’ve been giving romantic suspense a hard time lately. I even considered turning my back on the category altogether. But this story was a rather nice reminder of why I shouldn’t make hasty decisions about an entire category of books based on a few bad experiences.

Kylee was a heroine I really rooted for. She’s smart and tough, but still sensitive and vulnerable enough to open her heart up to Jayson, even though they have very little in common in the first part of the book.

They even have a somewhat shaky past to overcome, but Kylee is forgiving without being naive or stupidly trusting. As far as romantic suspense heroines go, I’ve read LOTS worse.

Jayson was a good hero, too, but he made some stupid mistakes that kind of pissed me off throughout the book. I won’t give anything about the plot away, but the whole I’m-going-to-push-you-away-for-your-own-good plot device is my absolute LEAST favorite. I have very little tolerance for it, and if Jayson wasn’t so damn sweet and loveable, it would’ve cost the book another whole star, most likely. (But fortunately, Jayson was pretty darned charming, so I let his stupid dude mistakes slide. For the most part.)
 
As far as harsh criticisms, I have only a few:

• First of all, I don’t think it’s the author’s fault, but there was some point of view confusion throughout the book. The story is written in alternating 3rd person, so you get some scenes from Jayson’s POV and some from Kylee’s. But, sometimes, in the middle of scenes, there’s first person mixed in. I’ve seen this done before in other books, and the shift in POV is usually notated by making the first person bits italicized. Because that wasn’t done here, the shift was a little more jarring for me as a reader than it would’ve been otherwise. Like I said, I don’t think it was the author’s fault. I’m blaming the publisher and/or formatter for this one.
• The time jump between part 1 and part 2 of the story irked me a bit. I would’ve liked to read more about what happened to Jayson and Kylee during that time.
• I think Kylee’s parents should’ve been honest with her about what they knew about Jayson. It was admirable that they wanted to keep Jayson’s secrets; it showed what kind of people they were. But I think their loyalty to Kylee should’ve won out over their loyalty to Jayson.      

The only other thing I’ll point out to potential readers is that this is a fairly clean read. There’s plenty of sexual tension, and the characters do have sex, but most of the action happens offscreen, so to speak. I personally find this approach to be kinda classy, but those of you who enjoy extra steamy reads and/or romantic erotica might feel a little let down by the sexy times between Jayson and Kylee. This is also what I would classify as a slow-burn romance. These two really get to know each other before really getting to know each other, if you catch my drift.  

Long-story-short: This is a solid romantic suspense read from a new-to-me author, and overall, I really enjoyed it. Thanks for helping restore my faith in the romantic suspense category, Ms. Flade!
 
Full disclosure: We received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.  

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
Crushes it! This one is clean and sober. No rehab needed.  

Other reading suggestions
This one was good enough that I’ll be checking out the author’s backlist. But for another great romantic suspense read that was a little more steamy, try Julie Ann Walker’s Wild Ride and Nora Roberts’ The Witness.

Note: you can check out our full reviews of Wild Ride here and The Witness here.

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