FIERCE HEARTS

TITLE: FIERCE HEARTS

AUTHOR: Lynn Stark

Pages: 143

Date: 19/04/2014

Grade: 3

Details: No. 3 Men of Silver

             Received from Siren Publishing

             Through Love Romances and More

Own / Kindle

The blurb:

“Lucien St. James, betrayed by those closest to him, leaves his old life behind. When he arrives in Silver to hide from the world until he heals, his father hires bodyguards to protect him. It isn't long before Lucien wants something more with Jax Talbert and Jonathan Lang.

Jax and Lang consider Lucien just another client. It's their job to protect the pop star from the paparazzi and anyone else seeking to exploit him. The intimacy of guarding him in a mountain hideaway, however, allows them to become good friends.

When they begin to see him as more than a friend, however, they quit their job. Confused by the actions of the two men, and his own feelings for them, Lucien finally comes to the conclusion that if he's to have a relationship with them, he has to force their hand and their emotions. He's willing to risk it all for love.

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My thoughts:

I’m in two minds about this book. On the on hand there is the story-line, as described above, which I loved. But on the other is the way this story was written. And that didn’t work for me. I found myself getting confused as to whose mind I was in and how they were talking to and/or about. I can’t help feeling that maybe the author didn’t trust her own story enough. The tale of the three men and what it took for them to accept their love for each other would have been enough. It didn’t need the unexpected and unexplained violent scene near the end. To me it felt as if that was only there for shock value, to keep the reader engaged. The thing is that I was engaged – in the love story – and this scene pulled me out of that, leaving me wondering ‘what the hell?’ and ‘why?’.

I couldn’t help feeling the book would have benefitted from a bit more editing. On several occasions the repeated use of a word in subsequent sentences took me out of the story.

I also feel the author dragged the ending out too far. The perfect moment to end the book on came, in my opinion, several pages before the final word. Those last few pages didn’t add anything to the story as the described a future I had already pictured in my mind. I more or less had to force myself to read the epilogue and resist the temptation to just skip to the end. And it wouldn’t have made any difference if I had skipped to the end, I don’t feel I would have missed anything vital to the story if I had.

But, like I said, I did enjoy the story itself. I liked the relationship between Jax and Lang and how well they worked together. I liked Lucien although he did seem a bit naive for someone who’d been famous for such a long time. And I loved how the three men slowly get closer to each other despite the reservations each of them had about that set-up.  I enjoyed watching Lucien getting his confidence back and adored Jax’s turmoil while he was trying to deal with his feelings and his inability to vocalise them.

I adored the idea of the town of Silver. The acceptance of unconventional relationships was not only fun to read about but also we can only hope will one day be normal everywhere. And it was very smart to have the whole town being private property, thus allowing the sheriff powers he wouldn’t have in any other community.

“Fierce Hearts” is the third title in the “Men of Silver” series. I didn’t read the first two books and was pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t a problem. While it is quite possible that I would have enjoyed the secondary characters more if I had read those prequels, I didn’t feel as if I was missing vital information while reading this book.

Overall this book felt a bit like a missed opportunity; a great story idea that could have been a wonderful read with just a few smallish changes. As it was I found it too easy to put this book down and not easy enough to pick it back up again.