Today I’ll be reviewing Apart by CJ Pastore. It’s about a woman named Alicia Cesare who’s attacked by a Russian drug lord, and her ex-military boyfriend, Chase Reardon, is trying to protect her.
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Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review through NetGalley.
Trigger Warning: Rape mention and recount of sexual assault
Apart by CJ Pastore
![Apart (Captive of a Commoner Series Book 2) by [Pastore, C.J.]](https://i0.wp.com/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51VlIH1ThgL.jpg?w=768&ssl=1)
The book starts off with a flashback from Chase’s point of view from his time in the military, and the scene describes an attack by terrorists. The chapter focuses on all the wrong details. It doesn’t explain how Chase knew one was a suicide bomber, and then a character yells “IED” and Chase jumps away, but it was never stated where the bomb was or how Chase knew which direction to leap for.
Then the first chapter starts with Alicia, who’s only referred to as Ms. Cesare at first, and there’s no name card for her at the beginning of the chapter. Her boyfriend, Chase, starts ranting at a detective for triggering Alicia who had been sexually assaulted. It’s clunky exposition in long paragraphs that made my eyes skim through it. I had to go back and reread to understand what was going on, but the paragraph length is not pleasing to the eye.
Chapter one ended with a name drop of a character I knew nothing about. I kept asking myself who the characters were as people kept mentioning them. I understand that this book is part two in a series, but more explanation without assumption would be helpful.
The more I read the book, the less interested I became in the story. The chemistry between Alicia and Chase wasn’t established well. All I knew is that he was overly protective of her. Nothing about how she felt about him other than jealousy when his ex was mentioned.
The book failed to capture my interest, and there were too many times where I was confused as to what was happening. Therefore I had to DNF the book, and I’m giving it 1 star.
Get the book here: https://amzn.to/2M1IxYc
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Much love, Dana Kenzi