Taking the Fall #4
Alexa Riley
Contemporary Romance/Erotica [requested review]
Published in 2015
H/h - Saint/Jeanette
Setting: Present time.
Read in May, 2015.
My rating:
[spoiler alert]
Falling In concludes Alexa Riley’s series novella-length series Taking the Fall. I’ve been quite enjoying the journey, that is when I could ignore the amount of cheesiness and caveman-ish behavior from the lead male characters. But to be fair, there were some pretty good, hot scenes throughout that kept me hooked and going for the next.
The first 3 volumes were about one couple, Carter and Layla, who had a history together. Carter spent 8 yrs. in jail but he’d been Layla’s bodyguard before that, hired by her crime lord of a father. Layla was pretty sheltered and largely unloved; something that shadows her later years as well. Yes, her needs were taken care of but none of her parents, it seemed, cared about her much. Until she met Carter, she didn’t know the meaning of love or affection at all.
There
were twists and turns that land Carter in jail and Layla alone,
escaping her father’s clutches. He didn’t want them to be together and
returns to haunt them when Layla and Carter are back together after his
jail time. Carter had a different history with Layla’s father, a
negative one and vengeance had been on his mind for a long time. Because
he loves Layla so much (an affection returned by her), Carter’s need
for a payback doubled ever since the man did something terrible to his
own daughter. It all happened that one fateful night which Layla
couldn’t remember until Carter explained to her later in the story.
I
mean I love my share of growly, cavemen H’s but there’s always
that fine line between sexy and ‘wtf?!’. Carter was
just fine for a while, but by Vol. 3 I thought I can do without some of
his shenanigans. Saint, on the other hand, was a little underdeveloped
so it’s difficult for me to comment on him as a lead.
Saint has
been Carter’s close buddy for... well, I have no idea how long but it
must be a long time, seeing how they both understood each-other and
worked together so well. He’s been keeping an eye on Layla on Carter’s
behalf ever since he went to serve time. Along the way, Saint had also
managed to get in Layla’s wilder and big mouthed BFF Jeanette’s pants.
They’ve been going on and off at it throughout. There
were some vague implications of Jeanette having a ‘past’ of sort.
In
this installment, I was hoping to get a good story out of it but
unfortunately, it went way too rushed for my liking. The story starts
simultaneously somewhere in the middle of Vol. 3 of Taking the Fall, as
Saint and Jeanette were a part of all 3 previous volumes. All we get is
to read their scenes and learn a bit more of what’s troubling Jeanette.
IMO, her past wasn’t as dark and disturbing as I thought it’d be. The
whole matter was taken care of even before I blinked my eyes and said
‘huh?!’. Overall, Falling In does wrap this series up but not as
satisfactorily as I had expected it would. 3 stars.
I enjoyed
reading about Layla and Carter, though not so much the ‘20 yrs. later’
glimpse that was, again, a part of this installment. It seems that at
21, Layla-Carter’s daughter, Mary and Jeanette-Saint’s son, Anthony, are
up to no good. :p I’m not even gonna try to imagine what the two
over-protective fathers would do about it. Most especially if you know
Carter, Anthony should grab hold of his... er, private parts and run for
his life. ;) But the boy seems to be up to the task because he’s as
much fixated over Mary as were their fathers over their mothers. History
repeats itself and all that... :D
PS: there’s this serial
killer, Viktor, who was introduced as a secondary character here, though
his presence was pretty brief. I’m intrigued and thinking a spinoff...
hmmmm, will have to keep my eyes peeled for that one.
I received an ARC as a part of Falling In Release Day Blitz, thanks to The SubClub Books.
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