Book Review: Fearsome by S.A. Wolfe

Summary:

Jessica Channing’s big city life should be more exciting than sixty-hour work weeks and popcorn nights with her girlfriends, but it’s not. She has worked hard fulfilling her role as a child prodigy and graduating college years before her peers. She’s the good girl, the brilliant girl.

Unfortunately, she’s also the dateless young woman.

That all changes with one phone call. Jess’s rigid, predictable life upends when she must visit a small, obscure town to deal with a relative’s death. This isn’t just any little speck of a town, though. Long lost memories come crashing down on Jess’s world when two men, the Blackard brothers, seem to lure her in.

Dylan is cover model handsome, and pursues Jess the minute she comes to town. Then there is tall, dark and gorgeous Carson, who hides his own secrets behind his hardened reserve.

For someone who has been governed by her own obsessive behaviors and fears, Jess lets her guard down and jumps at the opportunity to have an affair with a man she actually finds attractive for a change.

There’s just one problem. Jess discovers that she can’t have a simple romantic fling because true passion does indeed come with some very big strings attached to it. She will have to own up to her own truths about love and face the two extraordinary men; both troubled in their own ways and both determined to have her.

Release Date: September 27, 2013

Age Group: New Adult

Source: NetGalley

Reviewed By: Kelli

 

Review:
I love New Adult contemporary romance, but Fearsome was a little too heavy on the romance for me.  However, I did enjoy the story and the characterization.

Jess is a brilliant young woman who graduated early from high school, college, and graduate school.  She's a talented computer software developer, and feels fairly content in her life in New York, with the exception of her lackluster love life.  One day, she's called by an attorney and informed that her great aunt has died and left her a sizable house and fortune in a small country town called Hera.

Soon upon arriving in Hera, Jess meets Carson and Dylan Blackard.  The brothers are old childhood friends of Jess's and Dylan quickly begins to pursue Jess.  They tumble into a relationship built on physical attraction.  It was at this point that the book got too adult for me.  There were lots of bedroom scenes, too many for my taste, and too many for Fearsome to be classified as a new adult novel.  I felt like Fearsome was better suited to the adult romance genre. 

For the entirety of the book, Jess wasn't sure of herself or what she wanted out of life or a relationship.  She eventually grew up emotionally, but went back and forth on her desires so often that I started to get tired of her indecision.  Jess actually acted like most male characters who are afraid of commitment.  She was all about the physical relationship but not very interested in a "strings-attached" relationship.  While in the beginning it was a nice diversion from the norm, that emotional immaturity got old for me.

I did like the focus on Jess's art and would have enjoyed her art taking an even bigger role in the story.  I also liked the minor characters and thought they were well-developed.  One of the main characters had a mental health disorder and I thought the characterization of his mood swings and the treatment of his condition were very well-handled. 

Overall, I enjoyed Fearsome but it wasn't a favorite of mine.  I would recommend it to fans of adult romance novels.