Book Review – Solstice by Lisa Sorbe

Solstice <— ROMANTIC THRILLER/PSYCH-THRILLER/GAVE ME ALL THE DIRTY RED (by way of jealous obsessed villainess that I loved to hate)/VERITY (ONLY by way of keeping me on that psycho-romance edge) LOVE TRIANGLE/EVIL BEST FRIEND FEELS!! I highlighted WAYYYY too much of this book, I couldn’t control myself.

Okay so I did something crazy yesterday and started and finished a book in ONE day!!!! HOLY MOLY I have not done that in YEARS!! It usually takes me a few days now (and even a week) to read a book since I have a million things to do, and blog posts (and book lists!!) to make, and distractions and mind wanderings etc etc.

But yesterday was a lazy Saturday, and  since it was “husband and wife reading day” (yep! my husband enjoys reading too and we decided to spend a quiet day reading), and I started this one (I’ve read one by her before and it rocked my world!!!!) and so I couldn’t wait to read her latest. And obviously… I could NOT put it down.

HOLY MOLY!! I absolutely LOVE this author like crazy and will find yet another to read by her ASAP. Not today though ’cause I’ve got some big weekly book lists to prepare, but ASAP.

Okay so what’s it about?

Now right off the bat, I almost put this book down when the first chapter started from a detective’s perspective. Ugh… not a police procedural. For now, in my reading life (past and present) I’ve just never been much of a detective/police/mystery “solve the crime” lover. I want to be in the bad guy’s head or in the victim’s head… everything leading UP TO (if there’s an “up to”) crime. Mind you I’ve read and loved quite a few mysteries that had the whole crime solving part, but, it’s just not what I crave.

So, yeah, if you feel the same way, don’t worry about the first chapter, because ALL the chapters following, are directly from the POV of the two main female characters (YAY US!!) – but mostly from “bad girl” Alexis’s POV (or… is it just that it’s her POV that I highlighted the most?) 😉  😀

So again, what’s it about?

A HOT MESS of <—all my favorite things. All the messy good stuff (in BOOKS!! Only and always in books!!!) Like… A love triangle (or quadrangle? LOL!!), deep friendship, psycho obsession, secrets, cheating, a hot and brooding biker gang leader, and… jealousy.

When I first laid eyes on Paige, I wanted to slap her. There was just something about her, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on, that made me want to cause her pain.

That much I knew.

I just didn’t know why.

Didn’t know why my hands would curl into fists, my fingernails biting into the fleshy meat of my palms whenever we crossed paths in the foster house we shared. It was like there was something something coiled inside of me, a phantom serpent that awakened the moment we met, and it rose and swayed in my very core, hissing and spitting with a rage I’d never felt before.

So, good girl “Paige” and bad girl “Alexis” became inseparable best friends and have been since being young teens together in a foster home. Having lived traumas together growing up, they vow to take care of one another, and move in together as soon as they hit adulthood, even working together at the same restaurant.

Paige is engaged to a handsome doctor (Jace), and her life is pretty much set, while he plans on pulling her out of “Solstice” (the sleepy lakeside town where the rich are super rich and the poor are really poor).

I don’t know much about Jace, aside for the doctor thing. But I do know that he grew up here. Attended Solstice High, graduating a few years before me and Paige, and then enrolled in some swanky private college one town over. That’s where the two officially met, actually—the school where he got in on his parents’ dime and Paige got in on a full-ride academic scholarship.

Because of course she did.

Anyway, from what I’ve gathered, Jace hates this town almost as much as Paige does.

As for me, this town is inevitable. I was born here, I was abandoned here, and if Fate has anything to say about it, I’ll die here.

And Alexis has her sights set on motorcycle club Prez, Blake Soren.

Blake f**king Soren. I love what this man does to me.

And that’s why, for now, I’m content to be his dirty little secret.

Ahhhh the ultimate bad boy. Calm, cool, collected, respected, and emotionally… DARK AS NIGHT. Ooooomph, that character alone had me riveted (and I so wanted SO MUCH MORE of him). We could turn this into an entire series because of him. Just sayin’ 😉

…it’s more like the undeniable fact that Blake and I are inevitable. We’re one and the same, too broken and twisted for anyone else to ever understand.

I’ve seen dark before, all shades of it, but never one that matched my own.

F**k the norm, buck the norm. Blake and I are not the norm. He needs me, even if he won’t admit it yet. He needs me so he can—really and truly—be who he is.

And while both are beautiful. Alexis is a hot mess. She’s suffering from core wounds of abandonment that she continuously lives out over and over again with the men she chooses and the her own self-disrespect. And with that, she is extremely jealous of “perfect Paige” (rosy and sweet, and everything coming naturally to her, everything always working out just right)

…she doesn’t understand, will never understand, and will never have to understand. And that very fact pisses me off.

Paige will never have to use her body to get her places in life, because she has brains, personality…and that goddamn air about her that just makes people want to do things for her. Paige is to the world like nectar is to bees.

Desired.

while Alexis has to work, manipulate, and degrade herself for everything she wants.

Yet, she doesn’t see what Paige sees in her. A fighter that has “no f*cks to give”, and is true to herself, through and through.

But Paige doesn’t see Alexis behind the scenes… but we sure do. Oooooomph!!!!!

Paige is in the shower, the swoosh of water a white noise that masks our deceit. She’s singing Disney tunes, like she does every morning, her voice as sweet and pure as the f**king princess whose song she’s warbling. This ridiculous serenade flames my own desire, spurs me on, and suddenly I’m the villain, the wicked witch, wooing her fiancé with my wicked tongue.

Power.

Paige has her own personality issues that she’s working through, and together, via their POVs, so much good, and sooooo much bad, is revealed.

I tip-toe through my days, treading the accepted path, the one society agrees is the safest, and grabbing as many layers of protection as I can along the way.

College degrees—check.

Stable fiancé—check.

Appropriate weight, perfectly coifed hair, clear skin and shiny eyes and rosy cheeks—check, check, check.

Polished on the outside, corroded on the inside.

Not that it matters. People rarely look past the outer shell. Keep up the façade and they’ll never know how damaged you are.

It’s how I’ve gotten by all these years.

Things are brewing internally within both main characters…

Something flutters over Alexis’s features just then, a dark something, as if her bone structure is rearranging beneath her skin. It’s so obvious, and so shocking, that I jerk back, right back, my heels butting up against the door with a loud thud. But she wipes her expression before it takes hold, and I’m left questioning my imagination…

And while I LOVED the first 3/4 of the book and couldn’t put it down ’cause I HAD to know how it was going to end, I’m going to say the last quarter of the book felt rushed. I hate when that happens. Interesting things brought in throughout the earlier storyline, were resolved within a sentence or a quick paragraph in the end. It just had too much of that stomp to the finish-line chaotic energy (that initially fit the storyline but we needed that tightly woven feel).

And yes, maybe I’m unfairly comparing it to her amazing “Beautiful Savage“. That ending had me gasping and thrilled ’cause it was so clever and apropos and true to the main character and story as a whole.

I guess that need to finally arrive at the end, came pouring out, and that amazing writing flow, that seasoned/controlled writing feel, kind of fell apart. Tying up loose ends… quickly. Roughly. Not cleverly (though it DID have that amazing potential). Nothing really got the depth that it needed in the end, and it had those over-the-top night time soap opera scenes, playing in my head (and crazy character dynamics became cliché). Okay yes, I know, the whole story was over-the-top but… believable. Written just right. The book was only 304 pages long. I dunno. Maybe it could have used an extra 50 pages to tighten it up. Okay so that’s all I have to say about that.

4 STARS (okay maybe 4.5 stars – I’m leaning on that)<— Right off the bat, two books in and I LOVE this author. She’s got that villainess feel just right. Along the lines of my beloved Tarryn Fisher. And this one was almost 4.5 or even 5 stars because WOW this book had me riveted and feeling and anxious and on edge and I was SO here for it. But that ending took some of that luster off. Don’t get me wrong… I DID like that ending, however it deserved so much more.

P.S. Thank you to the author for this review copy. The book came out in March and I just got to it now, but WOW. I want more!!!

➔➔➔  Looking for more of my must-read recommendations? Browse my 5 star and 4.5 star and 4 star reviews. 😀

➔➔➔ Love this author? Check out more of my Lisa Sorbe features and reviews on my blog!