Review: Fault Lines by Rebecca Rogers Maher

Title:  Fault Lines*
Author: Rebecca Rogers Maher
Series:  Recovery Trilogy #3
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher:  Carina Press
Format: E-book
Date/Year:  September 24, 2012
Reviewed by:  Just Jinny

*This book was provided to the reviewer by the author in exchange for an honest review

Summary from the publisher:

Sarah Murphy plans other people's weddings. She's gorgeous and successful, but she also carries a dark secret.

At one of her events, she meets Joe Sullivan, a sexy photographer with a difficult past of his own. When he snaps a rare unguarded photograph of her and captures the real person hiding behind the facade, she feels exposed. To restore the upper hand, she tries to do what she always does: use sex to defuse the situation.

While Joe is eager to deepen his relationship with Sarah, he's aware of her emotional shield and the way she disconnects from her body. Seeing her at her most vulnerable doesn't scare him off, but he needs to know what she's hiding.

Sarah has a tough decision to make. Does she want to go on living a lonely, emotionally frozen life? Or can she finally risk revealing the truth and move forward with Joe?

My Musings:

I was looking forward to reading Fault Lines because there is nothing I love better than a romance about two broken people finding a way to make each other whole. Sadly, that wasn't what I found in this book. 

I had a very hard time finishing Fault Lines because I couldn't connect with the story, which wasn't much of a romance at all. The story revolved heavily around Sarah Murphy. She is successful and beautiful, but emotionally damaged from her past. She keeps most people at arms length emotionally, especially men. Instead she chooses the 'screw them and leave them' approuch in order for her to feel in control of all sexual encounters. 

Enter Joe Sullivan, a sexy photographer. His talent for snapping pictures allows him to see Sarah for who and what she is. And for some reason that doesn't scare him off. Maybe because he sees a little of her in himself? He is a recovering alcoholic, but is years into his recovery where as Sarah is just starting hers.

And that is where my problem lies with this story. It focused all on Sarah and her journey of dealing with her dark past and moving on with her life. That isn't a bad thing, it's just not a romance story. There are a handful of secondary characters, like Joe, who are there to help Sarah on her path of self-healing, but none of them get a lot of page time. Not enough for me to get attached to them, anyway. As she learns to be comfortable in her own skin, she struggles with the idea of forgiveness of herself and her family. 

It was nice to see the transformation in Sarah during the story, she literally thawed page by page. However, like I said, it wasn't a romance and that's what I wanted so I was let down by the book. 

Ratings:

Overall:  2 stars
Sensuality level:  2.5

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Other Reviews:

• RR@H Novel Thoughts (4 stars)
• RT Book Reviews 
• Goodreads (avg rating as of  9/18/2012 is 4.00 stars)

 

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