This is my first book by Blake. I really enjoyed the book. The characters were well written and I was rooting for Jillian and Amelia the entire time. Even the secondary characters were enjoyable for the most part. My biggest issue with the book was something that would only impact a very small list of readers. I live in Oklahoma and visit Norman often. Oklahoma is perfect if you are looking for one of those small town romance feels, just not Norman. I really dislike reading books set in places I know because I end up focusing too much on things that really do not matter. Overall I enjoyed the book. It made me want to pick up Blake's other books. I would recommend this one to read

My first time reading a book by Dena Blake and I have to be honest it certainly won't be my last. Absolutely loved this book.

It's a love story between JJ (Jillian) and Amelia who fell in love in high school but then fate split them up.

Great story filled with romance, tension mixed in with bit of thriller, kept me hooked from page one.

One of the best things about the book is if you like kissing this is the one for you.....plenty of kisses.....a must read

An honest review thanks to NetGalley. I absolutely loved this book, I have never read the author before, and the blurb didn't pull me in. I thought I would try it and fell in love. THere was a lot going on, but it all went seamlessly together, making the story even better in my opinion. I loved Jullian and Amelia, loved the idea of the heartstrings foundations, heck I loved the whole storyline. This was a great drama filled romance that was out of this world.

I found this story interesting and entertaining. The plot starts with an incident that occurs at the beginning of the book. From this incident, it moves from New York to Ocklahoma and is developed by mixing events occurred 15 years ago with current events. Both the current problems of the protagonist JJ / Jillian, and the events that occurred in the past, are shown to us little by little, giving us pieces of information that allow us to understand the actions of the different characters. It has a nice love story between JJ / Jillian and Abigail, started back in high school and suddenly broken. It also has a bit of tension, with a crazy ex-girlfriend stalking the protagonist. The pace of the book is generally good, but the fact that the past is showed to us gradually makes it sometimes difficult to follow the thread. One thing that has seemed strange to me is the ease of the protagonist in hiding her true identity, she being a public character, only by changing the color of her eyes and her hair. And it has also been a little infuriating the way JJ / Jillian and Abigail reconnect their relationship, I understand their doubts and fears, but their inner struggle is too much for my patience. And some of their actions, specially Abigail's, are really unveliebable for an intelligent adult. Eventually, the book manages to keep us interested and hold a little suspense till end. As I said is interesting and entertaining to read.

I was unable to review this book because of a conflict in my schedule. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused the publisher or the author of the work. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review for you and I look forward to reviewing for you in the future.

There is a lot of angst and the book covers some difficult topics but it does that well. The writing is gripping and the plot flows. The romance is well done. The author's writing has really progressed since her first book.

I really couldn't get into this book, but there's nothing I could put my finger on. So simply personal taste or distate in this case.
I tried not giving a star rating, but NG won't let me, so I had to rate it 1 Star since I couldn't get into it. BUT i won't review and/or rate it anywhere else.

The story really revolves around four people. Amelia, Jillian, Abby, and Blake with a side of a few others like Kelly, Marcus, and Julie.

It starts with a quite heartbreaking scene that I thought was disturbingly beautiful, and then we pick up the story months later.

Jillian is a famous journalist, but she's now also her niece Abby's guardian. And she's trying to figure out why the group home sorta thing she supports, Heartstrings House, seems to have no money even though she fully funds it. So, she lays low and goes undercover for yet another reason that we learn farther into the book (it was a doozy).

Amelia is the one Jillian has always loved. They were friends and then more as kids, and then Jillian had to leave when her parents died unexpectedly. Amelia helps her brother Blake run the Heartstrings House as well as being a lawyer in town.

Jillian doesn't expect Amelia to still be there, and Amelia at first doesn't know who Jillian is, and so there's definitely an attraction at the beginning, but it takes a bit for all the secrets to get shaken out and such, and the twists to get ironed out.

My problems with it were mostly little things, but they seemed to pile up as the novel continued. For the whole Abby calling Jillian 'Aunt JJ' thing then suddenly turning that into calling her Mom, it was a little jarring and sorta out of left field when it happened in the book. And at the beginning I was so so amazingly lost about why Jillian was actually at the house. I went with it because I hoped that I would get enough clues and intuit it, but, very lost. And, there was also a sorta religious random scene at one point in the middle of the book, but, then it wasn't spoken of or that part of the story added to any more after that. It was weird.

It wasn't a badly written book though, but, some of the plot stuff I just didn't love, although I did like the ending.

I was given this ARC by Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.

Lots of drama, lots of angst. But overall not bad. Honestly that's about it. There is so much going on I struggled to keep up to be honest.

Death, loss, domestic violence, crazy ex are just a few of the things covered in this book. Maybe the author felt the need to get it all out there at once. If you take away all the padding the story isn't that bad. But there is just so much padding. For example why was so much time put in to the crazy ex. I know ex's are usual in lesfic romance. But I honestly don't know why.

I really wanted to feel sorry for Abby but I jus couldn't as there was too much going on. I'm really struggling to write this review because I want to say everything is great but it wasn't. If you like drams, if you like angst and love a long story then give this a go. Enjoy!


*ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley*

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2092754950

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R1LAGOO650DJNG/ref=pe_1572281_66412651_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

This was my second Dena Blake novel. I enjoy her style of writing. She did a great job setting up an interesting plot. Jillian and Amelia are solid mains. There were twists and turns in the book that helped keep me engaged. I look forward to reading her next book!

The story was interesting enough to finish it, but that's the only positive thing I can say about it. I found it chaotic, the characters and the storyline unbelievable (really, not recognizing someone because of a different hair colour and contacts? looking into her eyes and not seeing it's not real? suddenly starting to call your aunt your mom, just a few months after you lost your parents?)
I didn't feel the chemistry between the main characters, no matter how much the author and everybody else expressed it and the reaction for some of the lies were unrealistic. (I don't care that you lied to me about who you are, but not telling me everything about your niece is unforgivable.)
There were just too many things that didn't resonate with me about this book.

When I read a book like this, I often wonder to myself what the first draft could have possibly looked like if this is the version that gets published. The writing style was all over the map and if you told me the author had a set of writer's block dice to help make decisions along the way I'd believe it.
The gist of the plot is a woman is in a car accident with her sister and sister's husband, they die, and she's left to raise her niece. Somehow she gets it in her head to seek out the niece's biological father (who is unaware he has fathered anyone) by living in his refuge house under cover --because surprise, she's apparently some famous investigative reporter-- to make sure he's "fit" to parent before dropping off her niece and telling him he's a father. Now this whole time all I could feel for is this poor dude who is about to get the rug pulled out from under him by some crazy reporter. Even though she's famous and on magazine covers, her amazing disguise consists of dying her hair lighter and wearing colored contacts. Clark Kent!? Well golly, you missed it, Superman was RIGHT here!
So there's that "plot" but naturally this woman also runs into her childhood love interest. I could not possibly care less whether these two rekindled anything because despite immediately sticking their tongues in each other's mouths, there is chapter after chapter of whining to other characters about not knowing the other's feelings. Not to mention more tongues, repeatedly ending scenes by one of them running away from the other, tongues again, running, etc. These two cannot possibly be rooted for because they can never make decisions for themselves, each of them has a pointless friend character or three who must always tell them what to do.
Oh but we're not even done yet. Because things weren't convoluted enough, partway through the author decides to throw in a crazy ex-girlfriend (writer's dice!) and an implication that the reporter isn't just in this refuge house because she's a complete dick, but because she's also hiding out from crazy.
The aunt/niece relationship is bizarre. There is almost no interaction between the two but naturally towards the end the reporter feels like she should try to keep and raise her niece, who is 15 by the way...not much more raising to be done. But then the niece starts calling her "Mom" and it's encouraged. That is weird and jarring, no?
Let's just get it out of the way--too much is happening in the story for any one element to be properly focused on and given an arc and the "romance" is all tell with a complete lack of chemistry. This is a complete mess of a book and should be skipped at all costs.

When Jillian's sister is killed in a car crash, she becomes the guardian to her 15 year old niece Abby. She's a high profile TV journalist from New York City and between her busy career and her own demons she doesn't believe she's truly the best one for the job. She goes back in disguise to her childhood hometown to check in on Abby's biological father to see if he could give Abby the home and the family she needs. At the same time, she uses her job to go undercover to do an investigative story on a foundation and group home she set up, which is run Abby's biological father and his sister Amelia. Amelia is a lawyer and the childhood love of Jillian's life. The two can't help but cross paths when Abby and Jillian stay at the group home and sparks fly. Drama and family and old love and new friendships come together with heart wrenching and heart warming detail as a sort of new family forms and old demons are put to rest.

I found so many bits and pieces of the story to be a little ridiculous - the drama always came to be so perfectly and then the resolution came just as perfectly. I's dotted and T's crossed. But honestly I loved the heart and soul of this story. I lost myself in the characters and their lives and the emotional turmoil of their lives.

I loved the characters, I really loved them. I connected with them and I was invested in them. I really liked both Amelia and Jillian, I liked how they were flawed and real and had these incredibly big hearts with so much capacity for love and family and for each other. Yum and their chemistry was fantastic too.

My only real quibble with the writing was how the author was always telling the 15 year old girl (Abby) to cover up because the teenage boys can't control themselves or because of what they might think of her. It was a little cringy but eventually it turned into something less objectionable and more into Jillian becoming a mentor and a mother to Abby - like when she taught her some make up tricks.

I will be on the lookout for this author's next book!

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF

I got a review copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

And I tried. I really did. But I just couldn't get into the story.

I didn't find the characters or the situation interesting enough. The story was too slow for my taste.

I read about 30% of this book before finally giving up.

I really enjoyed this book and all the characters. They had great chemistry and fit well together. I liked how the story included bits from the past and in the end resolved all the mysteries. The only think I didn’t really understand until the end was why nobody recognized JJ and Jillian even though she is this famous news reporter. I thought just dyed hair and some contact lenses wouldn’t be disguise enough but later it explained that she had some plastic surgery done after the accident - that explains that and resolved the part that bothered me throughout the book.
I would definitely recommend this book!

I really enjoyed this book. Excellent build up of tension and attraction between the two woman and very well written love scenes. A couple of criticisms - I found it very hard to believe the characters didn't recognise her and the back story of the parents deaths seemed inconsequential to the story, to me it added nothing.

Unchained Memories is a book that most would find a little hard to stick with. The first chapters tell us very little re the history between Jillian and Amelia making the reading somewhat like putting together a puzzle with only a few pieces. But if you do stick with it you'll find Ms Blake's book a worthwhile read. The characters are well rounded, and the supporting cast turns out to be interesting in their own right. When all is said and done I found myself enjoying the story after all. Romance, puzzles to solve this book turned out to be a really good read.

Unchained Memories!This is a great eye-catching title! The story deal with memories and the choices people make due to the circumstances they encounter. The characters are complex and each have their own problems/memories to come to terms with, some more than others. Once those memories are freed from the inner resources of the characters’ past lives, the story enfolds to a higher and engaging level. The only problem I had with the story involved the scene with Jillian’s crazy ex girlfriend cop and her actions toward the end of the book. Without giving anything away, the characters’ actions seemed far fetched and did not quite fit with the rest of the story, but otherwise it was well written with an interesting plot.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36000830-unchained-memories" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Unchained Memories" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1502458021m/36000830.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36000830-unchained-memories">Unchained Memories</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15816867.Dena_Blake">Dena Blake</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2120391338">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I rec'd an ARC from NetGalley/Bold Strokes Books for a review. No synopsis needed.<br />Leads Jillian/JJ and Amelia/Ames reconnect quickly in this romance with some angst and "heat". There were a few improbabilities and ups and downs in this tale and I found that I had to reread some sections. The complexities of dealing with abuse and the abused were nicely handled with empathy<br />This is the second book I've read by Ms. Blake and I think she is maturing nicely as a writer. <br />4 stars.
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