" I wonder if that´s all life really is, just smears of color."


I knew this writer in This Heart of Mine and I really enjoyed her writing, when I saw her new release I picked up without even reading the synopsis. When I received and read the synopsis, I was afraid whe I read it was a thriller because I did not like this genre very much, but what was not my surprise when I started reading and realizing that it was more a romance than a thriller. I loved this !

Chloe had her whole life transformed after a family problem that forced her to move from where she lived. She believed that she has the perfect family, the perfect boyfriend, the perfect friends, the perfect life, but we know that nothing in this world is perfect and she will discover it at a hard way. On a ride with her father, Chloe bumps into Cash, a serious kid taken from a badboy who implies with her right away.

Cash had a very hard childhood and locked himself in a shell to protect his heart. From foster home to foster home he closes himself even further. Now he is in Fullers' home, a grieving family who has lost they young daughter. In this family, he finds the love, but he resists to it for think taht he does not deserve love. Upon meeting Chloe, he is intrigued by the girl's resemblance to the biological daughter of the Fullers and begins to approach her to know what exactly happened with the girl.

In the midst of a delightful romance, parallel plotting, a certain suspense and tension, CC Hunter creates a plot about acceptance, strength, second chances and love leading the reader to delve into the lives of these characters and cheer to know who Chloe is and what Cash did in the past to be so distressed.

I really liked the ending chosen for Chloe's mother, I really liked the cover and the plot although I think that at times it got a little repetitive and that the writer could have developed the suspense better.

4/5 stars

The first book I read by C.C. Hunter was the shadow falls series and I was instantly in love with it, it was an auto buy series for me as long as the books were being released, so when I saw this book on Netgalley I was eager to get my hands on it and I almost cried and screamed when I received the email letting me know I had been approved for it, however 5 chapters in on the book and I had lost interest. This book is a different genre than books I’ve read by the author in the past, this was supposed to be a thriller/mystery and it fell short of that making me feel like perhaps it was maybe a middle grade type of thriller.

The book itself has a good plot and would of been a good story had it of been written better, it’s a little similar to Caroline Cooney’s The face on the milk carton, but it still sounded like it was going to have good intentions.

The story was all over the place, perhaps it was the layout of the e-arc or poor writing style but it bounced from story line to story line and characters POV to characters POV and it was a bit confusing to read.

There was no oomph to the book the author let us know almost immediately what was going to happen, and sure enough it did without leading us on or keeping us guessing for long.
Another issue I had with the book was the girl was kidnapped from her birth parents and get this falls in love with a foster boy her birth parents are raising who very well knows she’s the daughter of his foster family, that was super weird and seriously inappropriate.

Personally I felt like the book was a mess and had much more potential than what was provided there wasn’t many details and despite it being a bit of a long read, there wasn’t much to go on the author released the plot without teasing, and the plots kept moving forward in the wrong directions. One minute we’re reading about a perfectly normal girl then we find out she’s been kidnapped and then she’s hooking up with her foster brother and then their being shot and it just didn’t make any sense or add up at all. I do look forward to reading more from this author and I hope that maybe one day there will be a follow up book to provide more detail.

I wish you could all see my notes on this book—it’s just me constantly writing any given variation of “this is such a mess/this is so messed up” over and over again, and it really is such a big mess. I truly still don’t know what my honest feelings about In Another Life are? I equitably liked and disliked it for so many reasons.

it was easy to dive into this book. the characters and the plot sweep you off your feet right away—I mean, what would you do if you learned your whole life is potentially a lie, and your parents might actually turn out to be your kidnappers? that’s a GREAT concept, if you ask me, and this book definitely sets off with a bang. I really, really, really found myself enjoying the first few chapters, but then this book just wafts. it stays above the surface, sure, and the buoyancy it created for itself with the plot and characters definitely help it out along the way, but I don’t think that’s enough. it fluctuates a lot. the writing style, for me, unfortunately, kept me disconnected from the story most of the time. the POV constantly switches between Chloe’s first person and Cash’s third person, which gave In Another Life a little bit of a bewildering pace as it kept shifting back and forth between tenses and pronouns.

I really liked Chloe and Cash individually, but I don’t think they worked well together as a couple. and I don’t know if that’s just me, but their relationship was borderline, lowkey, incestuous? I’m not about to dive into the spoilers, but if you read this book, you’ll know what I mean. I was also very worried about the legal aspects of this whole ordeal. lawyers weren’t mentioned until the VERY end of the book, when things go a little haywire, but there’s definitely other legal stuff involved in this case aside from the kidnapping?? what about custody?? fraud?? forged papers?? identity theft basically?? I’m probably missing a lot more stuff but I just find it so unrealistic that none of this was dealt with legally speaking, the characters just……. move on. and never speak to their lawyers again, like, I REALLY REALLY REALLY DON’T think it’s that easy.

I feel like this review sounds overall like a very negative one but PLEASE don’t get me wrong, because I DID enjoy In Another Life!!! the concept and premise behind it are fascinating and it definitely had me hooked most of the way through, it’s just that some stuff in here really sticks out like a sore thumb to me, but that’s fine!! it’s still an enjoyable reading experience and I really feel like looking more into the rest C.C. Hunter’s books?? even though her writing style was hard for me to connect with, her books always sound so interesting and engaging and that’s honestly all I want from a story. thanks again to St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books and NetGalley for providing a free copy of this book!!

The premise of this book caught my interest immediately. I think 90% of the reason I finished this book was because the storyline was unique and I was interested to see how everything would play out. The positives mostly end there.
I had some pretty huge problems right off the bat, and almost decided to DNF it at 10%. I'm glad I didn't because it did get better, but the end had some similar problems to the beginning. I first want to note that I did get an advanced reading copy which does mean that final corrections haven't been made, but there were SO MANY grammar and spelling mistakes that it distracted me. I'm sure these will be fixed, but there was also no way of telling when the perspectives changed between Chloe and Cash so one second I would be reading in the first person and the next sentence would be in the third person and my brain wouldn't understand what happened.
I felt like the entire book was pretty predictable even though the author had a lot of opportunity to make some plot twists. At only 6% into the book, the narrator started repeating herself, literally saying the exact same thing that she did in a previous chapter. This happened a couple times throughout the book. I also had a hard time liking the main character, Chloe, which was a huge negative for me. Even though I related to her situation with her parents, I felt like she had a terrible attitude and acted like a brat sometimes.
My biggest problem with the writing was mainly in the beginning and end when it became very lazy and was telling instead of showing. The best writers show us what characters are like and how they might act, they don't tell us.
I am thankful for the opportunity to have read this book, but it wasn't my favorite.

What if the life you knew was based on a lie? How can bumping into someone change a life?

Chloe knows that she was adopted when she was three years old. She has had a great life - loving parents, a great home, but all of that is challenged when her parents get divorced and she and her mother move to Joyful, Texas. Angry at her father one day, she storms into a convinced store and runs (literally) into Cash Colton, who instantly believes she is running a con.

Dusting that encounter off, Chloe is rattled when she sees Cash again at her new high school. It's a she notices him, he is eyeing her type of budding relationship. Cash has a story himself - he spent a portion of his life in foster care. His foster parents love and adore him and would like for him to be a permanent member of their family.

Things sound like they should be rosy and fine for this pair of teens, but Chloe is dealing with having with her parents separation, her mother's health, and being a parentified child. Cash is dealing with guilt, feelings of inadequacy and shame over the life he led with his biological father. Another thing nagging Cash is that Chloe looks exactly like his foster parent's kidnapped daughter!

This book is dubbed as a teen thriller. I would say it's YA with a little bit of thrill thrown in. I liked the questions this brought up. What if you learned your whole life was a lie? What if you thought you knew a secret and if you divulged that secret, lives would be changed? How do you cope with loss? Who do you handle grief? How does loss and grief affect not only a person individually but also the family unit as a whole?

I found this book to be a fast read which sucked me into the characters’ lives right away. I quickly cared about the main characters (mainly the teens) and enjoyed their romance. Their reactions, emotions and thoughts felt real for someone in that age range (heck for most age ranges). I liked that there was just enough teen angst, and nothing felt too over the top. Of course, there were times where I thought, would the average teen do this?

This book dealt with various issues such as infertility, self-esteem issues, kidnapping, adoption, foster families, loss, grief, illness, self-blame, accountability, trust, young love to name a few.

I enjoyed this YA book and believe most teens and adults will enjoy this book. Again, I found it to be more YA young love than thriller, but it worked for me. Will the reader guess some things - sure, but that did not hamper my enjoyment of the book. The epilogue was nice and tied things up in a very tidy fashion.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, C.C. Hunter, and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a fun, fast paced read that I enjoyed but it was lacking in some areas for me. While the writing and flow were great and the I liked the character development, the mystery/suspense side of things was lacking for me while the romance side was played up a bit more than I was expecting. It was still a good read and I think many people will enjoy it.

This is awful. The writing needs serious work, the plot is unrealistic and overly melodramatic, but most of it, these characters ARE TERRIBLE. In the first 5% of the book, there were four mentions of the main character's breasts, and neither she nor the love interest seem to be capable of going more than a page without referring to how "hot" everyone thinks Chloe is. She's tall and skinny-but-curvy(!) and beautiful with her "great B cup breasts", WE GET IT. Oh my god, I don't remember the last time I cringed this much in such a short span of time.

On top of the general all-consuming obnoxiousness, Chloe is an asshole. I get that life is hard for her, but that gives her no excuse to slut-shame other women's outfit choices or to act like her dad's new girlfriend is the only one worthy of blame (when the woman is evidently barely legal, and her dad is a middle-aged man — might this not be a great time to point out how predatory this has the potential to be, instead of just blaming it all on "that whore bitch" girlfriend?). I just can't do this. This is awful and I will probably never try another book by this author because I literally wanted to throw my kindle across the room a few times over how annoyed I was.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I am a fan of this author's Shadow Falls series. Thus the reason that wanted to read this book. I will admit that I have read a few books recently with this same type of concept. Sadly, this book did not work for me. Not, because of the fact that as I mentioned I have already read several books like this but because I personally, did not feel that this book transitioned very well to all reading ages. Yes, the book may be targeted towards young adult readers but most of these books are being read by adults as well; so authors write books with this in mind.

Young adult readers may like this book. What I struggled with is the character connection. I had no problems with the Shadow Falls series. Instantly, I connected with those characters and the stories. In this book, Chloe came off as a bitter teenager. I even excused this behavior for a little while but than it got on my nerves. When it came to Cash, I was unsure whether I liked him or not. I am going to say I am neutral towards him.

The overall pacing of the story moved slowly to the point that I even skipped ahead a couple of times. It did get better in the latter half of the book.

I read this thinking what a great movie this would make!

“A new YA thriller about a girl who learns that she may have been kidnapped as a child, and her race to uncover the truth before she becomes a victim. “

Very well written.

I received a copy of this book from St. Martins Press and NetGalley for the blog tour.

It is my first book by C.C. Hunter…Synopsis intrigued me and fortunately, I got the chance to read it. I am recently in the phase where I am loving Mystery YA books and series(Yes I am watching PLL RN).

Chloe Holden’s life is in chaos her parents got divorced, the mother is suffering from cancer and moved along Chloe to another city…Chloe left everything her friends, her bf, her father, her past, her good days behind. Until she met Cash, a weird foster kid in the new school. Did I mention Chloe is adopted? After a short good time, things are again going in more chaos than before. There are certain secrets which can lead to dangerous paths.

I like the story it is different than what I read before, I won’t say it was completely mysterious, It was at certain points which I enjoyed…The writing was average for me, Chloe part is in First Person POV while Cash was and the other was in 3rd person. There wasn’t space while changing the POV so it was confusing and took time to realize oh now I am reading Cash’s or Chloe’s.

The struggle of Mr. and Mrs. Fuller is defined beautifully as well as Cash’s. Lindsay feels like filler…I was expecting more chemistry between Chloe and Cash.

Overall I enjoyed the book.

The first few chapters of this book had one of my eyebrows raised. Chloe had a lot of teenage drama going on and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to handle it for the rest of the book. Boy, was I wrong! The book quickly took a turn for the better. Chloe runs into Cash. The story turned upside down (for the better)! I will say that I predicted a few of the major events (or twists) early on, but it did not stop me from enjoying the read. Cash completely stole my heart. He has gotten himself into so much mess in his life. But, the determination he had to find his foster parents’ lost daughter was emotional and heartbreaking. I kept cheering him on despite decisions he had made previously. The ending wrapped up perfectly. I didn’t feel like I was left with unanswered questions. All in all, what a fun read to finish in one night!

In Another Life by C. C. Hunter, is a fantastic young adult romance/mystery book. Chloe moves back to her home town, Joyful, TX, with her mother, after her parents divorce. Chloe has always known that she was adopted, but when Cash becomes her friend, he opens her up to the ideas about her childhood. Chloe and Cash are determined to get to the truth. This book has everything, fun, love, sadness, and danger. I strongly recommend this book.

I reviewed an arc from Netgalley and St. Martin's Press. Thank you.

I absolutely enjoyed reading this book. I was actually surprised at how much action it had, and how dark it got at certain points. I loved the back and forth points of view of both Chloe and Cash, their obsession with Skittles and caramels, and overall just how cute their relationship was. I thought the family dynamics were very real, even though they were hard to read at points. And the plot was definitely intriguing!

Unfortunately, this didn't quite live up to This Heart of Mine for me. This does deal with the difficult topics of adoption and being a foster child, as well as the death of a parent, a parent with cancer, and child abuse. I just didn't feel as strong of an emotional connection with this one as I did by her previous book. It was still really good, but I think it might have had a little too much going on for me to really connect to it.

Actual rating is 3.5.

Okay, I know 3.5 doesn’t sound like I liked it too much, but I actually did, there were a few chapters there in the middle and toward the end that were a little boring and things between Chloe and Cash seemed a little rushed, their love story didn’t feel realistic, but at the same time it felt real to what teenagers going through such circumstances would do.

You know??

We have to take into account that I am not a high schooler any longer and therefore some of the behaviors these high schoolers have are unrelatable. Yet their story is so freaking compelling!!!

Okay so from chapter one I was freaking intrigued.

We get to met Chloe, her dad and Cash. Chloe tells us about her struggle with her dad now that she lives hours away from him and the house she grew up in and the fact that he and her mom are divorced (we learn about what happened and what is happening with their family as the book goes on).

Then we have this good looking guy that took a look at Chloe and decided to hate her (or so she thinks).

The story is told through Cash and Chloe’s point of view so you are always getting what they are thinking, which is extremely helpful in this story.

Cash grew up with an abusive father that made him pull all sorts of cons on innocent people until he died and Cash was placed in the Foster system. There he ends up with this lovely couple who lost a daughter when she was just a toddler.

By lost I mean, she went to the park with her nanny and she sort of vanished. Nobody saw what happened they all just assumed she was kidnapped and that she is probably dead by now.

So when Chloe moves to the small Texas town where Cash lives with this lovely couple that lost their daughter all those years ago and she looks exactly like a time-progression photo of said daughter he assumes she is there to con his foster parents.

Chloe has no idea why he is treating her like she is the Antichrist, but she is not having it, she has enough problems of her own.

Her mother beat cancer, but she seems to get sicker everyday and her father doesn’t seem to understand that he should be there for them, to bring some sort of emotional support to his daughter even if they are divorced.

We have these two teenage souls that are desperate to understand their role in the universe and why fate brought them together. Because what are the odds that Chloe moves back to the town where she first live after her adoption and that Cash lives with the one couple that lost a daughter at the same time Chloe was adopted and she looks exactly like the daughter they lost?

The intrigue will literally keep you reading chapter after chapter. It’s a darker kind of contemporary, it touches hard subjects such as the aftermath of a parent’s illness, the hard reality and close relationship human trafficking and adoption have and just how hard really is to be a teenager who’s life can’t seem to catch a break.

In Another Life is a great read if you are looking for mystery, a secret that some people would kill to keep and the ray of hope that comes with being a teenager. All in all, Chloe and Cash learn to navigate this difficult situations life throws at them and come out stronger and wiser than they ever thought.

3.75/5 stars

An intriguing, heartstring-tugging, romantic, thrilling story. Honestly, the "mystery" portion of it, e.g. why Chloe looks like the kidnapped daughter of Cash's foster parents, wasn't a huge mystery once the premise was introduced, but the journey to get from "hey you might have been kidnapped" to the final conclusion was enjoyable.

There were twists and turns, scary men in the dark, and the book deals with family relationships and friend drama in addition to the main mystery and the romance, which is always a bonus as it adds layers to the story.

The conclusion felt too neatly wrapped up in a few areas, while a few others were hard-fought and won.

In all, a fully enjoyable read, one I would recommend if you like dramatic irony, exploring all sorts of relationships (platonic, familial, and romantic alike), and learning to overcome childhood trauma/what we experienced in the past does not necessarily have to define our future.

Chloe's life turned upside down last year when her parents split up. Causing Chloe and her mom to move back to Joyful, Texas. Being the new kid in high school is not fun especially in a small town where everyone has always known everyone else. The good news is that Chloe's next door befriends her and helps her adjust to her new life. She also ends up getting help from an unsuspecting source Chase. Chase is a foster child and also feels like he knows Chloe somehow but he doesn't want to bring it up until he has answers.
In Another Life is told in multiple perspectives of Chloe, Chase, and a person we meet later on in the story.

Overall I really enjoyed In Another Life. Chloe and Chase's storylines were fascinating to me. We have Chase who is a foster kid and has a lot of guilt about things he had no control over in his childhood. Then we have Chloe who up until recently was from a happy family. The more they investigate Chloe's adoption, and the more they learn the more heartbreaking it becomes.
I'm not going to lie both Chase and Chloe annoyed me at times because of how secretive they were about certain things. But I also get why they were secretive about those things and how they thought they would hurt the other person if they told the truth. This type of situation is a difficult one for an adult to deal with, so for two high schoolers trying to figure this out mostly on their own, it's got a bit much at times. So many different emotions are involved in this story from Chase's guilt about things, to Chloe having to come to terms with the reality of her adoption its a lot.
The mystery part of this book wasn't that big of a mystery in my opinion. It was fairly obvious from the beginning in my opinion because of certain things. The only thing that was really scary or mysterious in my opinion was the part surrounding how she came to be adopted. That got scary the more we learned about it.
I do think this was an interesting book and I liked how the whole focus wasn't just constantly on her adoption. We have the side story of her adoptive parents drama, and Chloe's relationship with her parents, and Chase. Chase's storyline was one that I also really liked because of who his foster parents were and how he had big plans for his future and how he wanted to be better than his bio father was.
I can't wait to read more by C.C. Hunter in the future!

CC Hunter has taken such an interesting topic with In Another Life. There are so many questions to be answered. Is it even possible for Chloe Holden to be Emily Fuller? Was she kidnapped? Given away? Did her birth parents give her up willingly or was she stolen from them leaving them heartbroken? Were her adoptive parents in on the kidnapping? Did they kidnap her themselves? If they weren't, who did kidnap Chloe? What happens when you find out that you have two sets of parents who love you? A topic such as this immediately piques the interest of the reader, and I wanted to know the answer to all of these questions and more.

I had a few moments where I felt like things happening in In Another Life were unrealistic. The thing is, all of these events could happen, but the likelihood of any of them happening, much less all of them together, does make the story a little unrealistic. But you know what, I didn't mind too much because I was enjoying finding out the answers to all of my questions above. I will say that my enthusiasm lessened as we truly began to find out the ins and outs of Chloe's history--what really happened with the potential kidnapping. And then even a little bit more so as everything comes together and characters are forced to face decisions they made fifteen years ago.

I appreciated that Cash didn't keep his suspicions a secret from Chloe for too long. He did have to hold his tongue for a little while, but he approached her with his thoughts before too much time passed.

Most of my unresolved questions are about Cash. His history was touched on and described throughout the book, but there were a lot of gaps for Cash and the reader to fill with guesses. I mean in some ways I guess this is realistic. Cash wouldn't even know all of his own history, but I wish I was knew more. Even some of the potential for Cash's future was vague. I mean he wasn't the main character or storyline, but I still would have liked to have known. Regardless, this didn't change my feelings of the book.

In Another Life is going to get 3.5 Stars from me. It would have been 4, but the events I mentioned above surrounding Chloe's potential kidnapping did lessen my enthusiasm. Other than that, I read In Another Life quickly and was excited to get back to it if I had to put it down. Have you read In Another Life? What did you think? Let me know!

Realistic fiction by C. C. Hunter!
Thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review In Another Life by C. C. Hunter!
Chloe moved to Joyful, Texas with her mom after the divorce. She’s lived in Joyful before, when she was three years old and had just been adopted. She doesn’t really remember anything about it from before. Cash lives in a foster home with Ms. Fuller. She’s an amazing foster parent and truly cares about Cash. Cash knows that Ms. Fuller lost her daughter a long time ago and he wants to help her feel better. The story jumps around and finally transitions more smoothly after the first quarter of the book. I felt like I became more invested in the characters of Chloe and Cash after that point. The story involves con artists, kidnapping, deception, friendship and family. With all of the events, the two strong main characters and the author’s writing style, In Another Life is an enjoyable read worth 4 stars!

First of all, thanks to NetGalley and Meghan from Wednesday Books for sending me and eARC in exchange for a honest review.
You have to know English isn’t my first language, so feel free to correct me if I make some mistakes while writing this review.


After her adoptive parents' divorce, Chloe Holden moves with her mother to Joyful, Texas. She has always known about her adoption when she was only three years old, but still her parents' split-up feels like she's reliving the trauma of being ripped away from everything she's ever known as familiar.
It doesn't help that her father is dating a woman who's not even ten years older than Chloe and that her mother's cancer is maybe in remission.

After a weekend spent to El Paso, Chloe's father is bringing her back to Joyful and once they stopped to a gas station, in a rage due to an argument between the two of them, Chloe bumps into a boy. When Chloe says she's sorry, the boy first is confused and then is glaring at her. Chloe is even more perplexed when the boy tells her to stay away and to drop whatever it is the thing she has planned to do - but what does it mean?

Over the years, Cash Colton moved through different foster families - now it's the Fullers' turn. With a past full of mistakes that makes him feel guilty about, due to a father who taught him to cheat, to steal and to take advantage of those vulnerable, Cash knows a con when he sees one. The Fullers lost a child fifteen years earlier and never forgot her, so Cash doesn't want to see them hurt.
When he sees this girl with a striking resemblance with the age progression photo of Emily Fuller, Cash is sure the girl is in town to con the Fullers. So he starts to dig online and in Chloe's past, set to discover what her intentions are.


Cash gets close to Chloe to figure out who she really is and if she's sincere about it.
It irked me the way too fast they start liking each other - even more at the speed they confess their feelings to each other. First, Cash's intentions have nothing to do with Chloe as a person with her own feelings and thoughts - let's not talk about the way he stares at her bordering on stalking. Second, they don't know each other enough - I mean, Chloe pours out her problems about her family and he clams up without sharing anything about himself, but she doesn't know he approached her with a lie.

Then things start to go in the right direction - and with the right timing.
They both suffered - Cash because of his father and Chloe because she has always felt a void, even though her parents love her so much and she had a life filled with so much happiness until her parents' divorce. Now she's remembering a voice telling her her mom and dad didn't want her anymore, that's why she was being adopted.
They lean on each other and that instant-like at first didn't sit well with me and I feared an insta-love, but that softens the more they spend time together and know each other better.

Nothing ominous or intimidating happens in the first half of the book. On a second thought, I think is better this way because you need that time to put Chloe in the right mental condition to want answers and the truth - a truth she's afraid will hurt every party involved no matter what.
Things start moving in the second half, when someone gets word Chloe is asking around about her biological parents. And no, that someone doesn't like it very much - here my anxiety went spiking.

I appreciated the double point of view - Chloe's is in first person and Cash's is in third person, so this gives us the oppotunity to know their thoughts and their lives more closely.
I read an eARC copy, so I'm sure a couple of little things will be fixed - I'm especially talking about a blank space signaling the change in the point of view: since the narrative goes on without interruption inside a chapter, I was a little confused the first time it happened because nothing prepared me to the change. Then I became accostumed to it, but still.

Even if my initial expectations led me to believe the mystery aspect would've been bigger, I'm satisfied about the way the author took her time to explore a topic like adoption and the consequently perpetual conflict caused by the abandonment. Because Chloe loves her parents and doesn't want to hurt them, feeling disloyal just hinting about her biological parents. Because the Fullers are still searching their daughter and that pain never faded. Because there are different kinds of love and affection that create a chaos of emotions, fears and conflicts - because, as inevitable as it is, someone is gonna end up hurt and it's not fair for anyone of the party involved.
And, about Cash, the author tackles the way foster kids are judged in the wrong way based on their parents.

I liked it and sure, you can guess the direction it's going to take if you read other books on the subject, but still I recommend it.

(3.5 stars)

I’d like to thank Wednesday Books for letting me be a part of the blog tour. My review is completely honest.

You guys know I’m a sucker for the cheesy romance with tension – both sexual and angst, some kissing, typical good looks, etc. The summary drew me in because of the concept between these two characters. I’ll say that it didn’t disappoint, but it did in some parts.

This book is about a girl named Chloe who moves to Joyful, Texas. I wonder if this place really exists, though. Anyway, she lives with her mom who is a cancer survivor and is extremely bitter over her illness and the fact that her husband (Chloe’s dad) cheated with a much younger woman. When Chloe attends her first day at a new school, she starts to interact with Cash, who believes she is a con woman trying to get money from his foster parents, who have had their child missing for fifteen years. But, here is the twist while these two team up to solve this mystery: is Chloe the missing child?

Let’s start off with the characters. I think they fit the typical gushy teen romance main characters. The girl has boobs, which is unfortunately mentioned quite a lot for some reason. She is pretty, there is a hard life going on, she is new. The guy, Cash, is a hard ass. He throws punches when he is pushed far enough, he is handsome and he has issues, too. These kind of characters, though, don’t turn me off. I love it because it’s always a different story as to how they get together and I eat up that tension. It just makes me swoon and root for the couple.

So, their relationship. I’ll admit that this is a total insta-love thing. Well, maybe more of an insta-attraction, if that exists. Chloe and Cash have a spark and some readers might think it’s only because Cash believes Chloe is the missing child and that is all they have in common. No, they learn a lot more about each other along the way. They have little arguments, they push each other mentally and logically, but the connection is just there. It’s angsty, romantic, sexy and I loved it. The insta-whatever wasn’t the best because I can’t really agree with that. Maybe that’s a personal thing, I don’t know.

Let’s get down to the stuff that turned me off and disappointed me. The storyline is great. I had my world tipped while reading certain parts. I read one scene in class and my mouth dropped open in shock. Thankfully, nobody saw me. But, I applaud C.C. Hunter for letting that happen. You gotta have some shock factor with these romances. What really disappointed me was the detailing and the flow of certain chapters. The detailing was off. Once a paragraph started or a scene started or even dialogue started, it would be cut abruptly and go to something else. It caused the flow to give me whiplash. Sometimes, it was too fast. I might be a hypocrite in saying this, considering my history with writing, but sometimes, it read like Fanfiction. Like, if you are still kind of new with Fanfiction but you are getting some of the skills together to not make it all happen in one chapter. Does that make sense? I mean, when I started Fanfiction years ago, my writing was crap. I grew and I look back at those stories and cringe, but I’m proud of how I have grown. But, this isn’t about me.

I loved the story all together, but sometimes, it just went too fast and too jumpy. The ending was really abrupt, too. If you were to see it on screen, it might last all of five minutes, give or take a few. This is why I gave it 3.5 stars, but this doesn’t mean I did not love the story. The story, I suppose, is more important. If you still feel some sort of connection or feeling with the story, I think you’ve accomplished plenty as an author and you’ve made a reader happy. I know I was with the outcome either way.