I read this book in January of 2016, but for whatever reason didn’t leave a review on goodreads, nor is it on my phone.

After reading the blurb again, I do remember enjoying the book! That says a lot about something I’ve read over two years ago.

I do believe a reread is in order, and I remember enjoying the ride and really rootin’ for Jonathan!

Forgive my unfathomably late review, but I definitely suggest picking up this one!

Essentially I found this so-called “thriller” dull and predictable, with few of the psychological twists and turns it promised. The characters are one-dimensional and the dialogue (of which there is far too much) stilted. Jonathan Caine works in finance and has all the attributes of a money-obsessed master of the universe. It’s no surprise that it all goes belly-up and to be honest I didn’t care. He got what was coming to him. I certainly could have done without the details of Wall Street trading which added nothing to the narrative and simply slowed down the action - such as it is. There’s nothing original here, same old same old. Hackneyed plot, hackneyed back stories, hackneyed characters.

Jonathan Caine, a true self-satisfied rich guy, is forced by some struck of bad luck to come back home and to live with his parents. At home, he meets back with the former prom queen, Jackie, who never laid an eye on him. But now, seing him so successful she accepts to date him and they fall in love. Problem is, Jackie is married and the husband is jealous (and a prick). And then something bad happens and Jonathan and Jackie fight for their freedom and happy end.

What's great in that book is following Jonathan's change from prick to good guy. At the beginning, everything is about what he can spend, what he can have, his career, his luck but then living again at home and with all that's happening he remembers what it's like to be a good guy and begins his journey to being more careful and mindful of people. And that's quite fun to read and witness.

However, even if I liked seing how Cain fight for Jackie, even if the writing was good, the story ok and the book reads quickly, the whole story was not that captivating, mainly because I never really find the characters interesting. The whole story is kind of a cliché with the former prom queen who fell from grace and the former looser who became successful enough to interest her.

"Sitting in a prison in East Carlisle, Jonathan recalls that he often considered his hometown a prison unto itself, and it seems redundant for him to actually be incarcerated within it."- It's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy when I stop to think about how I felt while reading the book. I definitely felt like I was in a literary prison. Overall, the language was simple, if not repetitive. The long explanations of the investments ran on too long for my liking. It was a fast read which helped a lot because this isn't a story that one should invest a lot of their valuable reading time to. The story started out strong - I wasn't exactly sure if it would be Jonathan's wife/ex-wife or Jackie's abusive/cheating/alcoholic husband (very stereotyped writing for this part) as the victim. I'm also not sure if I can believe that two people with very little in common, other than a high school -where they ran in two different circles - would come together so quickly and completely. If you're looking for a light quick read, you'll probably enjoy this book.