4 STARS!!!
Summary
Dear Opportunist,
You thought you could take him from me, but you lost. Now, that he’s mine I’ll do anything to keep him. Do you doubt me? I have everything that was supposed to be yours. In case you were wondering; he doesn’t ever think about you anymore. I won’t let him go….ever.
Christine’s Review
Ok so I started Dirty Red immediately following The Opportunist. I must admit that it took me a bit to actually get into the book, not because it wasn’t good, but because I HATED Leah so much and just couldn’t stand reading about her! I also did feel that some of the book was a pity party for Leah – and for me who is a huge Olivia/Caleb fan, I just couldn’t feel bad for someone so deceitful and hateful and just plain awful!
So Dirty Red starts off where Leah has just given birth to her daughter with Caleb and I ask myself what kind of mother actually PRETENDS to love being a mother?! Caleb is over the moon over their first child and honestly I still just HATE HER (my mind is screaming for Olivia)! Caleb is old fashioned in his values and beliefs and wants his wife to be a stay at home mother to care for their child, which does not please Leah at all. Caleb leaves right away for a work trip and Leah is left to care for her daughter. Her mother comes to “help” and there are obvious hate issues between mother and daughter and all I can see is – like mother like daughter. But then again, I think that many of Leah’s issues come from her mother and she is who she is because of what she learned from her. So did she ever really have a chance to be a normal human being??
I enjoyed again that Ms. Fisher wrote in the past and present tense. The reader is taken on Leah and Caleb’s journey – how they first met and Caleb’s vice for wanting poisonous women in his life. Leah is just as manipulative in this book as she was in The Opportunist and does everything she can to pursue him though Caleb makes it known that he is not looking for a serious relationship as he is still trying to get over his relationship with Olivia. But she uses this to her advantage as she makes play after play for him to try to win him over.
“You’re more than enough,” he says seriously. “I was completely empty until you came along.”
And obviously she does win him as we see Leah struggle to be a mother and a good wife. Leah makes mistake after mistake and she sees that she doesn’t live up to what Caleb’s expectations are in a wife. She has no confidence in her marriage and is still jealous of the beautiful Olivia. I hate to admit that I do feel some sadness for her because she is so weak – the sun truly rises and sets for her in Caleb. They admit to each other that they are not their true selves to each other – so who are they really? Why is everyone lying? And why get married in the first place, if you can’t be yourself? The marriage was doomed to fail before it even began. The only person that ever truly saw Leah for herself was Caleb’s older brother, Seth.
“Don’t worry Leah. Your secret’s safe with me. No one needs to know there is a brain underneath all of that pretty hair.”
Throughout their entire relationship, Leah plays with Caleb’s emotions – in my opinion she confused true love with winning. She wanted to WIN him from Olivia – She wanted to OUTDO Olivia and come out on top. And that’s not love. Leah put all of her happiness into Caleb, but he wasn’t perfect either.
My FAVORITE part of this book comes towards the end when we saw a small snippet from Caleb’s POV. And I can’t tell you what he said or what happened, but OMG you have to read it to understand what emotions went through me as I read it – shock, disbelief, some happiness, and really just disbelief again.
Caleb is not as good as I have always thought him to be. His integrity, his honesty, the pure and selfless way he takes care of the people he loves…it all evaporates in light of this new, deceitful Caleb. My God – he did everything in his power to get to her, and I did everything in my power to keep her away.
And as the book comes to a close, Leah utters three words that change everything……And NO I won’t tell you what was said as you will have to read this book and this series in its entirety to truly understand the gripping hold it has on my heart and my head! I have thought about these two books for days after I read them and I know you will too.
I CAN NOT wait for the third installment in this series, hopefully coming out this year, The Thief – their story, told from Caleb’s point of view. Will these people be able to find true happiness and their true happy ever after? Will they learn anything from their pasts and the mistakes they have made? And from all of this will they grow as individuals and be true to themselves and be better people? I sure hope so – it was another emotional roller coaster ride that Ms. Fisher took us on. But I am glad to be on this crazy ride and experiencing every moment. Ms. Fisher has a magical way of telling a story that just grabs you in and seeing how my friends and I talk about it for days and days after just goes to show what a great author she is because she leaves you with something that you just can’t get over too easily. Great job!
About the Author
I would like to write a novel that every, single person loves, but not even J.K. Rowling could do that. Instead, I try to write stories that pull on people’s emotions. I believe that sadness is the most powerful emotion, and swirled with regret the two become a dominating force. I love villains. Three of my favorites are Mother Gothel, Gaston and the Evil Queen who all suffered from a pretty wicked case of vanity (like me). I like to make these personality types the center of my stories.
I love rain, Coke, Starbucks and sarcasm. I hate bad adjectives and the word “smolder”. If you read my book-I love you. If you hate my book-I still love you, but please don’t be mean to me; I’m half badass, half cry baby.
Twitter tarryn__fisher
Website http://www.tarrynfisher.com/
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