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Edited by Vaishali
Title: Trust Me (West Side #2)
Author: Isabel Jolie Genre/Themes: Contemporary Romance, Adult Fiction, Suspense Publisher: Noctivity Inc. Year of Publication: 2020. Format: E-book - kindle app. R E V I E W...‘New York hums with a frenetic energy. I’ve missed this city, its buoyancy and the constant whirr of life more than I ever thought possible. Others might see grit and grime, but when the sun bounces back from the skyscrapers, I see the rainbows. To me, this island belongs to dreamers.’
Things I want to do post reading:
● Own a pair of well-worn cowboy boots ● Take a trip to Montreal and indulge in some spa treatment ● Stock up on Matthew Mcconaughey movies :D ● Ride a horse, preferably with Sam behind me
A story of trust withstands a history of doubt in Trust Me. A delightful current release to CR romance that will suitably slake the demands of any prolific romance reader. Amazing to see the romance genre still thriving in a year that needs more love and dreamlike romance. 2020 proves to be a year that’s dishing out those great reads! Readers, do you know what should do to combat the unabating strife of this disturbing and divisive year? We need to arm ourselves with more ball-busting books so 2020 will pale in the wake of the combined force of every reader’s mania and the many wonders of the bookish world.
After two years of nomadic business travel across the channels of Europe, Olivia Grayson has been on a fortifying excursion of self-growth, repair and remedy. Alone and unattached, she sought the perfect catharsis. Her history boasted a desire to form relationships with faithful men. The reality: kissing a plethora of bad frogs. Experienced, more world-wise and mature, she’s now back on her home turf with a rerouted decision that has her back in the education system and ready to take on business school.
Self-made businessman and CEO of Esprit Transaction, Sam Duke’s trust has been hammered and chiselled into suspicion. Accomplishment changed his faith and perspective on peoples’ most candid motivations. The individual brand of selective, alarming attention that comes with a profile that, while not traditionally considered famous, has its own celebrity-esque attraction.
An influencer in his field, he has since been warned and cautioned into reluctant surveillance and full-time watch that plagues his freedom and only sources him a false sense of privacy that has his skin itching and limbs twitching. Once his company was made visible, a public spotlight was upon him, fed through publicity and the many threads of tabloid interest, now roped into maintaining a low profile outside of work. Olivia is the proverbial shine to his boots and gloss to his eyes, but he’s fearful that she might resemble the potholes of his family ranch.
‘Trust Me’ is what happens when a Texan bachelor and a native New Yorker, two minds of business, meet through suspicion and professional interest - great misgiving and greater chemistry!
The Story
What we have here is a steadfast, charming, piquant story that holds its own as a new-sprung romance release, but also sets itself apart with a loaded, accelerating plot that invites well-paced, compelling story building and fantastic character building - from main to supporting. I’m one of those readers that’s well-versed with picking apart plot twists and secrets (such is the nature of a truly overactive mind). But the setback with such an affliction? An overactive mind isn’t immune to its own pitfalls - one being that it may very well overlook the fact that it’s being played.
The seamless planes of intrigue, tenuously indefinite but with subtle precision plays into a very well-scripted narrative that culminates into a plot twist that I arrogantly pegged as one that I knew. I love it when an author is skillfully adept enough to still prove me wrong! ‘Trust Me’ by Isabel Jolie doesn’t come with your typical trope cliches. Though it plays with the boss/employee trope, the story doesn’t traditionally unravel that way at all. It’s as authentic as Sam’s Texan roots and reads as a story that’s truly well-reasoned with some focal points on attentive business, natural, well-placed dialogue, rifts of suspense, and of course elemental story conflict - both internal to the characters and peripheral to the plot.
While this story isn’t concentrated with drama, there is quite a bit of busy movement. No excessive drama for drama’s sake, but a healthy serving of mandatory, compelling tension that plays into character insecurity and peripheral, sitting danger. With realism and believable ambivalence, we’ve got a solid story here readers! Clear, edited and informed writing pitches a poised story that’s balanced, unreservedly appealing with climate atmosphere that made me wish for a split in the universal fabric of romantic fiction so I might book-crash these characters’ lives.
Sam and Olivia
It’s easy to assume that chemistry is singular to physical/sexual connection, which is far from true, if you ask me, so let’s try to avoid misdirected assumption just as Isabel Jolie clearly does, because Sam and Olivia? They have great, dimensional chemistry. Both built with individually well-balanced personalities, an acumen for business and a suitable head for intelligent diligence, they fly on the same wavelength and can share actual healthy, non-sexual conversation without a need to make everything a sexual innuendo. I love a good innuendo and physical chemistry holds its own in sealing and reaffirming commitment and partnership, but my point here is that they share chemistry that extends beyond the physical, It’s mental too.
Sam is warm, charming and brilliant with Southern appeal. Though he’s a big-named CEO and has found himself in a position of wealth and fortune after pursuing a career that he truly feels a passion for, he comes with zero arrogance or self-entitlement to be found in many a wealthy protagonist. He’s down-to-earth, honest and cares about what he does for a living. Both he and Olivia have busy lives and have been emotionally maimed in different ways, but both lack surety in trusting instinct and security in relationships.
As far as Olivia’s character goes, It’s necessary that I take the time to praise the author with a firm hand clapping in crafting a female protagonist who personifies what it means to be a truly strong lead character, both headstrong and an earner of her own success! One who understands her self-worth (*cue applause*). After experiencing a sterile childhood and in spite of having supportive friends, I wanted Olivia to reel in Sam’s love than anything because the lovely lady deserves it.
As well as the story itself, these protagonists alone hold accolade in bringing this story its realism. Of course, I was privileged enough just by reading that I didn’t have to lower myself to being a fly on the wall, but still, I just wanted to hop on the third wheel train and accompany these two everywhere - their trip to Montreal (brief as it was) and to maybe take a visit to Texas just so I could see more than a blip of Sam’s family’s ranch.
Final Thoughts
With lots of love to come from the un-watered soil of this prolific romance reader’s heart, I confess that I loved following this story and I loved following both Sam and Olivia’s dedicated but personally fitful lives - far more believably navigated than many romances in this ambiguous, broad-brimmed genre. It’s testament itself that I’ve just signed up to the author’s newsletter just so I can be foremost in seeing what other great releases this author is set to liberate!
Caution is a good friend to man with riches, but for Texan tech leader Sam Duke, caution has married this bachelor’s evolving paranoia. Olivia Grayson doesn't enter this story pain-free, but she’s moving in like-minded circles of mistrust as Sam himself, knowing her time of needed restoration, though beneficial, shadows a time that tails one of the more heartbreaking parts of her history. ‘Trust Me’ regales with, intrigue, complication, romance and timely love with sensitive conspiratorial edges of suspense to test the possible repetition of history. Set in a world of business, friendship and cautioned love, we’re entertained with a message of head and heart, fear and trust. A story of redirected routes and Texan swag.
Isabel Jolie concocts a gradually-paced romance, both swift and mindful, sweet and genuine that embezzled my attention and kept me there until the final full-stop bid goodbye. Mentally and physically, just like Olivia and Sam’s tenuous but tried and true love, I clutched on a handful of ample faith! Read this. Trust Me.
I gave this book 4 stars -Trigger Warning: Talks about one character’s struggle with cancer (past and present) and remission. A few bedroom scenes, profanity (f bombs, b bombs) and inappropriate/nonreciprocal sexual advances/harassment. Also mentions potential suicide and depression. T H I S P A R T M A Y C O N T A I N S O M E S P O I L E R S !! 1) I have to admit that I found it odd that Delilah seems to almost disappear toward the end of the book. I’m not really sure what was going on there but that left me with some unresolved confusion. 2) There are some short bursts of Olivia’s memory that are peppered throughout the story which, I think, would be better read/written in italics because when the present shifts to the past without warning it can catch a reader off guard. 3) Nice to see a male protagonist being so considerate of contraception. Admittedly, I was a bit frustrated with Sam when he blamed the potential pregnancy on Olivia because she told him she was on the pill and he was fine with not wearing a condom either (despite knowing the risks) but I understood his outburst nonetheless. Still, can you say how many male characters question the stealth and effectiveness of the pill? Not many. 4) To begin with, I found it a little shocking that neither Sam nor Olivia were taking this threat seriously enough considering the evidence. But because little me was blindsided by the unexpected plot twist, I was so glad that they didn’t! 5) I was confused with the whole Lindsey/Tiffany business - whether she really was unstable or how much of the scheme was a fabrication? 6) We only really get the shortest of snippets of Sam’s brief trip to Texas, but I just wanted to see and know more about his family ranch (where he grew up). With an emphasis on his strong Southern identity and cowboy-esque vibe, I wanted to see the source of his upbringing. Maybe even a scene where he personally takes Olivia to his hometown while enjoying some wholesome hobbies together. I think this would have been a great addition to the narrative, her getting close and personal with Sam’s former life, and from the way the author writes, I know it would have been written well with a warm and tempting atmosphere.
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R E L A T E D P O S T S: ● BOOK REVIEW: Breathe by Isabel Jolie _________________________________________
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--------------------------------------- M Y R A T I N G S Y S T E M: ★ - 1 star: I did not like the book ★★ - 2 stars: The book was okay ★★★ - 3 stars: It was a good, solid read ★★★★ - 4 stars: A great book ★★★★★ - 5: A phenomenal read --------------------------------------- SHARE ON FACEBOOK Leave a comment and let's talk about
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February 2024
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