PRE-RELEASE ARC REVIEWs: Don't Deny Me (Part 1-3) by Megan Hart

Expected Publications:

Don't Deny Me, Part 1: January 13th 2015 by St. Martin's Griffin

Don't Deny Me, Part 2: January 20th 2015 by St. Martin's Griffin

Don't Deny Me, Part 3: January 27th 2015 by St. Martin's Griffin

Don't Deny Me: March 10th 2015 by St. Martin's Griffin

Buy The Books:

Don't Deny Me (Part One): AMAZON / B & N / KOBO
Don't Deny me (Part Two): AMAZON / B & N / KOBO
Don't Deny Me (Part Three): AMAZON / B & N / KOBO
Don't Deny Me (1-3): AMAZON / B & N / iBOOKS

Author's Page:

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads

Genre:

Contemporary Romance

Synopsis on Goodreads:

They had it all—until he broke her heart.

Now he’s back, and the heat between them cannot be denied…

Alice and Mick had it all: the happy days, the heartfelt evenings, the hot, slow nights. Mick knew she was too much, too good, more than he deserved…and when Mick couldn’t give her what she needed, in a moment of crisis, they lost everything. Torn apart, Alice tries to pry him out of her life and move on—until a not-so-chance meeting at an old friend’s party brings them face-to-face once more. Now they’re talking again, Alice can’t escape the burning in her chest whenever he’s near, the way his eyes still follow her around the room…but she won’t repeat the mistakes of her past. Because people, and relationships, can't really ever change.

But if Alice does decide to let him back into her heart—and into her bed—will Mick be ready to show her the man that he’s become…and take a chance on love? And can Alice ever trust him again?

***REVIEW***

~ Arc provided via St. Martin Press in exchange for honest review ~

As I already said before- aside book series, I'm not exactly a fan of dividing and publishing novels into several parts, but for my favorite authors I'm willing to "suffer" through everything. The biggest reason for that is the fact that the novel is cut in short parts, counting no more than 50-100 pages and I don't know about other bloggers, but I find it extremely difficult to rate something that short, especially if it's a part of a standalone novel. Good thing I was one of the lucky ones to get the arcs.

At first I planned to rate the novel as a whole after I finish reading it, instead of rating every part separately, but then I read the 1st part which was so good that it totally changed my perspective. Unfortunately, later on, after reading the 2nd and the 3d part of the novel I kind of regretted not sticking to my first decision, but it was already late.

Rating for Don't Deny Me (Part One): 4 stars

"I wanted to drink in the memories of you, absorb and consume them. I sat unmoving. Breathing, breathing, trying to keep myself covered in the way you felt. Trying to hold on tight to the memory of how it had been, that first time I saw you. It was like trying to grab glass out of a sink full of soap. Slippery, sliding, and ultimately, the choice became hold too tight and shatter it in my fist..."

4 Emotional, Bittersweet & Steamy stars!

It was one of those right-in-the-feels stories and we all know that M. Hart excels at those. In the first part of the novel we are introduced into the life of the MCs, the ex couple Alice & Mick, who meet again on their friend's party after 10 years of no contact. Except little clues, the readers are left in the dark in this part about the situation that led to their break up, but it's obvious that there are still so much deep, suppressed feelings and longing between them, that there's only a matter of time when those feelings will come to surface.

I think that many of us can find ourselves in this touching "the one that got away" story. At least in my case- the story hit close home. That's probably one of the biggest reasons I was able to connect to it and its characters and enjoy it this much. It was almost a perfect, bittersweet treat for the masochist in me. One of my favorite parts were the thoughts or sent and unsent messages from Mick & Alice which were at the beginning of every chapter. I loved those, even though some of them had me on the brink of tears.

The writing was superb. It was Megan Hart and her sadist pen at her best! The rating would have been even bigger if the story was longer.

"How many times do I let you break me, before I decide I've had enough?

We spin and spin so much we've created our own gravity. Like no matter how hard we try, neither of us can break away. We are in orbit. Caught. How many times do I let you break me?

I guess the only answer is, every time."

Rating for Don't Deny Me (Part Two): 2.5 stars

This review was hard to write, but this is how I felt. My thoughts while writing were something like this: I can't believe I'm rating M. Hart's book 2.5 stars! I can't believe I'm rating M. Hart's book 2.5 stars! I was so uninspired to write it, especially because it's written by my fav author and it took me more than a week to finish it, because every time I started I put it aside after just a couple of sentences. 

Don't get me wrong, the writing style was flawless as always, my rating refers solely on the plot which, in my opinion, unlike the 1st part, failed to deliver. The author set the bar very high with the first part.  After such an emotional and heartbreaking intro I expected the story to continue in the same flow, but it didn't. Instead, it was quite frustrating. This time the setting of the story is in the past during the time when Mick & Alice first met and began their relationship.

I must admit that I would have been totally fine if I had never met the younger version of Alice & Mick, because they managed to change my opinion of them as characters and the story in general. We find very little about their relationship in the first part, except that it ended badly and that their love still managed to survive in spite of the harsh parting words and time. Because of that, I thought for sure that the connection they had must have been something special, something extraordinary to have the power to survive even 10 years of separation and that's why I was so excited to read this part.

Sadly, that wasn't the case. In reality, it was pretty plain. If you ask me I don't even know if I would consider labeling what they had as a relationship, as the matter of fact- Mick definitely never did. They met, they became intimate in a short amount of time, and from then on they started visiting each other casually, once or twice a week, for a couple of months until it ended. Both of them acted quite immature and had huge trust and communication issues and to be honest I never took them seriously.

In my opinion, Alice had no backbone in their relationship, instead she bit her tongue  and continued satisfying herself with little pieces of affection Mick threw at her, while Mick continued to be this frustrating, closed off person, interested only in the physical stuff. They both had their flaws, but I would have dumped him long time ago! Those are the biggest reasons why I didn't enjoy this part of the story. 

Rating for Don't Deny Me (Part Three): 2.5 stars

I think I enjoyed this part the least, because it was the most frustrating of them all and I felt that neither the story nor the characters progressed in the way I wanted them, or better say not enough for my liking. That's the curse of shorter stories, I guess- you always feel that something is missing, and that's why I don't like rating them.

The setting of the story is back to present. It continues after the cliffhanger of the 1st part of the novel. Unfortunately, this last part didn't manage to change my opinion about the characters. I wanted more maturity from them, more character growth, but I didn't get it. Just like in the past, they still have big communication problems, especially Mick, and therefore I felt that "their situation" concluded too smoothly.

After reading some extraordinary books from this author, books like Broken, Tear You Apart etc., for me, this novel as a whole was more of a 3 stars read. Those books are among my favorite books ever and they had a bigger impact on me which is both a positive and negative thing, because I'll probably compare every next book by this author with them. I would recommend this novel, especially the first part which was the best, to readers who want a fast-paced, emotional, steamy romance with a little drama, but if you want something really good from this author, choose one of the books listed above.

xoxo