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Seize Me by Crystal Spears
Published: July 2013
Age Group: New Adult - 18A
Series: Breakneck #1 |
NOTE: THIS IS NOT A SPOILER FREE REVIEW. SPOILERS ALERT!
I tend to like books with gangs in them (does that sound weird???). Madeline Sheehan's Undeniable was June's Tea Worthy Book of the Month so it's no surprise that I quite enjoyed Seize Me. The story follows Winter Belov, an exotic dancer who ran away from her Russian mobster father and family after her father killed her love in front of her. Seems a bit extreme but who am I to judge her. Anyway she finds herself in Nevada and you could say it's a cruel turn of fate that she ends up finding herself back in the gang life that she was running away from, but hey, love doesn't care about anything.
I enjoyed the story line and the banter between the characters. Winter is a pretty well developed character with her own quirks and mannerisms. She doesn't take any crap from others and stands her own. Not sure if it's her mafia background or she's just a strong individual but she makes for a very powerful protagonist. And then there's Braxxon who I think isn't as well developed a character mainly because there isn't enough information shared about him, not nearly as much as we know about Winter. That's already one thing I find lacking in this book, which is pretty normal for series that have different protagonists per book since there's obviously NOT enough time to explain everything in a 400 page book no matter how concise you are, it's just not possible to explore every dimension in the book.
That said that's why I personally would really like to see this story line become a series of it's own following Winter and Braxxon. There's so much more to their relationship and background that I find so intriguing and would be really interested in reading about.
The story just progressed too quickly, with large time gaps and little happening during each chosen period of time. There are so many different story lines that it turns into a somewhat checklist of need-to-cover-before-the-story-is-over-because-I-started-it-and-should-finish-it.
Personally I thought the beginning of the story was amazing. There's a lot of chapters dedicated to Winter being uprooted from her "normal" life or hiding life and brought back into the gang environment. But then the pace started picking up and I thought a lot of information was lost. The rival gang war story line is good and I think it would carry well over an entire series.
The most disappointing part of the story I found was when Winter finally reunited with her father. After realizing that Winter is indeed running from her father and family and is terrified of them finding her I instantly started anticipating for that eventual reunion. Closer to the end I started thinking perhaps it would happen in this novel and that there was a sequel dedicated to that story line because the gang war plot was the main focus. And then sh*t started to happen. I don't hate what happened per say. In fact I find it a strong way to bring in Winter's father figure. It's the execution of it that I find extremely lacking. First, the way that her father finds her is in my opinion total BS. Think about this, if you were treated as royalty to one of the most influential and powerful figures of the Russain mob, I'm sure your father would have found you already with his bountiful (albeit probably illegal) resources and yet the story makes it seem like Winter's father and no idea where she was and it wasn't until a someone let slip did the information spread and her father found her. Seriously? I would have assumed that right when she ran away he would have started tracking her, looking at cameras for her image and tracking her cash flow online back to her location. Am I thinking too CSI? I don't know...I just thought the mafia was really sneaky and clever and could do anything they wanted...So after that initial bump in the story it only got worse. I think everything happened within the span of two or three chapters and it was over. That's really little space given to something with such importance to the story line. In fact I think it was Winter running from her father that was the main headliner in the blurb of the story. So then they meet and it ends and it's all within a couple of pages that I find completely uninspiring and boring to read. Sorry, no offense to the author but I was expecting SO MUCH and I felt like I was only given a spoonful instead of an entire meal. Also the whole gang war plot that encompassed most of the story basically disappeared after the climax. I mean I guess the Breakneck's won but I'm not really sure and honestly by the end it was late and I just wanted to finish reading this and go to bed.
I apologize for the long review and I guess bashing of the story but I really do think that this series has potential that hasn't been utilized to it's fullest. All the ideas and story lines are there, it just needs to be executed in a more coherent fashion and the story needs filler chapters to add more dimension to the character and in my opinion, bring this story to its fullest potential so that it can be enjoyed completely and every main plot and important detail can be explored fully.
Because I really do think this story can be great but Seize Me itself wasn't that great.
BORROW
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