Relentless by Cassia Leo

Relentless (Shattered Hearts)
Synopsis:

"Sometimes letting someone go is the ultimate act of love."

Claire Nixon is a college student with a past full of secrets and heartbreak.

 At seven years old, the death of her mother by drug overdose destroys her faith in humanity and herself as she is tossed from one foster home to another. Feeling unwanted and disposable, she fights to keep herself safe in the system. Until, at the age of fifteen, she is saved by her first love, and soon-to-be rock star, Chris Knight and his mother, who quickly becomes the mother she always wanted. 

When Claire encourages Chris to leave town to pursue his dreams of musical stardom, both Claire and Chris don't realize this will be the biggest mistake of their lives.

One year after Chris leaves on tour, Claire has carved out a new life for herself in a new city far away from the life she left behind with Chris. On a fateful morning, she meets sexy surfer Adam Parker. 

To Claire, Adam is just another flirty customer at the cafe, until a chance encounter and seemingly innocent comment spurs a bet between them. The bet is simple: If Adam can get Claire to reveal the secret that made her drop out of college and leave her life behind, she has to re-enroll. If he doesn't succeed, she gets to keep her secret and he has to stop stalking her at the cafe.

Claire thinks she has this one in the bag. She's perfected the art of forgetting her past. But she isn't prepared for Adam's relentless pursuit or for him to share his own secrets. And she's definitely not prepared for the love of her life, Chris Knight, and her secret, to come banging down her door one year later.

Review:

*There may be some spoilers ahead*

Relentless had a lot of buildup to the big reveal for the super horrible thing Claire did that will make everyone everywhere hate her forever. Unfortunately because there was so much build up, so much talk of how horrible the thing she did was, that once it was revealed I was disappointed. Just like really that is it? That is why everyone you ever tell will hate you forever? Never mind that lots of women do the same thing every day. Well maybe they tell the guy first, but still lots of women make the same decisions. It was just...I know she has issues. I know her mom and then foster homes messed her up. I know she needs to see someone to deal with her issues because she just doesn't deal with them herself, but I was still disappointed. 

At the start of the book Claire has issues. Lots of them. She checks out sometimes and that is not good. I mean what if she is walking across the street and she just checks out as she doesn't seem to be aware of her surrounding when she is out of it? She meditates all the time to try and get rid of all of the bad memories. This is how she lives her life. She is also super suspicious of all guys thanks to her mom. Well Adam takes two seconds to fix that! She is pretty much instantly attracted to him and starts to not really care. It felt like she had major issues, but they were suddenly fixed when she met him. Sure she still freaked out sometimes, but after a while she was just fine. No more checking out when he was a round! Great. Perfect. It is that easy! No more problems. 

Adam seemed okay. He was kind of...something about him felt off to me. He seemed to like Claire a lot, but there was something about him and the way he was with her that didn't sit quite right with me. Not that he was bad for her or anything. I really don't know what it was about him that I didn't like that much. Plus he professed his love right away which was not really believable. Then he has secrets as well, secrets that I would say are worse than Claire's, and he shares with her. They really weren't that bad, but I can see why he would hold himself responsible. By the end of the book I thought he was okay, but at the beginning something didn't sit right with me. 

So you go along in the book and Claire doesn't share her past with Adam. Doesn't share that her ex is the rock star Chris. Doesn't share why she dropped out of college (because of the oh so horrible terrible thing she did that everyone will hate her for!!). Doesn't really share much with him. Then of course it comes out at the worst possible time because of some girl who shared it because I am not sure why. She was jealous of Claire having dated Chris? She liked Chris? Something. Either way it happened and I thought oh that is all? Of course then Chris is upset with Claire and they talk and he tells her how he wants her back and he will stop at nothing to get her back. That whole thing, how Chris acted, seemed very threatening. Dangerous almost. Like he might actually hurt Claire and he doesn't really care what Claire wants. If he really loves her shouldn't he at least consider her feelings? Oh well, I really did not like Chris or the way he bullies Claire. Then Adam is too forgiving of everything and I just didn't really like either of them. By the end of the book I felt like Adam was too good for Claire and Chris would be a nightmare for her. Really I think she should spend time to get better for real, go to therapy or something, and then once she is healed add boys to the mix. 

Rating: 2/5