Love By Deception by K.C. Barnard
Love by Deception: A harrowing true story of love and betrayal.
Synopsis:
Meet K.C. a gregarious, fun loving woman in her thirties. With an abundance of friends, and an enviable position as a jet-setting stewardess in the prestigious world of private aviation, she seems to have it all....but does she?
Love by Deception is a compelling read of how meeting the wrong person can bring not only heartache, but real devastation in the most brutal of ways. We follow K.C.’s turmoil, as we unravel her disastrous relationships where she becomes the unwitting victim to four extremely cruel men.
Throughout K.C.’s journey she is determined to never allow anyone to break her spirit.
Review:
Love By Deception could have been an amazing book, but unfortunately the writing is just not that good and the story not fleshed out enough. Instead of feeling for the main character I just kept thinking how is this thirty something world traveler so naive? Why does she stay with these guys when she knows they are not good? Why does she keep suppressing her intuition and not listening to anyone else? It just...I wish the author would have went into more details on the little things and what life was like before everything went crazy with Devil Man especially. He seemed genuinely crazy, and I understand the whole cycle of violence and such, how abusers get their victims to stay with them and whatnot, but Devil Man didn't seem to fit into this exactly. It was so quick and seemed relatively easy to get out. I just didn't understand.
Really I think that was the issue with most of the book for me. Everything seemed to be too quickly explained so I didn't really get why she would stay or go back with these guys. It didn't make any sense based on what I was told and she didn't seem like the normal beaten down victim who stays because they are terrified or anything. I wish this would have been more in depth so I would have understood. Instead I kept thinking why is this girl so naive and gullible? You believe someone just because they had said before that they are honest? Even when everything is telling you not to believe them? Okay. The author does say throughout the book that she knew something was wrong but time and time again ignored that voice that told here something was off. Without seeing why she would stay with these men I didn't understand why she would ignore all the red flags that she said she did notice. And it just kept happening. Really it seems like this cycle of being with a terrible guy will just keep continuing. She said after Devil Man she didn't really feel broken or need to talk to someone about what happened, she talked to her friends and that was good enough. She was fine pretty quick and no big deal, or that is the way it came across in the book. I can't help but think if she was in this really terribly abusive relationship where she was beaten down mentally and feared for her life would she really just be okay that easily? She also was really lucky that Devil Man never tried to find her again once it was over for good. A lot women are not so lucky and they live in fear that their abuser will find them and kill them.
So the author is stuck in this horrible pattern of picking terrible men then staying with them just because. I know it is probably more than that, she is probably worn down by these men little by little like most abusers, but through the writing and what I was told in this story I just didn't see it. I just saw a gullible lady making poor decisions and excuses for bad behavior in her partner. If I didn't know more about domestic abuse this book unfortunately would not have opened my eyes. This book would have made me even more confused as to why a woman would stay with a man like this. It makes it seem like women in abused relationships are just kind of stupid, which is not the case. So I was very disappointed in this book. Instead of highlighting and showing how truly horrible it is to be in a situation like this and how hard it is to get out (especially Devil Man and Floppy) it just made me confused as to why anyone would stay. She kept saying she doesn't know, and hindsight is everything and whatever, but she just seemed stupid. It all starts with Tomcat and his weird marriage arrangement. Why did she just believe him and never look into that? So right from the beginning in terms of relationships shown in this book she makes poor decision after poor decision (and once she makes a decision she sticks with it even if her intuition tells her it is the wrong choice).
I hope the author has actually learned from all of these relationships and has better ones going forward, but I don't think that will actually happen. I wouldn't be surprised to find out she keeps dating the wrong men again and again. Who knows though. Maybe this book did help her see some truths and she will find a nice guy and settle down (or stay single and be happy that way). I do wish nothing but the best for her and hope she can make better decision in the future.
Rating: ★ ★
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