Holly‘s review of A Not-So-Perfect Past by Beth Andrews
Contemporary Romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 14 Apr 09
Beth Andrews is a fairly new Harlequin author, this being her second release with them. I liked the blurb so figured I’d give it a try. I think I may have suffered a bit for not reading her debut novel, Not Without Her Family, since I believe it probably offered quite a bit of backstory on the hero that was absent in this one.
I think Dillon was a very complex character. Because he was convicted of killing his step-father and spent several years in prison he is very cynical and hard. His experiences since he’s been home haven’t done much to change his attitude either. Yet underneath it all, he’s still managed to retain his common decency and innate goodness. Though he’s afraid to reach for it, he craves love and stability just as much as the next person. I loved that though he was a wonderful man underneath he was rough around the edges. Sometimes this works for the heroes of our novels and sometimes it doesn’t. Andrews made it work.
As the book beings we see that Nina is mostly a doormat. Her ex-husband and family run roughshod over her while she sits back and lets them. She thinks to herself that she should be stronger and stand up to them, but she never does. They tell her what to do in regards to everything: Dillon Ward, her tenant that lives above her bakery, her kids, her career, everything. I found myself becoming very frustrated with her for not standing up for herself, but I was furious with her for not standing up for her children. Her ex-husband was very verbally abusive to her and that carried over to her children.
To be fair, I don’t think she realized he was treating her children as badly as he was. Unfortunately that doesn’t do much to take my frustration from her because it was fairly obvious. I think she just didn’t want to see how bad it was. To make matters worse, in an attempt to prove herself – though I’m not quite sure to who – she began to take on massive amounts of work, further bogging herself down and taking her away from her children. She did show quite a bit of growth in the end, but I kind of felt like it was too little, too late.
I like the two of them together. They really brought out the best in each other. Dillon encouraged Nina to stand up for herself and take charge of her own life. She showed him it was okay to open up. Although I disliked the way Nina let other people take advantage of her, I liked that with Dillon’s help she was able to stand strong on her own.
I also really liked her children and the other secondary characters, with the exception of Nina’s ex, who was a complete ass, and her father, who didn’t redeem himself in my eyes. Her older sister and the teenager who has to make restitution by rebuilding her shop with Dillon were great additions, however. I also really enjoyed Dillon’s sister. So much so that I plan to buy her book.
I had issues with Nina, but I think Dillon and the secondary characters saved the story in the end.
Grade: C+
Summary:
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Everyone makes mistakes…but he isn’t looking for redemption
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He’s the most dangerous man she’s ever met…
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Nina Carlson knows all about Dillon Ward. Knows he served time in prison. Knows nobody pulled out the welcome mat when he moved to Serenity Springs. But that doesn’t stop her from renting him a place to live. And when someone crashes into her bakery, he’s just the man to fix the damage.
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And Nina isn’t the only one who thinks Dillon’s the perfect man for the job: her two kids have taken a shine to him. Still, she can’t afford to get close to Dillon, even if he is tempting her to toss out her good girl shoes. Because it’s not that she doesn’t trust him. It’s that she doesn’t trust herself.
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Read an excerpt.
I blame wendy for reading this well sort of, Lawson bought it because of wendy’s review while we were at Walmart. Yes, tis shocking but when you are poor you have to lower yourself to buying books at wally world. Tis sad I know.
But dude my bookwhorishself has no shame and I can get zebra debuts for 2.99, I picked up the new Parr yesterday but I digress… so Lawson read it and liked it somewhere in the middle of your review and Wendy’s (if I recall correctly).
And gave it to me when it gave me back a bunch of ARC’s and finals she had reviewed since she knows I am poor and a Harlequinwhore. HSR isn’t even my crack of choice but Wendy is a bad influence, over last weekend I was looking (AGAIN for Rescue Me by Christy Reece since I have the whole series but the one and SWORE I did btw I gave up and have decided gwen just kept it and sucks and never mailed it and just bought the fucking thing hence while I was at wally world and ended up with the parr but again I digress).
A Not So-Perfect Past drove me nuts I wanted to slap the heroine many times. LOVED the hero, understood many things about the heroine, could-not-get-past-leaving-the-kids-with-the-bastard ex-husband.
HOW could she be THAT stupid. HOW could she miss the signs? I don’t even have kids and it was just UGH. At the same time the heroines family, her father that the top of the list with her brother right under him I wanted to beat. How dare he call her ex husband to come talk sense into her, even IF he thought she was off her nut you do not take sides against your daughter like that omg and than she just forgave him.
ugh ugh ugh
After this I read Snowbound, yes finally, and still think Wendy is the bomb LOLOLOL yes I know she was worried 🙂
You should have asked me, I would have told you not to read it. See, your fault. One phone call and you could have saved yourself all this frustration.
HOW could she be THAT stupid. HOW could she miss the signs?
What ticked me off was that she didn’t miss the signs. She knew, and she let them go anyway, cause she wasn’t willing to stand up to him until it became physical. That was wrong. I agree with Holly, though. I loved Dillon. And his sister. She intrigued me enough that I’ll go back and buy her book, too. Overall, I liked it. I just thought Andrews waited too long to have Nina start to stand up for herself. But I suppose if you haven’t been abused, you don’t really know. Do you?
And the bit about being a Harlequinwhore? So with you.
Exactly! It was so frustrating to me that she let it go on as long as she did. Grr.
The rest was well done, though.
sigh. OK, so this was in my shopping cart over at eHarlequin, since they have a $2.49 coupon for it. I think I’m pulling this one out and putting it back on the “shelf”. As I get older, I find I have a shorter time-span in which I need the heroine to stand up for herself and stop being a doormat. Especially, to family. And, don’t even get me started if her children are involved!
However, I’ve really been wanting to check out a HSR, so maybe I’ll have to get Not Without Her Family, instead.
Renee,
I really like the HSR line. They have some wonderful, emotionally compelling novels available. I’d recommend you try something from this line…just not this particular book. 😛
http://goodbadandunread.com/tag/harlequin-superromance/
lots of HSR reviews 😉 tis Wendys crack of choice. I really enjoyed Snowbound. And honestly I liked Beth Andrews writing here and loved the hero. The fact that she so pushed my buttons prolly says something.
And lori makes a good point and something I do recall thinking. I am not sure what I wanted from her, she didn’t escape, leave or really even walk away. Pretty much at the point the book starts in a way she is still the ‘abused wife’ who is playing at being strong. So that is prolly how I should look at it vs seeing it from my pov and wanting to hurt her and tell her to stand up for her kids if she can’t grow a pair and do it for herself, which is what I wanted to do.
What they say about walking in other peoples shoes and all that… if the book sucked I wouldn’t have finished it since it had been reviewed, I didn’t send money on it, didn’t follow the author and didn’t read the first book. As it was I did love the writing and almost always agreee with wendy and now as soon as I find a clear spot and mark a few things off my list will pull out the box I ‘think’ the first book is in *g*.
::smacks forhead::
I think I actually have Snowbound from Harlequin’s 60th free ebooks! Will be loading that onto my Palm for on the go reading. 🙂
I started out loathing the heroine as well. But then…..I don’t know….I got sucked in. Her lack of back bone drove me insane, but when she finally finds one? When she finally grows a pair and starts standing up to people? I was sunk. That confrontation scene between her and Dillon towards the end when she’s throwing shit at him in the bakery just about did me in.
Also, I suspect I was able to “work with her” because of the abuse. When you’ve been beaten down that much, you don’t climb out of it overnight. It’s not a light switch you flip on or off. Should she have done more to protect her children? OK, yeah. I concede that point. I also was annoyed that it was her husband who left HER, and not the other way around. But she ultimately reached her “enough is enough” point – and I could roll with it.
But yeah – Dillon was a big reason why this book worked for me. Also, the bar owner. Gawd, I LOVED her.
Wendy,
I agreee that scene toward the end was very well done. My issue is that the heroine kept kind of ringing her hands and thinking, “Ohh, I SHOULD do something…” while NOT doing anything. I was in a relationship with a man who sought to control everything I did. It wasn’t physically abusive, but it was definitely verbally, mentally and emotionally abusive. I stayed for a long time – until I realized it was affecting my children.
I guess the big issue for me here is that she KNEW it was affecting (effecting? I can never remember..) her children and yet still did nothing. I guess that’s why it was so hard for me to forgive her and move past her behaviors in the beginning.
I realize it takes time for a victim to overcome her situation, but she should have done it sooner for her children.
Having complained about that, however, I agree with Sybil that the writing was stellar and I’m definitely interested in reading something more from her. I’ve already purchased her first book and can’t wait to read it. Also, I have to give credit to the author for engaging my emotions so much. Isn’t that the mark of a good author?
AND..the Bar Owner was amazing! I wonder if we’ll get a book about her later???
Holly: Bear with me – I’m dreadful with character names. If the bar owner’s name is Allie – yes, her book is coming out in October. I think her name was Allie…..? Loved her! Even if I can’t remember her name 😉
This is terrible, but I think I was able to wrap my mind around the heroine’s inability to protect her children earlier with the idea that she was deluding herself. The old “he treats me like shit, but he’d never hurt the children” belief. I think it took her longer to figure out because he left her – which was my big stumbling block with her character. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that. Which means we do agree – we’re just coming at it from different angles. You wanted her to grow a spine sooner to protect the kids, and I wanted her to grow a spine sooner so that she would have been the one to dump the asshole husband (not the other way around).
Ultimately, this was a book that got better for me the more I read it. Obviously, since I gave it an A-. I got that emotional “punch in the gut” in the ending, and that pretty much sealed it for me. But yeah, the first few chapters I really, really, really had my doubts.
I did buy this book because of your review Wendy. Sybil pegged my thoughts as between yours and Holly’s. While Nina is a doormat and is left by her cheating bastard of a husband and doesn’t have the cajones to stand up to him, she did grow on me by the end as well. I just think that Dillon was way too patient with her and not talking some sense into her earlier. It was probably a B- for me.
I agree about the dad and brother though, what kind of father and brother wouldn’t support their own daughter that way? But then the worst kinds of people behind closed doors can be the model citizen to the world and obviously her ex had people fooled for so long.
I do have a close family member that was in a similar abusive situation as you Holly, and while she chose the worst possible way to get out of it, she did get out of it. Her self-esteem is still shot, but she’s working for herself and to support her child now, but it’s a hard road to get past that I know.
Nodding with you all. We all want to think that we’d have a pair to start with, and if we don’t that we’d grow one really fast – but who knows? It’s so easy to point fingers and say that if that was me, I’d…
And maybe that’s the point of it all – to get people thinking about abuse. Or maybe she was just trying to write a good love story. Cause she had a rockin’ hero for sure. And Wendy? Completely agree. When she finally breaks through and grows her pair? That scene in the bakery? Wow. Srsly.
And Renee, Snowbound rocked. Kicked ass – I loved it. K, I think I have the same crack addiction as Wendy. HSR, SSE, and HH. LOL.
Lori: Yeah, that was the moment for me. That moment at the end in the bakery. Prior to that? The book was hovering somewhere around B/B- for me. But that one scene? Pushed me right over the edge. I’m a bit of a ho for those pivotal emotional scenes when they’re done well, and that one knocked my socks off.
Renee: I liked Snowbound. I gave it a B. And yeah, it’s one of the freebie Harlequins. Now the book that got Janice Kay Johnson a RITA nod this year? The Man Behind The Badge? That one blew me away. But Snowbound is good.