Blindsided

Edit 08/12/21<br />You can read the first few pages on Amazon and get a feel for the writing. I HATE name dropping. Your'e trying too hard to impart a sense of the persons wealth and style. That's a whole lot of telling instead of showing, good characterization would eliminate that. We would know she/he had money, taste, ability, beauty, etc. if the writing was up to par. I liked the plot. I really liked the premise of the older woman being cheated on and the younger male having no excuse except jealousy of her abilities. But it could have been a really good book if it had been in the hands of a more experienced author. I've said this before but it bears repeating, I wish that an author would wait to take on this trope until they have the writing chops to pull if off. Case in point, we all <b>hate</b> Jodi Picoult's Mercy. But we all remember it bc it made us so mad. We didn't like the h life choices, but there was no question that she made compromises that <i>she</i> wanted. We weren't told, we saw her making them. I wish we had more of that skill writing this trope. 2 stars for the idea........<br /><br /><br />Hey cheater gals, not been present much this summer, not a great one for me. But I'm starting to kinda read and check in here again. Anyone read this? It's KU, Ima give it a go if no one screams it's poop on a stick deep fried. But.........Poppet?!?!

<strong>I’ve read a ton of “cheating stories” </strong><br /><br />This one plain stinks. <br />I don’t often try to spoil the book during by review, but this book and this author- they deserve it. <br /><br />There is no love. It’s all emotional brainwashing. <br />A 50 year old hottie walks in on her 40 years<br />Old boyfriend of ten years having unprotected sex with a 23 year old “poor girl”- who we find out was trying to get pregnant. <br /><br />Boyfriend literally lives of his girlfriend- she cuts his phone lines, etc. After he cuts himself (as an apology) he finds out his mom suffered a stroke and blames the h- cause she cut his phone line off. <br /><br />He leaves, h finds out about Kate. Who is she? The sugar lady. Oye- so h flies up to be with H, confronts him (in a delicate way, cause, what’s he going to do next)- he freaking takes a knife and attempts suicide. You know- instead of communicating like adults. <br /><br />His doc ends up having the hits for h, they sleep together- he breathes life back into her instead of draining life from her... seriously- she takes one wrong step and the H looses his crap- she knows from experience. What type of relationship is that? <br /><br />His mom dies, she literally buys a house near his dad and hospital, buys food, clothes, covers ALL medical costs, gets mugged and he acts like a spoiled punk. He doesn’t even sit with her at the funeral she paid for!<br /><br />So- take a guess who she chooses? The man that is never emotionally there for her, or the one that teaches her to live? That’s right- the cheating man- baby.<br /><br />I DO not recommend this atrocious book. <br />Now- like I’ve said, I’ve read my fair share of cheating books, and there are some awesome ones out there. <br /><br />THIS.IS.NOT. IT

DNF. I stopped when the H started carving the h’s initials in his inner thigh so that everyone will know he belongs to her. This after he carves I Love You in his chest so she won’t leave him. All this after she walks in on him cheating with a 20 yr old townie. No thanks, I have plenty of male drama queens in my life already.

<strong>Yeah Nope!</strong><br /><br />The Heroine is like a sugar mamma to a male 10 years her junior. She is the bread winner go figure and pays for everything.<br /><br />She comes home after 3 months of being away to find his sleeping with a 23 year old without protection. She gets mad granted but as soon as he cuts himself she's back in mother mode. That's what it's more or less she is his mommy taking care of him.

What the hell?!? He cheats on her and she walks in and is totally calm. Because he cuts himself she is afraid to show him how upset she is. The girl is a chubby teenager and he is 40. The h is 50 and insecure about that but trains 5 days a week and looks great. The H is a sleaze bag, oh, and he takes coke because the teenager that he was screwing for 4 months (with NO CONDOM while he was also screwing the h with NO CONDOM) gave it to him to enhance their sex. Yup, he tells the h this. He is weird and a child. He tries to kill himself after she finds out about the coke. Then, while he is in the hospital she meets an amazing doctor that adores her and treats her so well and she sleeps with him and dates him but ends it to be with the cheating psycho. She is an idiot. She is ridiculous. What is wrong with you? She buys a house so she can take care of him. Um... he cheated on you for months and you had to get aids tests. What is loving about that?!?! He says he loves her but acts like that? She’s an idiot, nothing left to say but she is the frigging idiot.

This was so close to being great. The ending was so rushed and open ended it killed it. It really felt like half a novel, and the half we read felt as if we were missing important parts. This absolutely needed the H’s POV. Without it, I don’t even understand WTF really happened,<br /><br />2.5 stars

<br />Blindsided aka Betrayal<br /><br />Cheating is not a favourite theme of mine I’ll put that out there right off but the rapt reviews that it was a raw gritty read caught my attention so what the hell, why not? <br /><br />But man…oh man…oh man…<br /><br />I don’t even know where to start. Days later I’m still scratching my head. You call this love? For all the Lee’s in the world my most earnest advice to you women is to love yourself more and kick your Andre to the kerb. It is not okay to pass on to you a sick twisted version of the kind of love that is portrayed here. You should let no man emotionally abuse or manipulate you in this way. It’s sick, it’s dysfunctional and if after reading this novel you still think its okay (and clearly many of you do) then good luck to you. <br /><br />The only way this novel could have redeemed itself is if Lee had walked away and left him to it, it was no more than he bloody well deserved. <br />

Excellent book. A very raw and real book, full of emotional roller coaster ups and downs, twists and turns. Gemma Rice pulls us into the heads of her main characters, and they anything but normal journey through with their relationship.

What a tedious book to read. A lot of the story is told, not shown, so it’s difficult to get a grasp of the MCs’ temperaments and motivations. There are too many gaps in the plot that would have helped formulate a better picture of the H. For example: why is he still self harming at forty years old? Why does he suffer from suicidal ideation? They infer that he had bad stuff happen to him during his formative years, but we never find out what happened. And he has a good relationship with his parents, so why is he so damaged and why does he still do stupid shit? <br /><br />It could’ve been such a good story, but the writing is verbose and pretentious. The author was trying too hard to make the h sound über intelligent and introspective, but instead she just comes across like an idiotic doormat. Her inner musings are annoying as hell. She does NOTHING consequential when she catches her long-term younger bf, the H, banging a much younger woman in their bed. Instead, the cheating H gets angry at her and lashes out by cutting himself, like a goddam teenager. His infidelity came with an HIV scare, no less, but he’s barely regretful and shifts the blame to her! <br /><br />The H is weak af and a complete joke. After all that, the h meets a decent, sexy man who’s really into her, but she chooses to stay with the H who makes minimal contribution to their relationship and is essentially a ne'er-do-well. He only uses her for her money and status, whilst being jealous of her talent and wealth. And she forgives his whoring, junky ass because he attempts suicide when faced with having to answer her very reasonable questions. That’s how he redeems himself for hurting her. Wtf?! Come-on, I like a good cheating and grovel story, but this guy is too pathetic to make the book a worthwhile read.

<strong>Different</strong><br /><br />I am not sure how I really feel about this story. I enjoyed reading it; however,I wanted to knock Leeann up the side of her of her head and ask her what she had to be sorry about. She wasn’t responsible for her partner, Andy, choosing to cheat. That was all on him. Leeann is ten years older than Andy and seemed to take on the mother role. You can’t be a lover and mother with the man you love.<br /><br />I loved the scene where Leeann catches Andy in bed with his lover. She had such class the way she handled it. All in all, it is a good read