UNSTOPPABLE by Shannon Richard

Publisher:    Forever

Published:   December 3, 2013

ISBN:       978-1455547432

Genre:    Contemporary Romance

Format:   Ebook   

Obtained via:  Publisher

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  Ginalrmreviews@gmail.com

TWO-1/2 HEARTS

One of two survivors of mission gone wrong in Afghanistan, Bennett Hart seeks peace in his home town of Mirabelle, Florida.  He picks up with his life as best he can and works to resolve his issues from war.  What he doesn’t bank on is meeting one Melanie O'Bryan.  After being shot in a robbery gone wrong, Melanie puts herself on the line emotionally to live the life she wants and that includes falling, hard, for Bennett.  But Bennett hardly knows Melanie is alive let alone how she feels about him.  Yes, he’s there for her when she is shot, but Bennett would do that for anyone.  It’s what happens and how he feels after Melanie is back on her feet and getting on with her life.  Determined to win him over Melanie goes after what she wants and things seem to be moving along rather well until Bennett’s past catches up with him.  He knows he loves her, but is he willing to risk his heart to follow that love?

I requested this and several other of Shannon Richard’s Country Roads books because they sounded so good.  What more could a lover of contemporary romance want beside a town with some fun characters finding each other and falling in love.  I was disappointed with book one, UNDONE and ,thought perhaps it was because it was a debut novel and the author was finding her  voice.  Clearly an agent and/or editor saw something in her writing.  Unfortunately after reading the first three books I’m just not seeing it.

I never warmed up to any of the characters; never connected with any of them enough to care about their ups and downs.  There was more telling than showing—pages and pages of telling “Melanie did this”, “Melanie did that”.  Not once did I feel any kind of visceral reaction to anything that happened in UNSTOPPABLE, book 3 of the series.  I picked up and put it down month after month and finally pushed to finish it because I made the commitment to review it. 

Mirabelle does have a certain charm to it and the characters, once they exhibit and evoke some emotion will be memorable in their own way. 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.