Review: Consequences

Consequences by Aleatha Romig
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Honestly, I was truly let down by this one. I’d wanted so much more than I was given, thus leaving me disappointed.

Consequences is a book that sat on my to-read list for a very long time. Noticing that my to-read list had grown ridiculously long, I did a cleaning. Consequences was taken off the list, as I wasn’t overly mad about starting the series when I compared it to other series that interested me, but I always had it in the back of my mind should I ever see it going cheap. Thus, when BookBub informed me the book was free for a while on Amazon, I jumped at the chance. Of course, I was going to read it.

My disappointment started rather early. I just couldn’t get into the writing. I’m not sure why this is. It wasn’t badly written, yet at the same time it didn’t really stand out. I love authors whose writing stands out. Such a thing guarantees I will come back for more. In my opinion, there was nothing that really stood out with this author’s way of telling the story. Things simply were; there were no lyrical prose to leave me oozing at the words nor were there any deep insights into the emotions of the characters that left me feeling something profound. It just was. This, however, did not stop me from reading. It made it harder to continue, yes, but if a story is interesting, I can deal with merely okay writing.

The thing is, though, the story was nowhere near as interesting as it could have been. There were many points in the story where I considered giving up, finding I wasn’t really interested, but there was promise of something more appearing. However, to reach this we had to deal with a lot of repetition. Honestly, it was hundreds of pages of repetition. It was a case of our female did something wrong, so the male punished her. It was the same scenario over and over again, but with slightly different events. When I say slightly different, I merely mean it was a small alteration in the scenario. Then when things did start to change, it was another repetition of patterns. As a whole, it was a case of constant repetition. Over and over and over again, I felt as though I was reading the same thing. You knew exactly how each scene was going to play out.

Then, when things got interesting at the end, everything seemed rushed. I wanted so much more from the ending. It seemed to be stuck on the end, as though the author realised they needed something more than what they had given. Throughout we were given glimpses of how something more was to come, but when it came about it was disappointing. It was done with after a couple of chapters. I know it is set up for the future books, but it was a massive let down. I wanted more from this book. I wanted to actually feel something. It really wasn’t enough to leave me willing to carry on with the series. In all honesty, I’m surprised I managed to finish this book.

I know a lot of people enjoy this. They see it as a great sociological read, a dark tale. However, for me, it was not what I had hoped for. I was expecting something more: a better example of Stockholm Syndrome, a deeper look into the abuse, and many other things. What I was given felt more like a bad romance. It read more as ‘he is hot, therefore I will let him get away with what he is doing to me’. In fact, the whole Stockholm Syndrome aspect seemed to be mentioned later on as an afterthought, as though the author realised they had done such a thing. Suddenly the main character realised they had Stockholm Syndrome, despite how their actions conformed to what the guy wanted almost instantly, before there was any real interaction or chance for a psychological change.

I really could rant and rave about this one, but I won’t. It wouldn’t be fair to rant on endlessly when I’m criticising the story. Some will enjoy it, I’m sure, but it wasn’t for me.

Truthfully, I’m glad I grabbed it whilst it was free rather than paying for this book as I had once planned.

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