TITLE: ⟫ The Night I Lost Him
AUTHOR: ⟫ Calliope Rhys
RATING: ⟫ 2.5/5
BLURB: ⟫ Caden Conner had never planned on coming out of the box he’d placed himself in long ago, the one he’d carefully crafted to look like everyone around him wanted it to. He had determined to be what they all expected. He’d decorated it with hockey and parties and girlfriends. No one was ever supposed to find him there, but then Jamie came along and ripped him right out of it.
Jamie Bryant was an enigma. He did what he wanted, wore what he wanted, and never apologized for who he was. He had plenty of whispers swirling around him, side-eyes and some outright hatred, but he seemed to simply ignore most of it. Caden had been watching, though, and he’d always hated it when people picked on Jamie. One moment would change everything between them, but Caden still had one foot in that box, torn between being who he truly was and holding onto the reputation he’d worked for.
Caden wasn’t the only person who could see that Jamie was beautiful. Jamie had plenty of his own admirers, and one of them was more dangerous than anyone realized until it was too late. No one thought that he would take it as far as he did, but by the time they understood, Jamie was already missing.
Caden realized he’d lost everything that truly mattered in his life when he’d lost Jamie. The regret and guilt swirled with fear and pain. And he would do whatever it took to get him back.
REVIEW: ⟫ I wanted to love this book so very much – the premise was fascinating and it started out incredibly well. The pain Caden was going through was palpable and the initial flashbacks were introduced in such a way as to fill in the backstory well. But then things went on. And on. Constant pages of Caden going over and over the same thing.
By the time we got to court, even the flashbacks that told their love story couldn’t save it. I was so aggravated by so many things that it got to the stage where I was almost hate reading it. I just wanted to get to the end so that it was over.
The characters were interesting, the premise was well thought out – this was let down by the lack of someone to tell the author to move the heck on with the story. Sometimes I actually felt like I was literally taking the same footsteps as Caden and it was just taking too darn long.
I hesitated on what to rate this as, but for the sake of Caden and Jamie, the excellent meaning the author was working towards, and the friends who proved to be worth their weight in gold, I decided on 2.5, rounded up.
I understand that this is a debut novel (I think) and I will look out for more by this author.
