Review: Unforgiven by Willow Winters

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sins and Secrets Duet #2
Release - June 19, 2017
Genre - Contemporary Romance
Dual POV - 1st person
Heat - 3.5 out of 5
Length - 202 pages
Review of book 1, Imperfect

The sins of his past can’t be forgiven.

Mason Thatcher gave me chills when I first laid eyes on him. The good kind. The kind that makes your body ache and your heart hammer.

What’s better is that he looked at me the same way.
There was a hunger in his eyes that wouldn’t be sated, and a confidence in his stride that told me I could never run from him. Back then, I didn’t want to.

It’s not fair that his touch eased my pain.
That his lips on mine made my worries vanish.
That his love gave me a reason to breathe again.

With him, I felt complete, as if fate had given me a second chance.

Then I learned the truth: the sins and secrets of what really brought us together.

I knew it was too good to be true, but I could never have imagined he’d be capable of something so cold and cruel. That he was the reason my world crumbled.

There’s no way we can go back to what we once had and it’s not as easy as walking away. He can’t risk me telling his secrets.

I don’t know what choices I have or how I’ll survive this.

What he’s done is unforgivable, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to let me go.

Find Unforgiven on Goodreads

MY REVIEW

It was so hard to finish this book. So freaking hard!! Why??? Because I HATED Julia. HATED HER!!

I just couldn't find it in myself to like the heroine. She was a complete basket case. She was useless. She was inconsistent. She was not relatable. She was utterly unlikable. What pushed me to continue reading was the hero. Ahhhh... Mason was AWESOME!! The author gave us so much of him. His inner workings, his inner thoughts, his motivations, his passion, his compassion, and his absolute devotion and adoration of the heroine.

Mason was truly a worthwhile hero!!

Now, in my opinion, murder is never okay. Ever. But in the way that this was written it felt like the heroine was absolving her dead husband, who conspired to murder, while condemning this new man that she loved. Her dead husband killed not out of self-defense or for the better good of the world, but because he didn't want his secret to come out whereas the hero killed in order to give the victim of her husband some much-needed justice. I'm not saying it was okay, but since when was her husband the highest measure of virtue? Why was it Mason could never catch a damn break? I'm just baffled by how she could treat him so abhorrently.

Overall this was a decent story. I feel that many parts needed to be fleshed-out and the crux of the story had a bit too many gaps, some of which weren't realistic. I did enjoy how the author played up the suspense of the novel and it lent to the passion that surrounded and made up the hero. I felt like it gave more credence to his story and I think I would have preferred that the story was told from his perspective alone. I'm sorry but he was the only character that was proven relevant to me.

So the question is... Will I read another story by this new-to-me author? Heck yeah. Her writing style was different when compared to anything I've ever read and I found it enjoyable. So reading another story from her will definitely be in my future!