Followers

Follow on Bloglovin

Now on Instagram!

Instagram

Friday, February 2, 2018

*[Review] Alice Close Your Eyes by Averil Dean





Alice Close Your Eyes
With haunting prose and deft psychological insight, Averil Dean spins a chilling story that explores the dark corners of obsession–love, pain and revenge.

Ten years ago, someone ruined Alice Croft's life. Now she has a chance to right that wrong–and she thinks she's found the perfect man to carry out her plan. After watching him for weeks, she breaks into Jack Calabrese's house to collect the evidence that will confirm her hopes. When Jack comes home unexpectedly, Alice hides in the closet, fearing for her life. But upon finding her, Jack is strangely calm, solicitous . . . and intrigued.
That night is the start of a dark and intense attraction, and soon Alice finds herself drawn into a labyrinth of terrifying surrender to a man who is more dangerous than she could have ever imagined. As their relationship spirals toward a breaking point, Alice begins to see just how deep Jack's secrets run–and how deadly they could be.

Summary & Cover taken from Goodreads.com
Length: 288 pages (paperback)
Source: Book I Own
Available Format: Print/E-book/Audiobook
Publication Date: December 31st 2013 by Harlequin MIRA
Rating: 
You know how people always stop to watch a train wreck? 
That is exactly how I feel about Alice Close Your Eyes. I have never found myself so confused by a book after reading it. I am well and truly lost at see with this one. 

I bought this book a couple years back and it's another one that has been sitting, gathering dust for way longer than it should have before I finally got to it. In an effort to clean out my books I'm trying to read a lot of my older titles which is why I picked this one up when I did. I thought, that given how intense the synopsis was that I was going to be getting a hard hitting, complex, angsty romance bordering on bdsm.

Unfortunately I had a barely pieced together story about a young girl with some very obvious mental health issues, a man with serious control issues and how they came to be...what ever it was they were for a time. I wouldn't say they were a couple, because apart from weirdly timed, poorly written sex scenes and some definite boundary issues on both their parts neither were developed as individual characters enough for them to actually have a relationship in the story. Alice, our protagonist, is in her early 20s and a cutter. Jack is a guy of unknown age and he's recently out of jail for maybe or maybe not killing his ex-wife (we were never told what happened to Rosemary). Neither were likable. I hated them both right away but, I kept hoping that maybe I was just in a mood. Sadly, this wasn't the case. There was a definite lack of character development for both of them. 

In fact, I would say this is one of the most underdeveloped books I've ever read. I finished Alice Close Your Eyes feeling as though this was a rough draft of a novel someone pieced together from the jumbled remains of someone's cast off ideas. I just didn't see the real purpose of the story because the author wrote the story in such a way that it was obvious what Alice wanted with Jack, though her motivations were very cloudy due to her own issues. She was just completely distasteful. She was written as a tough character but just came off as a whiny little girl with some very serious problems. I found the same problem with Jack, although he was even more underdeveloped as a character that he may as well have been a prop.

There was no romance to this story as there really wasn't much of a story. There were actions, very little dialogue, lots of unnecessary inner monologues, awkward sex and very little plot. This was supposedly marketed as a psychological thriller/erotic read but lacked in both these aspects. I spent all 6 hours it took me to read this either shaking my head in confusion or disgust due to Alice's and later on Jack's actions. There was no cohesiveness and the broken timeline also added to the confusion. One minute Alice is cutting, the next she's remembering poisoning a dog in an act of revenge for a childhood bully calling her mother names. It was so out of whack I had no idea what was going to happen next in the mean time. 

This is not a book I would feel comfortable recommending just because of the lack of any substance to it. There were no redeemable moments, just pure confusion and if I hadn't bought the book I probably wouldn't have stuck it out to read it in the end especially given how slowly the book went. 
Alice Close Your Eyes was a definite case of overreaching for me,  and I wish I could have enjoyed it more as I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately it didn't deliver and gets my second one star rating of 2018.

28 comments:

  1. Sorry you didn't like the book. I don't think I would either, and would have probably given up and marked it a DNF.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The only reason I think I didn't DNF it is because I'm just getting into reading again, and was worried if I DNFd that I'd lose my groove.

      Delete
  2. Hard pass on this one. Awkward sex, confusing plot, and undeveloped characters doesn't make this sound like a book I want to read.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Too bad this book sounds painful to read. Maybe if it was more fleshed out it could have been better. Everything sounds so underdeveloped.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I won't be adding this on my wishlist. It sounds really bad. I'm surprise you stuck with it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. EEessh. Sorry to hear about this. I'm sure this puts a damper on wanting to read your older books. I've been doing the same thing and every time I hit a book like this, it makes me want to stop trying to go through my older stuff and just pick up a new release I've been wanting to read instead.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It really does dampen the mood doesn't it? This was my second 1 star read in a row I honestly have no idea how I stuck it out other than it was so bad I needed to see just how bad you know?

      Delete
  6. Alice sounds like she is all over the place! It might be different if there was some change in her at some point, it silent sound that way though. Sorry, that it wasn't a good read for ya.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a bummer! It's too bad that this one didn't work for you as that's always a disappointment!

    ReplyDelete
  8. you have a great blog here! would you like to make some invite posts on my blog?

    Click Here
    Tor.com

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very nice post, i certainly love this website, keep on it

    Click Here
    Myfolio.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. Heya terrific website! Does running a blog similar to this take a large amount of work? I have virtually no expertise in programming however I was hoping to start my own blog soon. Anyway, if you have any ideas or tips for new blog owners please share. I know this is off subject but I just wanted to ask.
    Thanks!


    Click Here
    Tawk.to

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh my goodness! an amazing article dude. Thank you However I am experiencing issue with ur rss. Don’t know why Unable to subscribe to it. Is there anyone getting identical rss problem? Anyone who knows kindly respond. Thnkx

    Visit Web
    Enetget.com
    Information

    ReplyDelete
  12. There are certainly a lot of details like that to take into consideration. That is a great point to bring up. I offer the thoughts above as general inspiration but clearly there are questions like the one you bring up where the most important thing will be working in honest good faith. I don?t know if best practices have emerged around things like that, but I am sure that your job is clearly identified as a fair game. Both boys and girls feel the impact of just a moment’s pleasure, for the rest of their lives.


    Visit Web
    99er.net
    Information

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hello! I just would like to give a huge thumbs up for the great info you have here on this post. I will be coming back to your blog for more soon.

    Click Here
    Visit Web

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh my goodness! an amazing article dude. Thank you However I am experiencing issue with ur rss. Don’t know why Unable to subscribe to it. Is there anyone getting identical rss problem? Anyone who knows kindly respond. Thnkx

    Bookme.name
    Information

    ReplyDelete
  15. I am often to blogging and i really appreciate your content. The article has really peaks my interest. I am going to bookmark your site and keep checking for new information.

    Visit Web
    Sharecg.com
    Information

    ReplyDelete
  16. You should take part in a contest for one of the best blogs on the web. I will recommend this site!

    Click Here
    Visit Web
    Triberr.com

    ReplyDelete
  17. This web site is really a walk-through for all of the info you wanted about this and didn’t know who to ask. Glimpse here, and you’ll definitely discover it.

    Emoneyspace.com
    Information
    Click Here

    ReplyDelete
  18. I’d have to check with you here. Which is not something I usually do! I enjoy reading a post that will make people think. Also, thanks for allowing me to comment!


    Smb.org
    Information
    Click Here
    Visit Web

    ReplyDelete

I love your comments! So feel free to comment away I'll try to answer every post so check back! . Also feel free to leave a link to your blog and I will absolutely follow you back :) Happy Reading!
*Note: This is an award free blog, thanks for thinking of me but I simply don't have the time to pass it along!