Title: Do You Dare? (Truth Or Dare Duet #1)
Author: Lylah James
Release Date: October 25, 2019
★★
** Kindle Unlimited
What happens when a dare goes too far?
Maddox Coulter. Reckless bad boy. Infamous playboy. My nemesis. And now my best friend.
I know he’ll never leave me hanging. He knows I'll never refuse a dare. Everywhere we go we turn heads, but it’s not like that.
Until it is.
For one of us, anyway.
I've always known he would be my downfall. But I trusted him to catch me.
He proved me wrong.
Maddox has gone too far, and I don’t know if I want to rein him in or push us further into dangerous territory.
He tells me those three little words that I crave. Three little words I want from no one else.
I dare you
Except this time, it's no simple dare. This could burn us to the ground.
"I dare you to fuck him."
I have to be honest, I'm sitting here trying to think of an opening line to this review that will give a full picture of how I felt about this book and I'm on the struggle, so... I picked this book up because it was really highly rated, seemed like it would be in my wheelhouse, and had a really, really impressive start.
Seriously, this book opened like a freakin' powerhouse. The first chapter, set before we jump back in time 3½ years, was so pitch perfect that I couldn't wait to get into the story. It was just filled with tension and intention and chemistry and a little bit of mystery, I really couldn't wait to go back and see how we got to that point and really thought I was going to love this book. And I did love it... until I really, really didn't.
Where this book really, really failed for me was the pacing, specifically the pacing of the last 28% of the book - which, to be clear, is the part of this book that I hated. The first 72% was really well done, I think. It built a foundation and a relationship between these two characters that really bonded them, showing the chemistry that they had together through their banter and the way that they vibed together. They both had their struggles and the things that made them hard to get close to and I think that it needed that time to really allow them to get close in a way that made sense.
And then we jump to three years later and the book... took a turn.
Where that first part of these characters story was so artfully explored and those bonds were really artfully and deliberately woven between the two characters to really show how close they'd gotten and how much the friendship meant to them, the second part sort of felt without context. I mean, those first three years of independence and adulthood, living away from home for the first time, etc. are times of huge change and personal growth for most people and we don't really get to see any of that, particularly within that central relationship.
I felt like in this last, let's say 30% of the book, everything felt rushed and I really had the impression that the whole point was that we were just trying to get to the end goal, that opening scene of the book (which, for the record, didn't feel anywhere near as magical the second time around.) It felt like we were just jumping through moments that were supposed to feel like they were shifting the relationship, but it didn't have any weight or connection for me. It honestly sort of felt like a different book.
Also, there was a sort of sex scene that was just... strange and felt a little bit like sexual misconduct. The strange part is the actual mechanics for me... I don't want to get too into it, but just trying to picture the placement of bodies based on what was happening was just strange. I can't think of another word. And there was also an issue of him being PROFOUNDLY intoxicated to the point that the next day, he believes he had a really vivid dream. That's just... not okay to me.
OH! I almost forgot. Something that I was looking forward to most was the Dare aspect of their friendship. I mean, it's in the title, it featured prominently in that opening scene, it seemed like it was going to be important and felt like it could really have built a lot of that romantic tension as dares escalated and they pushed against the boundaries of Just Friends... but it was not that. In fact, it was barely a factor at all and the couple of times that it was referenced at all felt shoehorned in to give at least some appearance of weight to the dares that come at the end. It did not.
And then all of the sudden, that initial conflict is resolved and.... time jump, new conflict, cliffhanger for the next book. WHAT? I have to admit to being genuinely angry at this point. First of all, the way that the conflict was resolved so suddenly and almost unceremoniously, especially when contrasted with that slow build of the relationship, almost felt insulting to me as a reader. There was all of this build, all of this connection, and then a significant time jump, a rush through some scenes that didn't do enough to give context for the intensity of that opening scene, and then tension resolved super quick before another time jump and another conflict to be continued in the next book.
Honestly, it felt lazy. Actually, what it really felt like to me was that the author had a great idea for the next book and sort of phoned in the last part of this book in service of getting to the next one... and it made me want to read the next one exactly not at all. So. Yeah.
I feel like I have to contextualize my review... the first 72% of the book was probably about 4 stars and the last 28% of the book was maybe 2 stars at best. And honestly, it might seem that I should just split the difference and call it a three star, but the way it ended was so profoundly disappointing that this ends up being a 2 star for me overall and not a book that I would recommend. But, again, the reviews are insanely good from other people so...
I'm really frustrated about this book, and almost tempted to try the second book in the duet to see if it can possibly be redeemed for me... but I honestly don't think I'm going to. Yeah.
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