Mason Sabre

This is the second installment in the "Cuts Like an Angel" series, and it picks up a few weeks after Rosie left to go back to the States to visit her family. William is paranoid that she won't return, and even after she does come back, he just keeps waiting for her to leave - this time, permanently. And Rosie has her own secrets, which are somewhat revealed in this book, but only partially - there's definitely still more coming. We also see more of William's past, including the sexual abuse that he experienced as a child and young adult.

It took a while for me to get into this book - the first quarter of it was nothing but William and Rosie being reunited and having LOTS of sex. I don't have anything against having lots of sex, obviously lol, but I felt like their issues needed more addressing and discussion - sex is a good bandaid, but that's all it is, at least in these circumstances.

This book, above all, shows that Rosie and William's relationship is really unhealthy. I know that some people would try to argue that they are so in love, etc, etc, but their codependency on one another reaches new bounds in this book. Rosie wants to be the only one to "fix" William, to be the only one there for him. And William snoops around, is dishonest, and basically has all sorts of "run away" signs flashing from his head. They're both pretty damaged, and in real life, I don't think this relationship would work out so well for either of them.

The authors are definitely talented, and once I got over the first quarter of the book, they really sucked me into the story. I will definitely read the next installment, whenever it is released, but I can't say that I am on the William/Rosie train.… (més)

The reviews for this book are all really good, so I was eager to dive into the book.

Rosie is an American who lives in Great Britain and volunteers for a suicide help line. One night, a man named William calls in, about to end his life, and something about him makes William more than just another caller to Rosie. He hangs up, and Rosie doesn't know what happens to him - until he starts calling into the help center again, weeks later. Rosie breeches all protocol and not only tells William her name, but also gives him her personal cell phone number and starts sharing details of her personal life with him. Also around this time, Rosie meets a man named Josh. She develops feelings for both men, even though she's never met William face-to-face.

Turns out William and Josh are the same guy. Josh is William's confident alter-ego. Josh views William as weak and not deserving of affection, much less love.

Yeah, so this book is all sorts of messed up, and I really enjoyed it. As we learn more about Rosie, even though Josh/William views her as "perfect," she has a lot of issues too - her parents treat her badly, her sister sleeps with all of her boyfriends, she's barely hanging on money-wise even though her parents are filthy rich, her mother had an affair and Rosie might not even be her father's kid, Rosie is pretty clingy and seems to gravitate toward fucked up relationships, and Rosie herself tried to commit suicide at some point in the past. We don't know a lot of details about that event.

The thing that bothered me is that Rosie is carrying on conversations with both Josh and William and she never even thinks that the two of them might be the same person. Granted, I know that we the readers "know" that Josh is William, but William would call her and then immediately text her from "Josh" after they hung up the phone - repeatedly. Also, Rosie would share something with William and then "Josh" would do exactly what Rosie wanted him to do almost instantly. I would think she would get suspicious at some point.

Also, when Rosie finally puts the pieces together and realizes that Josh is William, she doesn't even freak out a little bit. I realize that she's in an intense moment at that point (Josh has self-harmed really badly), but there wasn't a moment when she was like...this dude seems more than messed up and probably needs intense psychological help. She doesn't even feel betrayed that she has been pouring out her heart to William about Josh, never realizing that they are the same person. Instead, she just latches onto to William and is ready to give their relationship a whirl.

I do like, however, that William/Josh is seriously messed up because of his past. Too often, abuse suffered by book characters (particularly male book characters) is kind of swept under the rug and overcome way too easily. William/Josh was physically, emotionally, and sexually abused as a child repeatedly by his mother and her johns, and he has severe damage because of it - and that, I think, is very realistic.

Also, WTF, this book ends on a pretty bad cliffhanger. I had no idea when I picked up this book that it was going to end with virtually no resolution, especially since the sequel (which I presume is being written) isn't available yet. I would have definitely put off reading this book until the sequel is available had I know that, which made me a little pissed. Well, more than a little pissed, because I got so sucked into the story that I stayed up until 1am on a work night to finish the book. :

Still recommended, especially once the sequel is available.… (més)