REVIEW - Threat - Elena Ash

TITLE - Threat

AUTHOR - Elena Ash

Synopsis:

"Let the games begin, Leah Parker. I'm about to make your summer very interesting." 

David f**king Banducci. How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways. He was the biggest thorn in my side when we were young. Back then, he was tall, hot and dangerous--hell, he still is; more so, actually, plus an arm full of tatts. He used his popularity and charming, cocky smile for evil. He never missed a single chance to tease me, torment me, or make my life miserable. Worst of all, I never knew why he targeted me to begin with. 

You'd think time would heal all wounds, but whoever said that was a lying sack of sh*t. 

Because I'm an adult now, so I should be over it, right? Well that's kind of hard now that my absentminded father is married to his stripper mother. Thanks, Dad. 

Now I'm stuck on the back of his motorcycle, clinging to his muscular form for dear life as we trek across the country to my dad's lakehouse. And worse yet, he's found new ways to torture me. Ways that send chills down my spine. Ways I just might not be able to resist... 

And all I wanted was a nice, quiet summer to myself. 

THREAT is a sexy, full length, standalone romance with a HEA...if you can handle him first.

My Review:

Threat was not what I was expecting. I was expecting your typical step brother romance, but what I got instead was something unique. I found many things I liked about this story, but I also found a couple of things that I couldn’t get past. This book does have a lot of heat though, so if you like some steamy scenes, this book is for you.

Threat is a story about Leah. She is an only child being raised by a single father after her mother abandoned them when she was young. Her father is known to make reckless decisions at the drop of a hat. With his latest decision, he brings a new step mom into the family along with her adult son, Threat. Only Threat is the same bully who tortured her in school. Threat doesn’t care much for his mom and is looking to make it on his own in life. He will do anything to succeed, even if it means he has to be selfish in order to do it.


Rather than these two being step siblings for a long period of time or even at a younger age, this story already takes on a different direction. The fact that these two knew each other in school and actually hated each other adds some depth to the storyline. I think these two are characters that we can love to hate. When we see Threat through Leah’s eyes, we sure love to hate him. He is selfish (and admits so when we are in his head). With that being said, Leah is not perfect either. Through Threats eyes, we can see how her personality is seen by others. She actually comes off as a stuck up brat who is selfish as well.

I really liked being able to see these two characters develop. I think that when they are confined together, they brought out the best in each other. I think that they have a lot of underlying personality traits in common that it helps them see how their own reactions are coming off to other people. I really liked their interactions with each other and some of the deeper conversations that they have together. I also like how Threat attempts to help Leah overcome some of her past heartbreak in order to become a better person.

There were a few things in this story that I did not like. I think this story progressed too fast. There were a couple of times I had to stop and remind myself that only days had passed rather than weeks. I felt that the tempo of the story was too fast to be organic and made me feel like things were rushed. I also felt that Leah was very hard for me to like. Even towards the end, I was still finding her annoying and selfish. I will say that I admire the way the author wrote her in the end though. I really thought that this story would end differently (in a bad way), but was surprised that it ended differently. That was redeeming Leah for me.

Overall, this was an ok book. While I enjoyed parts of the story, I felt it fell flat for me overall. I just wish that both characters were more complex. Threat was a great character and I loved reading about him, but Leah was bland for me. I liked the plot and the overall idea, but I think that it could have been executed in a different way which would have improved the story significantly. I would not really recommend this to family or friends.

Favorite Quotes:

“It’s been a long time, turtle.” 

- Threat

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because I have a life, and social skills, and I’m not some uptight virgin living life vicariously through brain dead romance novels.”“Yeah? And  you’re also twenty years old, you still live at home, you have a shitty dead-end job, and a rap sheet,” I spit out. 

- Threat and Leah, Threat

Star Ratings:

Plot = 3/5

Characters = 3/5

Heat = 5/5

Writing Style = 3/5

Overall Rating = 3/5

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