Make Me Stay by Sidney Halston: Review


Posted July 7, 2017 in review Tags: ,

Make Me Stay by Sidney Halston: ReviewMake Me Stay by Sidney Halston
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Series: The Panic #2
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Source: ARC, NetGalley
Also in this series: Pull Me Close, Make Me Stay, What About Us
Also by this author: Laid Out (Worth the Fight, #4), Fighting Dirty, Stacked Up, Pull Me Close, Kiss Marry Kill, Make Me Stay, What About Us
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Secret identities, second chances, drama, desire: It’s all going down in Miami Beach in this tantalizing novel from the bestselling author of Pull Me Close, which was hailed by Aurora Rose Reynolds as “a heart-gripping story about . . . the power of love.”  April: Walking away from Matt Moreno was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Lying to him was a close second, but for his safety, I had no other choice. I was undercover, working to put some nasty people behind bars. But when Matt nearly recognizes me on Lincoln Road a year later, all those very real feelings come rushing back. Now that my assignment’s almost over, will he understand why I lied? Why I had to leave? Most important, can he ever forgive me?  Matt: I was madly in love with June Simpson . . . or, at least, with the woman I thought was June. Then she just disappeared while my family’s nightclub went through hell. And after months of searching, when I think I’ve finally found that sexy, raspy voice and those exquisite blue eyes, she slips away once more. Turns out, “June” is actually Detective April White. She’s been playing me the whole time. And she’s about to rock my world all over again.  Praise for Sidney Halston’s first Panic novel, Pull Me Close   “A magnificent story full of deep emotion that will get you straight in the ‘feels.’ . . . Sidney Halston nailed it with this one.”New York Times bestselling author Sawyer Bennett Pull Me Close is a heart-gripping story about one of the most beautiful things in the world: the power of love.”New York Times bestselling author Aurora Rose Reynolds  “An intriguing tale of anxiety and depression so authentic that readers will feel as if they are in the story with the characters. The plot is fresh and tackles a fascinating topic. The relationship between the main characters is very intense and consuming. . . . A great read!”RT Book Reviews
 
And look for all of her hard-hitting MMA romances:AGAINST THE CAGE | FULL CONTACT | BELOW THE BELT| LAID OUT | FIGHTING DIRTY | STACKED UP  Includes an excerpt from another Loveswept title.

Make Me Stay is book 2 in the series but you can read it first if you wish. The story starts before the events in book 1 and end after the events in book 1. Make me Stay is divided into 2 parts.

I’m on the fence about this book really. Part one is how “June” and Matt meet and start dating. Now, it was pretty obvious to me what she was doing, but in case its not obvious to others or to people who haven’t read it yet View Spoiler » Matt and June have a bit of an unconventional relationship because she travels a great deal for “work”, and he is in Ft. Lauderdale during the week working as an attorney. But, they try to spend their weekends together in Miami. June and Matt grow close and then she is gone.

Part 2 starts long after she disappeared. Matt spent months searching for her with a PI. He is now working at Panic full time. Then, one day, out of the blue, he sees her on the street in Miami. But she is going by Zara. Then he sees her on the news and puts it all together. She tried to talk to him and explain but he was, rightfully so, pissed.

Then the book got strange for me. June/April is attacked and ends up with amnesia. Not my favorite trope to be honest, but I think what bothered me most about April in this case was what she did and didn’t remember. Like she remembers everything up to about 10 years ago but forgot she has Crohn’s? Matt has to tell the doctors about her disease; if she remembered everything up to 10 years ago, she would have known that. It was just little things like that about her memory that were irritating. Honestly, I think what I struggled with the most was April as a character. I just didn’t care for her at all. Even her sad backstory wasn’t really enough to win her over for me.

Matt’s struggle was very believable. This is a woman he loved, then found out about her betrayal, and now is torn. He knows he still has feelings for her, but he is still so hurt by her actions. But, now she is beaten and suffering and he feels obligated to help. Its very easy to empathize with Matt-caught between wanting to be a good person and wanting to still lick your wounds and save yourself.

Make Me Stay was up and down for me. I would like it, then not like it. It was hot and cold, yes and no, in and out, up and down (you know, basically a Katy Perry song!). Overall, the book is a lot of things and the plot is not what I expected. For better or worse, I finished it. I would put it down, but then pick it back up to see if it got better. I really enjoyed book one, Pull Me Close, so I might have been tougher on this installment because of the amazing characters in book 1.

 

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…then you will probably like Make Me Stay!

 

Make Me Stay

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About Sidney Halston

Sidney Halston lives her life by one simple rule: “The secret of getting ahead is getting started” (Mark Twain). Or even simpler: “Just do it” (Nike). And that’s exactly what she did. At the age of thirty, having never written anything other than a legal brief, she picked up a pen for the first time to pursue her dream of becoming an author. That first stroke sealed the deal, and she fell in love with writing. Halston lives in South Florida with her husband and children.

Samantha
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2 responses to “Make Me Stay by Sidney Halston: Review

  1. I had a lot of the same thoughts about this one. I can’t stand the amnesia trope and I thought she was probably the worst PI ever. lol! It was really obvious what she was doing. I did really like the way the author handled his anger tho. He didn’t just forgive and forget right away, he had to work at it. That was probably the most believable part of the story. I didn’t end up liking this one as much as the first one in the series. Great review!

    Julie @ Happily Ever Chapter recently posted: Review & Giveaway: The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian

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