"The Opportunist" by Tarryn Fisher

Genre: New Adult
Series: Love Me With Lies #1
Publication: November 14, 2011
Format: Kindle
Cover Rating: 4/5 Stars
Links: Goodreads, Amazon

From Goodreads: Olivia Kaspen has just discovered that her ex-boyfriend, Caleb Drake, has lost his memory. With an already lousy reputation for taking advantage of situations, Olivia must decide how far she is willing to go to get Caleb back. Wrestling to keep her true identity and their sordid past under wraps, Olivia’s greatest obstacle is Caleb’s wicked, new girlfriend; Leah Smith. It is a race to the finish as these two vipers engage in a vicious tug of war to possess a man who no longer remembers them. But, soon enough Olivia must face the consequences of her lies, and in the process discover that sometimes love falls short of redemption.

My Thoughts: I'm not even sure where to start with this review. I really wanted to love this book. Really, I did. I love darker NA books, so I thought I would surely love this one. Well, I was wrong.

But although, I didn't love it, it definitely had some redeeming qualities. For instance, the characters in this book were kind of amazing. Kind of. I love the fact that Tarryn Fisher wasn't afraid to write horrible human beings. Because Olivia and Caleb totally were. Both were completely terrible to each other and others around them. Possibly, some of the most selfish characters I have ever read about it. And it worked... for a while.

Here's where things started going down hill for me though, they began to feel too over the top. It felt like I was watching some daytime Soap Opera and not in the "Oh-My-God-I-Could-Just-Eat-This-Up" guilty pleasure kind of way. While I do love the darker, sometimes more far-fetched, NA books, I still prefer them to have some dose of realism. But, for me, The Opportunist went too far and completely abandoned the "real" world. This was also a major factor in the ending, which I felt was rushed and just completely ridiculous.

Which brings me to my next issue: the past/present combo chapters. I was not a fan. I felt like this book should have been split into two if we were going to be doing time jumps. Sometimes they work for authors, sometimes they don't. This was one of those times when they didn't. Had I picked up a prequel to Caleb and Olivia's story, I probably would have devoured it and given it five stars easily. Their past had just the right amount of drama and mystery to keep me intrigued. But the huge amount of time that passes (the book covers a ten year time span), just makes the whole thing feel rushed. Which was incredibly disappointing because it had the potential to be excellent. I was about 50% in when I realized that this was not going to be the awesome-sauce book I hoped for.

Overall, it was okay. I'm VERY picky these about my NA books because there is such an abundance of them out there. I like them the way I like them, and that's not always what everyone else likes. And that's okay. Would I personally recommend this book? Maybe. If I knew you well enough to know if you would like it. But other than that, no.


My Rating: