Debauched by Jennifer Dawson

Summary from Amazon:

     One night in a moment of sheer madness I confessed my secrets to him.
     All my life I’ve been pretending. Pretending to be the woman I thought I should be instead of the woman I really am. I’ve been faking it and I am good. No one has ever guessed. Except him. He just looked at me and knew.
     Chad Fellows is not the man I want, but he’s fast becoming the man I need.
     One night in a moment of sheer madness I held her in my arms and let her cry.
     I did the right thing, letting her walk away, no matter how much she calls to the part of me that wants to rescue her. We are nothing alike, and she’s a mess of complications in a life I’m trying to keep simple. But then I touched her and made her tremble and now I can’t turn away.
     Ruby Stiles is not the woman I want, but she’s fast becoming the woman I need.

 

My Thoughts:

     This is book three in the Undone series but the first one that I have read.  It is a stand alone novel and I no trouble jumping right into the series.  I will definitely be going back and reading the first two books of the series!

     Ruby grew up in a small town with a very conservative, religious family that she never truly felt a part of or understood.  Now that she is a grown woman, living in New York City, and being her own person she is happy but still feels like something is missing from her life.  She is surrounded by friends who are living their dreams and in great relationships but she can never seem to make one work. 

     Then she confesses her fears and biggest embarrassment to a mutual friend, Chad, and things between them change and become awkward.  After some time away from each other they are thrown together at a party and a relationship begins to form that changes the way Ruby sees her life, her decisions and most importantly, herself. 

     I was fully prepared for this to be just another sexy, smutty, romance novel with a fairytale ending but it really surprised me.  Ms. Dawson really delves deep into the psychology behind Ruby and how her upbringing, and some of her preconceived notions about life and love, affected her and all of her relationships.  Many times I found myself stopping and realizing there were some similarities between Ruby’s way of thinking about love and relationships and how I thought about them as well.

     The story of Ruby and Chad was sweet, sexy, and funny.  I am still thinking about it several days later.  This, to me, is the marks of a really good book! 

4.5/5 Stars


*Stop by next week for the Debauched blog tour and a giveaway!*