Fragile by Shiloh Walker

By jen

Being the incredible broad she is, Shiloh Walker sent me another ARC and I am once again giddy because I got to read it before the rest of the world.  Yay me!  I would like to preface it by saying hers are the only non-paranormal books I read with the exception of the Lora Leigh books about the Navy Seal guys.   So just the act of getting through a book without a vampire or shapeshifter or something is usually a chore.  Shiloh makes it easy.  I have read most of her paranormal stuff so I am definitely a fan of her writing so moving away from the fangs and fur and into suspense is pretty easy.

I could gush about how great Shiloh is at making her female characters flawed and neurotic but not making me insane and wishing only for their death by chapter 3.  Devon is probably the most fragile of her female characters I have read.  But one should not confuse fragile with weak or whiny, she is a gutsy broad and you like her even when she is deep in the throes of trying to deny herself the hunk of burnin’ hotness that is Dr. Luke.   I have this mental checklist that makes a book great and often mandatory for me to actually finish it.  So let’s look at it this way.

Is the Hero hot but not too hot?

Luke is hot.  Luke is like, really hot and smart to boot.  My one problem with Luke is he is entirely too patient.  I get that he is sensitive to Devon’s issues  and what not, but no man is that patient.  I guess that is why we call this type of man, fiction.  I would have really enjoyed him just totally losing it and saying something like, “For fuck’s sake, woman!  You need to stop this goddamn stubborn shit of yours.  I am trying to be a big bad Alpha male and you are fucking with my chi!”

Is the hero flawed but not too flawed?

Luke is not flawed other than what I mentioned above and not being a vampire or better yet a feline shape shifter of some sort.  Yum.  Ok, back to the present…   I think he is a tad too much of a pushover but in the context of the story the female lead is so full of issues someone has to be sane/normal so it works.

Are there Vampires, Shifters, Demons, or Special Forces men in the book?

NO vamps, NO shifters, No Demons, but oh yes, Special Forces men.  Ding Ding Ding!

Is the heroine strong but not so stubborn she annoys the shit out of me?

Devon is strong in the sense she is a survivor and while she is terrified most of the time she pushes through on sheer will alone.  Considering what Devon has gone through in her life I find her to be remarkably well adjusted.   Devon survived the death of her parents to end up the victim of a child molester.  She runs away as a teenager and ends up on the streets and addicted to drugs.  Saved by a social worker who wouldn’t accept she was beyond salvation she grew up and became a social worker.   She starts her day with a simple mantra of just getting through it, knowing the horrible things she will see and relating to them personally.  Devon is broken but she isn’t a victim nor is she a totally unlikable hardass as a result of all these tragedies.

Shiloh does this better than most any author I have read.  For those of you who read the Anita Blake books you know that a strong female lead can become so freakin’ annoying that you want to see her die.  If Anita had gone through a fraction of what Devon had growing up she might have an excuse to be such a pain in the ass.  /end gratuitous Anita Blake hating.

Normally I would not like a character like Devon.  I just do not like to read stuff at all grounded in reality. Shiloh is one of the rare authors who can get me into a story like this.  It isn’t the romance aspect.  I like romance as long as there is not too much floof.  I just do not like to read depressing stuff ever.  This book isn’t depressing though at times it is dark and painful.  Still, by the time it got to that point I was invested in Devon so I kept reading.  In fact I read this book in an afternoon so that should tell you something.

Is the sex, hot?

It is totally possible to have sex in a book that is explicit and totally not hot.  I have read series of books where there is way too much dialog in the sex scenes for any man to stay in the room with the broad much less maintain an erection.  That’s all I am sayin’... I am not naming names.

That said… Shiloh can write good smut.  I have read many of her other titles which definitely are more in the Red Hot category than this one, but this book was not intended to be erotic nor should it have been.  The idea of a person like Devon with her history going on wild romps every 16 pages would have made this a joke.  The sex was steamy as opposed to explicit in my opinion though I am sure some would find it explicit.   I like to call those people wimps.

Is the bad guy believable?

There are actually a few bad guys in this book and while one is more believable than the other I found them both to serve their purpose.  This book was definitely more about the relationship between Devon and
Luke than the murders but it is a romance first and foremost.  At least it was to me.

Is there a dark brooding secondary male character that I want to know more about than the main hero?

I really like a good brooding and/or titillating secondary character because I am usually going to get this guy’s story at some point and I am a big fan of multi book sagas.  Will Shiloh do this?  I do not know, but Quinn is interesting.  In fact, he was more interesting than Luke to me.  This is not meant to be a negatives, as I said before Devon needed someone normal and not screwed up.   Quinn is anything but normal and totally messed up.

Quinn is the twin brother of Luke.  Dark, brooding, badboy yumminess.  A tortured soul, screwed up child hood etc.  I really liked the brother’s character and hope to see him again.

Is the end satisfying?

I do not have to have an HEA though in the Romance genre it is pretty much a requirement just to get the book published I think.   However, the bad guys are dealt with, the boy gets the girl, and twin brother finds some peace, yay team!

In the end I would recommend this to anyone wanting to lose the afternoon inside a good story.  Shiloh shines again and I look forward to her next book.