I received this book via NetGalley. This did not impact my rating or review.
Look, this will be short. This was a terrible book. I really enjoyed Knoll’s other books so I kept re-checking what I was reading to make sure that I had not made a mistake somewhere. This was somehow worse than Fifty Shades of Grey. Worse. I didn’t even know that was possible. And then there’s mysteries tied all together (poorly) a main character who is just aggravating and then pointless sex scenes after pointless sex scenes. And then the ending. I maybe said ‘BOOOO” out loud for a straight minute when I finally put this down. It’s awful. Skip it.
Helpless follows Faye Heron who is back at her old campus to pay her last respects to her mentor and friend. Faye has another reason though she showed up, to see her ex, Henry. Henry that she was obsessed with, and still is, even though they are both married to other people. Faye deals with Henry apologizing to her for what happened between them years ago, and then she starts to wonder about what if. And that leads to her inviting him back to her hotel and then realizing she’s been drugged. She comes to in a cabin with Henry who apparently has some things to say to her.
I can’t say anything else about this one unfortunately unless you want spoilers. But the reason behind all of this was so dumb it caused me to lose brain cells. And then of course there’s the problem of Faye and what she wants, no needs from Henry. Not one person in this book as they are depicted is a good person. I wasn’t rooting for anyone.
The flow of the book was pretty awful too. It just drags between the present, Faye and her husband’s relationship, and then her past with Henry. And her need for Henry. And boy is she needy.
The ending was a total cop-out and I think Knoll wants you to sit and think about reality versus fantasy and to think about how taboo it is for women to be sexual and have kinks just like men. But if she wanted that discussion, she should have written a better book. Tossing in the mysteries, the pointlessness of several characters/scenes, etc. just dragged the entire book down and I was tempted to DNF this a few times. I am now wishing I had after I did finally get to the finish line.
Updated to include bingo:
- Or – instead of reading x, you’re reading that; an alternate perspective; an unreliable narrator; a character changes their plan; a character is faced with choices/about choices. This one fits the unreliable narrator for this square, so going with that.
