Facade by Nyrae Dawn
Series: Games #2
Publication date: September 24th, 2013
Publisher: Forever
Pages: 291
Synopsis (according to Goodreads):
Can love save them?
After her father commits a crime that shatters her family, eighteen-year-old Delaney Cross is tired of pretending everything is all right. Packing up her car, she sets out to find the people her father hurt. Her search leads her to places she's never been--and into the arms of Adrian Westfall.
To the outside world, Adrian is a sexy, charming ladie's man. But his playboy persona is just an act. Secretly his soul is tortured by a memory too painful to share. Only Delaney seems to see through his facade to the real man underneath. And for the first time in his life, Adrian feels he can begin to open up about his past.
Together, Adrian and Delaney share a passionate love they never expected to find. Yet both still harbor their own secrets. When the dark truth is finally revealed, will it bring them closer together--or tear them apart forever?
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Review:
After reading the first book in the series and taking the journey with Colt and Cheyenne I was anxious to see how the womanizing Adrian found love. I didn't much care for him as a character when he was introduced in the first book but I still wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Adrian is known for his parties. He is known as the guy who is chronically high and always down to have a good time. His house is known as the party house where people randomly show up and start to drink and sleep around without even getting his permission first. Why would they need it? That Adrian is a lie. Adrian gets high to mask the pain of losing someone near and dear to his heart. He finds himself in bed with random women in hopes of feeling good for even a second of his life. He allows the parties because the noise drowns out the voices in his head. Adrian is a sinking ship and he knows it. He doesn't know how to find his way back to reality so he wallows in his suffering. Until Delaney sneaks past his defenses and makes him feel things he had thought he would never feel again.
Delaney is an eternal optimist. She believes that she can right her father's wrongs if she is determined enough. Her mother hates her for how close Delaney was with her father before that tragic day when he was taken away from them. Her mother continues to harbor ill will toward her despite Delaney's attempts to make everything right. She hopes if she can apologize to Adrian for her father's role in his tragedy that everyone's lives can get better. But as she gets closer to Adrian she starts to wonder if telling him will solve anything. She doesn't know if she should risk the budding relationship the two are forming by revealing her awful truth.
Can Delaney's ever present optimism bring the downtrodden Adrian into the light once more or will she ruin everything and would the man even more?
I absolutely adored Delaney and Adrian's story. I didn't know how Delaney was ever going to tell Adrian what her father did after they started to find a connection between each other. I thought that once Delaney told her secret, Adrian would be gone. Now, of course, romance novels rarely ever end that way but I was worried. I knew if some guy's father was the source of all my heartache, I'd have a hard time not holding that against the guy I was interested in.
As I stated before, I really didn't care for Adrian when he was introduced in Charade. But I hoped that I would grow to like him as I got to know him a little better. My opinion of him did a complete 180. I found him to be the most charismatic male lead even with sexy, cocky Colt as his competition. Adrian was so wounded and destroyed I just wanted to wrap him in bubble wrap so he'd never hurt again.
Delaney's optimism was a little annoying at times. I don't know what my issue is with the female protagonists in this series. I don't outright hate them but there is always something about them that I find a little tedious. However, Delaney's peppy-ness didn't take away from my love of the story.
Facade is hands down one of the most harrowing love story I have read. My heart felt a little worn after reading it.
