Synopsis

Review

This read was part of my April Ultimate Reading Challenge: read books with one word title.

Oh and yes it was hyped so why not?

4 “I expected more but don’t know what” stars.

Warning: kind of odd sheep review here compared with all the 5 stars 😉

I’ve read Ricochet by Keri Lake and really loved it. So when Intrepid was advertised and surrounded by a big hype I was really excited to read it.

The cover was just beautiful in black and grey, focus on a man with piercing light eyes and cheeks so high they could cut diamonds.

I even asked who the model was because Dang! he is just gorgeous. If you are interested he is Oliver Buendia and he is really worth following on IG because he is an adrenaline junkie and always jumps from planes, climb skyscrapers etc.

In this aspect Lexi could have modeled Ty on Oliver. Maybe she did? Or looked after the perfect model to impersonate Ty inside out? I don’t know but it’s striking.

Intrepid has an uncanny similarity in the big plot lines and theme as Ricochet.

Ty is hell bent on avenging him and his friends after really horrific events happening nine years ago.

Be warned this book is a DARK read full with triggers and scenes that could shock you. I even confessed to my friend Angy that I skimmed one or two scenes as they were too hard for me to read in details.

So the revenge or avenging others is the first common theme with Ricochet but that’s to be expected as this series title is “Vigilantes”.

Second recurring theme: a big part of their revenge is targeting a woman they think is dear to the abuser’s heart.

Sera is Ty’s target and we don’t know exactly why before some time so I won’t go into specifics as to not spoil the story. Of course Ty has been stalking her for a long time, another recurring trope and will try to charm her pants off. And he can because he is just dreamy, broody and mysterious.

Only…Sera is relly closed off and distrusting for good reasons linked to her past.

She is drawn to Ty but she does not trust him completely. I would say her lie detector and her instincts are spot on.

As Ty is slowly making the abusers pay you’ll get some gore and grueling scenes. Again this is a dark read not some Harlequin romance. You’ve been warned.

All ingredients seemed presents to make me adore this story. If I enjoyed my read, if the writing is not at fault I still did not fall completely in love with it.

First thing preventing me to really fall head over heels in love with this: the hot and cold relationship. The constant push and pull.

One moment Ty was charming and hot, pursuing Sera the other he was pulling out and closed like a vault in Bank of America. As he kept to himself he also kept me at arm’s length.

“The push and pull with him had officially become exhausting. He reminded me of a child, begging for my toy, and the moment he’d earned enough sympathy from me to hand it over, he shoved it away.”

Second some inconsistencies.

At one moment in the book Sera explains that she craves that kind of relationship. That she gets high on it and has in the past. Only…her past does not show anything like that and one of the two boyfriends that she had and was toxic wasn’t an enjoyable experience for her, far from it. So what?

Third: some used trope.

If it’s probably true that artists create better when they hurt I don’t think they all consciously seek pain. Using this line to justify recklessness and look after pain bothered me. I would rather have appreciated the philosophy “better than truly live and take risks to be hurt than being sheltered never hurt but never really feeling”. But hey that’s me being petty here.

Fourth: their love

Yes they were drawn to each other but I was not convinced they really loved each other. Or at least not before a looong time. Probably once more because they are both mistrusting people. Never allowing the other completely in? Yet many felt the real love so that must be a cas of “it’s not me it’s you.”.

Now that this is out of the way I can get to the good parts of this book.

Sera was a really interesting character and she had some secrets that will be unearthed really late into the story. She was far from the pampered rich chick. Even if her father had money she never was snob or spoiled. She would have preferred having a real family, loving and crazy than have all that money. She also was selfless as she made choices to help others even if it went against her own dreams.

She also has sass and that’s the second thing I loved in the book: the sarcasm.

Keri Lake can write sarcasm and I was really happy to read the banter between Sera and others.

Here are some of my favorite sarcastic quotes:

“Probably high as a giraffe’s ass right then.”

Some handy new vernacular: “He biccuped—burped and hiccupped—”

Lovely visual LOL: “There were places in the city we didn’t belong, where we’d stick out like chopped tuna in a pool of pitiless sharks.”

The plotline or rather the horrific but real topic broached in this story.

Even if I skimmed some scenes hard to stomach the author did a fantastic job describing the horror and extreme depravity of these abusers. It is unfortunately right and that’s why I could not read it. It felt so real and true. So congrats to Keri here! I bet she had a hard time writing some scenes.

In his own way Ty was also wise. Teetering on the brink of insanity sometimes, plagued with nightmares and hallucinations he often needed to climb high to get some perspective on life.

“So, why do you really come up here?” I asked, ignoring his question. “I know it’s not to sit and think about me all day.” Tipping away just enough to coil my stomach, he looked down the side of the building and back. “Perspective.”

Sera became his anchor. The one to chase his demons away.

Now recommend it?

If you are a fan of dark and twisted romance certainly!

Have you read any other books by Keri Lake?

Thanks for reading.

Sophie