Review: Spend the Night by Elizabeth Lee
Spend the Night (The Complete Series)
by: Elizabeth Lee
Publication Date: Mar. 4, 2015
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Age Group: New Adult
Source: e-ARC provided via the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Page Count: 261 pages
Order Links: Amazon
My Rating: 3/5 stars
Welcome to The Wellesley-Crawford...
Hannah Wellesley has spent her entire life running the halls of her family-owned hotel, the infamous and opulent Wellesley-Crawford. Noted as one of the city's richest, most luxurious hotels in Chicago, the WC is what Hannah has devoted her life and career to.
The hotel’s Annual Masquerade Gala is the event of the year, but this year Hannah’s evening involves more than just handing out masks. After a mysterious rendezvous in a secluded stairwell with an irresistible and unidentifiable man, Hannah becomes consumed with discovering the identity of her masked lover. Just as she’s about to give up the search, two men blow back into her life with drastically different intentions. They both have secrets and uncovering them will lead Hannah down a darkly dangerous path.
Drawn to both of the intriguing bachelors, she’ll have to determine which one is after her heart and which one plans to do her deadly harm before it’s too late.
The complete Spend the Night Collection - Episodes 1-3
Hannah Wellesley has spent her entire life running the halls of her family-owned hotel, the infamous and opulent Wellesley-Crawford. Noted as one of the city's richest, most luxurious hotels in Chicago, the WC is what Hannah has devoted her life and career to.
The hotel’s Annual Masquerade Gala is the event of the year, but this year Hannah’s evening involves more than just handing out masks. After a mysterious rendezvous in a secluded stairwell with an irresistible and unidentifiable man, Hannah becomes consumed with discovering the identity of her masked lover. Just as she’s about to give up the search, two men blow back into her life with drastically different intentions. They both have secrets and uncovering them will lead Hannah down a darkly dangerous path.
Drawn to both of the intriguing bachelors, she’ll have to determine which one is after her heart and which one plans to do her deadly harm before it’s too late.
The complete Spend the Night Collection - Episodes 1-3
I'm not really a fan of serials, but when I saw the opportunity to read this one in its entirety, I jumped at the chance. I have enjoyed what I have read by Elizabeth Lee thus far, so naturally I wanted to give this one a try. I was left with rather mixed feelings when it was all said and done. I enjoyed it, but struggled with a lot of the heroine's actions, as well as some of the other elements in the story.
Despite my mixed feelings, I couldn't seem to stop reading. Lee's writing style is infectious and I'm not sure I can pinpoint exactly what she does so well. I was intrigued by the plot of this one and thought it was interesting how the book was sporadically divided into a mysterious male's POV. Even though, I was able to figure out the men in this one, there were still twists and turns I didn't see coming, which I appreciated.
One of my greatest struggles was with Hannah's character. She is seduced by a man in a darkened stairway, having no idea who he is. My first instinct was to yell at her for being so careless- not to mention reckless with her life. I know it was meant to be seductive and sexy, but I couldn't make myself see it that way. Eight months go by and she doesn't ever find out who the masked mystery man in the dark is. She is still haunted by that night and the feelings he ignited within- even going so far as to believe him to be her soulmate. Again, the romanticism of this didn't quite work for me. Just because a man offers you good sex doesn't make you soulmates. Those things aside, Hannah wasn't a horrible character. She is a Wellesley and she has obligations to her family's hotel. With her grandmother stepping down, it is up to Hannah to stand up and prove her legacy. She is damn good at her job and running the event planning side of things, so I had no doubt she would do a great job. However, things are not so cut and dry, especially when her childhood friend Trent Crawford comes blowing back into her life.
Oh, Trent. Where do I start? I had a very love/hate relationship with Trent. I really liked the glimpse of their past we see through Hannah's eyes and he seems like a really sweet guy. The Trent we meet is anything but. He's sexy, arrogant, and a bit heartless. I did not like the way he treated Hannah after their being intimate with one another and the way he made her feel after that really frustrated me because things with Trent aren't as they seem. Hannah spends the book torn between hating him and swearing not to let him affect her, and caving whenever he says a few sexy words. She can't resist his pull, which infuriated me because of how hot and cold he was. We do find out why this is towards the end of the book and while I understand his motivations for being this way, there wasn't quite enough to redeem him for me.
There is a bit of a love triangle in this one. While Hannah is trying to fight her affections for Trent, she is interested in Carter, the new chef for the hotel. Carter is sweet, polite, and kind- everything Trent is not. He wants to court and woo Hannah and has become enamored with her after their meeting at the Masquerade Ball. Hannah begins to hope and wonder if Carter was the masked man who swept her off her feet that night. I wanted to like Carter, but despite all of Trent's issues, Trent had more depth to his character.
Lee adds a bit of suspense to the plot and some of it was definitely creepy, including getting a few short snippets of a mystery man's POV. She is purposefully ambiguous with the details, but he definitely makes your skin crawl and warn you that there are dangerous times ahead. I applaud her for this technique, as it really upped the tension level of the suspense and intrigue.
Overall, this wasn't my favorite of Lee's books, as it had so many elements that do not appeal to me personally as a reader. I just couldn't feel the connection between the characters when it was riddled with so much drama and angst and I couldn't fully immerse myself in separating reality from fiction when Hannah's character made so many reckless decisions.
8 comments
Aww boo! I like serials when I'm in the mood for short and sweet.. I'm not a big fan of reading them all back to back though. I'm weird and like spreading them out lol. I'm sorry this one didn't work out for you like you wanted and I think I would have a lot of the same issues as you. Thanks for the honest review Jessica!
ReplyDeleteThat's so funny Teresa because I'm actually the opposite! I get too irritated with having to wait. LOL. It's too much of a tease for me.
DeleteI really don't like serials, so I don't think this book would be for me. I'm sorry this was a disappointment, Jessica. It's always sad when an author whose works you usually enjoy writes a book that's just not for you. I would be frustrated with the love triangle and Hannah would annoy me. That scene of her being seduced would disturb me so much!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm better off staying away from this one. Lovely review, Jessica!
Agreed Nick! I felt bad for not loving this one, but there were too many things that just didn't jive with me. Of course, it could have been my mood too. LOL. Thanks hun!
DeleteGreat review. I can definitely understand your points as to why you didn't enjoy the book to its fullest. I would probably get a bit mad at the MC as well. I've only read a few serial books, but the ones I've read I've enjoyed. Not sure if I would pick this one up, but I loved your review!
ReplyDelete:D
Thanks Magen! <3 Serials are pretty hit or miss with me, so I try not to pick them up very much. I just felt this one had too many elements that didn't work. Oh well!
DeleteI love infectious writing styles! They can help suck me into a story. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that you didn't like this one more. The romance does seem like something that I would have mixed thoughts on too.
Great review! I may try it sometime (I got the first part when it was free on Amazon). I'm curious about what my reactions to it would be.
I agree- infectious writing styles are the best! I love them! I wish I did like this one more- but it wasn't a bad read by any means. If you do read it, I hope you enjoy it!
DeleteLeave me some comment love! And I will get around to commenting back!
My blog is an award-free blog, however, as I just do not have the time to follow-up.