Review: Truth Hurts

Truth Hurts by A.R. O'Brien
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

1.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

Truth Hurts was a romantic suspense story about Assistant District Attorney Sylvie Dunlap going back home for the first time after her sister's death eight years ago. The story gets going right away with Sylvie hiking the mountain that her sister Elaine was found dead on, with a six months investigation finding the death to be accidental. Along with Sylvie on the memorial hike, Duncan, who was Elaine's on again and off again high school boyfriend. Duncan had plans of leaving their small Idaho town too, but after Elaine died, who was also his younger sister Jackie's bestfriend, their mother dies soon after on a hiking accident. Duncan is crushed when Sylvie leaves town right after high school graduation without saying goodbye, having had a crush on her but never acted on it because he felt she was too young for him at the time. Sylvie also had a crush on Duncan but with him being her sister's ex and just wanting to escape the town, she leaves without telling him her feelings. Reunited again after eight years, they find their crushes are going stronger than ever and that their hometown isn't done trying to claim the lives of it's young women. 

I found this story to need a lot of editing, there were numerous point-of-views from secondary characters that went off on tangents that I felt could have been cut for streamline purposes. The pace was slow for me and I felt like I was slogging through for the vast majority of the middle. Even with the book starting right off into the story, I felt like it wasn't really explained why Sylvie decided now was the time to come back home, it just starts with her there. This also was heavier on the romantic thread for the majority than I thought it would be, the suspense lingers around the edges but doesn't really get going until the later second half. There are no flashbacks to give readers a sense of the relationship Sylvie and Duncan had back in highschool, so when Duncan is pretty much all in for Sylvie in the beginning first half, it felt like insta-love to me; within the first thirty pages we have them kissing. What keeps them apart, and felt dragging, was Sylvie's M.O. of only sleeping with men causally, instead of having relationships with them. There's some bedroom scenes between the two and then jealousy when men from Sylvie's past keep showing up, but not a lot of emotional development between the two. 

The killer gets a pov, so readers know they are around but while there are numerous red-herrings, the identity mystery is left until the later second half. I thought it was pretty easy to guess the killer but there were two other suspects that could catch other's attention. I usually like to get some insight into the villain in stories, but I felt their pov was over-the-top, went into torture porn territory for me with not for the sake of the character but gratuitous shock value. Along with the suspense thread reveal we get a Duncan reveal that I felt came out of left field and didn't make a lot of sense, how I felt about a good amount of threads in this, if things weren't meandering, they felt unneeded or not developed enough. 

The later half definitely picked up the pace with Sylvie in danger and it's reveals but I'm not sure I cared enough after having to slog through the middle part. The ending kept going, giving us some role reversal with what's now keeping Sylvie and Duncan apart after the danger was over. Each added chapter just felt like dragging the story on to me and I'm not sure it made complete sense how quickly and easily it was for a character to work for the FBI, not to mention Sylvie felt mostly in name only as an A.D.A. This wasn't for me but if you're looking for a long winded, heavier on focusing on the romantic part in the first half, meanders in middle, but picks up the pace when suspense thread comes back into play, this story had decent secondary characters to wander off with for a while.

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