Review: Pretty When You Cry by Skye Warren

Pretty When You Cry: Ivan and Candace 

(Stripped #3)

Pretty When You Cry on Amazon

Summary:

From Goodreads.com

A new dark romance novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderlust and Prisoner…

I came from a place of dirt floors and holy scriptures. They told me the world outside was full of sin, and the first night I escape, I find out it’s true. Ivan saves me, but he does more than that. He takes me. He makes me his own girl.

My conditioning runs too deep. Ivan sees what I am.

That’s the thing about showing a mouse to a cat. He wants to play. And it’s terrifying, even for me. Because the only thing darker than my past is his.

Review:

This was a mixed bag for me...

It is a dark erotic novel which I knew going in so that wasn't really an issue for me. The issues I had were Ivan was pretty underdeveloped as a character by the end of the book we knew very little about him. His back story constituted about a page out of the entire book. I wanted to know more about his childhood, how he took himself from the streets to being one of the most powerful men in the city. These are the things the reader is interested in, this is what makes us bond with the character. I can't say I bonded much with Ivan.

But that wasn't even my biggest issue with the book.. My biggest issue was the sexy times. Ivan has a Daddy complex, he wants to be called Daddy and he wants to treat Candace like a daughter which just creeps me the hell out. I had a father whom I called daddy pretty much all of my childhood so to even think about Daddy in any sort of intimate situation makes me want to gag a little or a lot. I get Ivan’s desire to take care of Candace, the reward and punishment and even the innocence (This isn't my first rodeo after all) but just the incorporation of Daddy into the mix... I just mentally go there.

So other than skipping over a lot of the sexy times, I actually liked the story. Candace's had a difficult past and now under Ivan's protection she is doing better but her past won’t stay in the past. Now she is being threatened and there is no way Ivan is going to let that continue. So we are taken down Candy's journey how she got to where she is today, how she has changed, how she hasn't, how she discovers she needs to change. It’s a good emotional journey that I enjoyed being taken down.

*Review copy was provided for a honest review, no other compensation was provided.