GRR Reviews Scarred - The Complete Series by Kylie Walker

Scarred is a contemporary romantic suspense that started with a pretty typical trope: exotic dancer with heart of gold meets a mysterious and generous benefactor. From there it managed to pull off several interesting twists that overall made sense. But the main antagonist seems to have skills he should not have or shouldn't have time to learn, and the ending was one volume too long. There were also minor editing errors.

Kelly Ward had a hard life... she grew up having suffered horrific abuse as an adopted child, that the only thought she had was to escape... and go to university. She thought she found the right man to escape to... Until he turned out to be a psychopath that relished hurting her for two years. She barely survived the attack that finally put him in jail... but his powerful father got the sentence reduced to only two years (instead of attempted murder, he got felony assault). He promised to kill her... slowly. So she changed her name, changed her looks, and change her town... and her career... exotic dancer at night, as Chole Green. She needed to save her money and chase her dream to become a teacher. She can't fall for any of the lecherous men who came to ogle her.... Until Derek Stark came. He is rich, he is handsome, he's not the kind of man who visits a pole-dancing club, but he wanted Chloe. Why is he here? As Chloe and Derek got closer, they discovered each other's secrets... just then her abuser is about to be released... and determined to finish what he started...

This is a multi-volume set at almost 700 pages, and overall it *is* a good read, but there were various bits that were raised, but didn't feel it was resolved properly, such as various lawsuits, or threat of lawsuits. There is also a big problem with the antagonist that didn't make any sense.

Unfortunately, I'll have to spoil a certain part of the story to explain the problem.

SPOILER AHEAD

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED

Anyway, Kelly/Chloe's stalker / ex is called Jesse, whose father was the state attorney general. Jesse is a psychopath who relied on his parents to "clean up" his messes. He was in law school when he met Kelly in university, and he convinced her to move out of her parent's place (of abuse) and move in with him. For six months he's good, then he got jealously possessive and started smacking her around. At 2 years, when he's about to graduate and join a prestigious lawfirm, he tried to kill her for talking to a neighbor, and he was arrested and spent 2 years in jail. Upon release, he spent all his money and time to stalk her and hurt people around her. Somehow, instead of a lawyer in training who spent 2 years in jail, he is now a master criminal with ability to steal cars, sabotage cars, stalking, and other things. WHEN did he LEARN those skills? In jail? WTF?

Also, Jesse sabotaged Chloe/Kelly's boyfriend's car. The story was he drained all the brake fluid onto a towel so he didn't leave a puddle. The driver (whose wife died in a car accident) was extremely careful, yet the way he crashed was they managed to drive up a hill, and only discovered they had no brakes when they started going downhill. This makes NO technical sense for SEVERAL reasons. 1) Any car that had brake fluid drained would have flashed brake failure warning light as soon as the car was started. The idea that the driver did not have to use his brakes EVEN ONCE before reaching top of a hill is ridiculous. 2) Handbrakes were on a separate system and is usually manually operated. 3) Also, even with no brakes, it is possible to engage engine braking by shifting to a lower gear and it's possible to sacrifice the car's body by scraping the barriers or the wall to slow down even further. The idea that a man, who had his father in law in the car, had suffered loss of wife in a car accident, and is a very careful driver, missing the warning light, NEVER used brakes until he needed it, and failed to use engine braking and other techniques to save themselves, is just utterly ridiculous.

These two major plot holes, along with a couple typos and editing errors made it hard to give this book a higher rating. The ending was also drawn out too far. What should have been a 75 page conclusion was somehow stretched to 150 pages for an extra book in the set. While I do recommend this set, it could use a bit more editing and fact-checking.


Category: Romantic suspense

Primary Plot: Woman on the run from her ex (who intended to kill her) met an intriguing and generous man, who wanted her but can't explain why

Tropes: conspiracy, evil ex, woman in peril, protector, performer,

Overall Rating:  4/5 (rounded up)