“Sweet Jayne” By: K. Webster - Book Review

I have made it my mission to read every K. Webster book I can because the woman is an incredible storyteller and this novel was no exception. This book was nothing like I thought it was going to be in the beginning and I found our main character, Nadia to be a delight. I will say, while classified as a romance, I don’t really feel that was the story being told personally. There are multiple romantic relationships, but for me the story was more about friendship and forgiveness. Regardless, it was a wonderful read.

We meet Nadia as a teenager and who was recently moved from far away by her mother to come live with her new sexy stepdaddy, Donovan. She hates him and thinks the way he looks at her and touches her is perverted. If it wasn’t for her mother being so happy, she would confront him about his creepy ways. One day, while she’s waiting to go to school, she meets a gothic girl named Kasey. They hit it off instantly and are seemingly becoming instant friends, making Nadia feel better about living here. Suddenly a black SUV pulls up and a man in a black ski mask snatches Kasey. Everything is a blur for Nadia. She does try to help, but it’s too late, Kasey’s gone. When she runs back to the house to tell Donovan, he is nothing but supportive. She feels she may have misjudged him when he swears he will do whatever he can to help her find Kasey.

“Please help me find her,” I beg him with tears in my eyes.

He stares at me for a long minute, a frown tarnishing his otherwise handsome face. When he eventually snaps out of whatever thought held him, he nods. “I’ll do what I can, baby. I swear to fucking God, I will do everything in my power to find her.” The intensity in his vow to find a random girl who is a stranger to him shocks me. A newfound respect for him begins to take root deep inside me.

The story then fast forwards to nearly a decade later where we meet Kasper, Kasey’s brother, who is hell-bent on revenge against Nadia. He blames her for them not being able to find Kasey and wonders where the hell she is. She has been missing for three years. He is now a police lieutenant and uses all of his resources to find his sister. One night, after checking out a disturbance, he sees his police chief’s car speeding and driving crazy down the street. He knows it isn’t his chief driving, so someone stole his car. When he drives the perp off the road. He can’t believe it’s Nadia Jayne. He calls the chief, Logan, and is even more shocked to find that Nadia and Logan are not only together, but engaged.

Last night, I’d lain in bed for hours thinking about Nadia. She’d grown up since I’d last had eyes on her but she was still the stupid bitch from before. What pisses me off, though, is that she’s been off the grid for three goddamn years only to just pop right back up. It doesn’t make sense. I wanted to throttle the answers from her last night but the moment I learned she was with Logan, I knew things would have to play out much differently.

I would need to be careful.

Kasper wasn’t my favorite character at times, there were moments where he just wasn’t a good person. The things he planned to do to Nadia for what he blamed her for, were terrible. As he quickly finds out, things aren’t quite as they seem. He grew up with Donovan and Logan, he thinks he knows them until events unfold that proves him wrong.

Logan is cruel to Nadia, on a whole other level. What is interesting, is she’s allowing it. Her thoughts tell us that she is biding her time and has a plan. This is all for Kasey. Everything her and Kasper do, they do for Kasey. That’s one of the things they have in common. She confides in him a little bit, and he struggles between hating her and wanting to protect her. His mother is in an abusive relationship so it hits a soft spot for him. There is so much Nadia can’t tell him even if she wishes she could. So much more than he can imagine.

“Why stay with him?”

Her eyes blaze with a passionate fury that makes my heart gallop in my chest. This is definitely not the same fearful way my mom looks at me when she defends Dale. “You do crazy things for love, Kasper.”

Slipping my fingers over her jaw, I run my thumb over her bottom lip. Her words make no sense. I want to shove them back into her mouth and make her chew them up instead.

There are so many secrets and lies being kept that as the web becomes undone and the truth comes out, Kasper realizes everything he thought he knew was false. They are all connected by family and friendship. Everything that’s happened is all connected to Kasey and he has become invested in Nadia. With Donovan Jane as his unexpected ally, he learns things that both break and soften his hardened heart.

I thought the plot was a fantastic and the writing was wonderful as always. I usually try very hard to leave out spoilers, but my explanation for this being a four star book is kind of one. However I wish I would have known this going in. ***POSSIBLE SPOILER*** It took me over half the book to realize that Kasper and Nadia were not going to end up together. I had expected him to be her love interest since they were the two narrators. So because of that, it took my feelings a while to adjust. *** END SPOILER*** K. Webster never disappoints. This is a dark story with some taboo and disturbing aspects which if you’d read my other reviews, you know I love.