Rowena’s review of Karma (Serendipity #3) by Carly Phillips.
Hero: Dare Barron
Heroine: Liza McKnight
New York Times bestselling author Carly Phillips presents her third novel set in the quaint upstate New York town of Serendipity—where fate, fortune and love intertwine…
Police Officer Dare Barron has had a crush on Liza McKnight ever since he was a teenager. But despite his lifelong attraction, the closest he’s ever come to interacting with her is watching Liza regularly bail out her brother at the station. Dare’s dark past with Liza’s brother, Brian, has always kept him from pursuing her.
But suddenly Liza finds herself in need of protection and Dare appoints himself as the man for the job. And while the sizzling attraction between Dare and Liza draws them together, the past that Dare and Brian share threatens to keep the two apart forever.
This is the last Serendipity book by Carly Phillips. It’s about the younger Barron brother, Dare. In Nash’s book, we find out that Dare had kept a huge secret from Nash and we find out what that secret was. In this book, we see the background to all of that and where Dare’s head has been about the secret then and now.
Dare attended a party when he was younger and a kid died at that party. Instead of staying behind and helping the kid or calling 9-1-1, young Dare fled the scene with his friends. The kid ended up dying and Dare has felt guilty ever since. The guy who threw the party was the person to deal the blow that killed the kid and from Dare can see, he hasn’t changed a bit. He’s still a giant asshole and a drunk to boot. He’s still careless and entitled and Dare does not like him.
Staying as far away from Brian McKnight (Haha, I kept singing Do I ever cross your mind….anytime while reading this book) should have been easy for Dare except he had a big thing for Brian’s sister, Liza and all of these years later, that hasn’t changed.
The only thing that has changed is Dare doing something about it. Dare is drawn to Liza and when they start hanging out, things change quickly and he’s left reeling from it all.
Liza has spent her life much like Dare. She’s been trying to make up for past mistakes and she’s not quite sure how she’s doing. She finds out things about her brother that shock the hell out of her and she’s left feeling unbalanced and not in control of herself. She’s drawn to Dare but doesn’t know how a relationship between them can work since he hates her brother with a passion and she owes her brother for being there for her when nobody else was.
Seeing the two of these guys battle their differences in order to be together brought about some interesting reading. I was caught up in their story and their relationship. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours and I’m glad that I read this book because I came to really adore Dare. I loved the protectiveness he had toward Liza and I loved the way he loved her. He was solid and good and he had a knack for knowing exactly what she needed and giving it to her. He loved her without thought and seeing him come to that realization was just too cute for words.
I found myself thinking the same things about Liza that I was thinking about Kelly. I wish she had come out sooner with what she was hiding from Dare. Not that she was outright hiding them from him but she neglected to tell him what was going on and that was what bothered me. I wish she had been straight up and honest with him from the beginning but even though that bothered me, I really enjoyed the book. As much as I adored Dare and enjoyed this story, I think that Nash’s book was my favorite and Nash and Kelly were my favorite couple. Yeah, I’m still reeling from that since I remember so thoroughly hating Nash’s guts.
But this was another great book and I enjoyed it. You should definitely check it out.
Grade: 4.25 out of 5.
This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
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