Calico by Callie Hart [ARC Review]

Calico by Callie Hart
on April 12, 2016
Genres: New Adult, Romance


Goodreads
Apple Books

Coralie

Twelve years ago, I ran to stay alive.

Port Royal, South Carolina, was my home. I was born there. I fell in love there. And I nearly died there. I never thought I’d go back. Now, after so many years, I have to return to bury the man who made my life a living hell. Some nights, I used to cry myself to sleep, praying my father would die. Other nights were different. Other nights, there was him.

Callan Cross.

My first confidante. My first kiss. My first love. My first everything: Callan was the glue that held me together when everything else was falling apart. He was my savior. He was there for me whenever I needed him…

Until he wasn’t.

Every night, I’ve seen the love of my life in my sleep.
I just never thought I’d have to face him again.

Callan

Twelve years ago, I f*#@ed up big time.

Living life through a camera lens is sometimes easier than dealing with it head on. Scratch that. It’s always easier. For over a decade, I’ve been a master of my art, taking photographs all over the world. Yet despite all of the countries I’ve visited, the amazing things I’ve seen, the beautiful women I’ve screwed, my heart has remained in pieces.

Coralie’s the only woman I’ve ever loved, will ever love. And I’m determined to show her that we’re meant to be together. Even if it means unearthing the bones of the past in the process.

A lifetime and a thousand miles have stood between us.
Now, there’s no length of time I won’t wait, no distance I won’t travel, in order to make her mine.

I was provided a review copy; this did not influence my opinion of the book.

Calico was a completely different type of story than Callie Hart’s Blood & Roses series (which I absolutely loved!). That was dark and violent, whereas, this was raw and emotional, mostly.

I really don’t know what happened. I loved the first part of the book, LOVED it! I was completely consumed by the raw and emotional story. I was captivated by the writing and waiting for all the pieces of the puzzle to be put together. And I say mostly, because, for the first part, I was a freaking mess, as you can see from my few status updates (on Goodreads and Facebook). Now this is where I struggle, because unfortunately, I never found them. It was like I had all of the corner and side pieces, but the middle ones were lost. Now, if you follow my reviews, I usually just rate a book I kind of liked a 3 or 3.5 and just give a synopsis of that book, rarely do I explain what I didn’t like about it. But I feel like I have to give some explanation because I was raving about how much I was loving this book.

Now, please don’t read the rest of this review, unless you have read the book because it will be majorly spoilery if you do and I don’t want to ruin the book for you. That is why it is in spoiler tags!!! You have been WARNED!!

View Spoiler »1) NO ONE KNOWS CORALIE IS BEING ABUSED?

⦿Coralie lives her childhood with an alcoholic monster of a father who physically and mentally abuses her and NO ONE appears to know. Now, let’s think about this. She has a neighbor who we learn has become a surrogate mother to her since her own mother KILLED HERSELF because of her OWN physical abuse from her father. … Yet, this woman doesn’t know? Or if she does, she never mentions nor does anything about it. Now, Coralie isn’t just being slapped, this child is being beaten, repeatedly, almost daily! But, Friday (the name of the friendly neighbor) continues to bring her food and friendly advice, all the while, not seeing or simply ignoring the bruises.

⦿Her boyfriend (who lives next door) believes her when she tells him she gets her bruises by playing Lacrosse, LACROSSE! (Even though she’s never allowed to leave the house.) Callan walks her to and home from school every day. He never goes to a game. (Because there isn’t one.) Now, what boyfriend would not question when your Lacrosse games are, and not want to go watch you PLAY?

⦿As I mentioned, he lives next door. She slips through his window every night when her father goes to sleep and sleeps with Callan. (Again, he never questions her bruises – Lacrosse, remember?) His mother doesn’t mind, nor question her sleeping there (???) because mother and son are more like friends (father is not in the picture). Now, here is where I have a(nother) problem. Mother likes Coralie. She sees Coralie. They have conversations. She has to notice the bruises.  She is a DOCTOR. Not only would she be trained to notice abuse, she would be MANDATED to report it! Now, I know Coralie uses makeup to cover the bruises, but she’s been sleeping and some of that does wear off … and I know her father is good at beating her so that others don’t see them, but…

⦿At 16%, the bathroom scene it gets kinda creepy, and we see dad getting overly friendly with his daughter, which leads the reader to believe that in the future, he will have a sexual relationship with Coralie. Now, believe me, I did NOT want that to happen, I did NOT want to read that, see that nor imagine that. Because that would be awful. It is an awful thing for anyone to experience. I would never wish it on anyone. Yet, because the way the scene is written, I kept anticipating it. I kept looking for it. Yet, there was nothing. Nothing more was ever mentioned. I was so confused. Why was that there?

2.)  OMG FOR THE MAJORITY OF THIS BOOK, I THOUGHT CALLAN WAS MY NEW BBF! SERIOUSLY, HE WAS THE STUFF BBF DREAMS WERE MADE OF…

❝ The seas could have frozen over. The heavens could have come crashing down to earth. Time could have stood still, and I would never have been able to cleanse myself of you.❞

and there’s this:

❝ It wasn’t your decision to make, Coralie. Jesus. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.❞

⦿Okay, wait, what? Wasn’t it? He must not know the definition of survival? Was he being beaten for 17 years? Was he being ignored by his friends and loved ones for 17 years, and basically being left to die? No, he wasn’t. He was being a selfish ass! And had no right to be angry! This pissed me off! And I’m sorry, he didn’t redeem himself by looking at a couple of photo’s and realizing he was wrong and setting the house ablaze. His misplaced anger was uncalled for.

3)WAS HER DAD MURDERED OR DID HE KILL HIMSELF?

⦿I don’t really know. He was found on the same bridge his wife killed herself, with a kitchen knife sticking out of his chest. Now, it alluded to suicide, as well it alluded to murder. Even though, at 30% the Sheriff states they are going to wait until he is buried to declare suicide, I have a hard time with the fact that he killed himself in this manner… plunging a kitchen knife into his chest. Not an easy act, medically. It doesn’t make sense.  This is glossed over and never answered. Now, maybe it’s just me, but I think it should have been addressed since the reason she’s back in town is his death.

4) WHAT CAUSED HER DAD TO SOBER UP AND CHANGE?

⦿For 12 years she was gone. And now, when she returns home, she finds out that of those 12 years, her father has been sober for 10!?? And had been attending church? Okay, this is HUGE. Because remember, this man had been an alcoholic monster for at least the 17 years of her childhood. This complete about-face was never explored. What caused this complete change in character?

5) A PERSON WHO HAS BEEN PHYSICALLY BEATEN THEIR ENTIRE CHILDHOOD WILL BE SCARRED EMOTIONALLY.

⦿Therefore, having your boyfriend or spouse “spank” you within the context of sex is not something that will happen 7 months after reuniting, if ever.

6) THE BASEMENT SCENE …

⦿ *sigh* loss of blood. dehydration. no antibiotics. no medical intervention. It was all just too much, and unbelievable. « Hide Spoiler

Please know, I was very close to claiming this as a top favorite of the year. Sadly, there were too many holes and loose ends. As well, I felt like we were lead on some paths that didn’t go anywhere.  Calico was a 5 Star read up until about 3/4 of the way through. I know many people who found this to be a 4 and 5-star worthy book and who were not as bothered by those things that I listed.  So take this review for what it is, an opinion. If you haven’t read Calico, read it for yourself and let me know what you think! If you have, I would love to know your thoughts.

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