G97 E-Reading Book Review of #2 Trust Betrayed by Cristiane Serruya (The Elegant and Intelligent Fifty Shades of Grey)

Name of Book: Trust: Betrayed

Author: Cristiane Serruya

ISBN: 9781482586473

Publisher: Createspace

Part of a Series: Trust Trilogy

Type of book: relationships, trust, past, 1980s, 2010, love triangle, history, possession, sexuality, wealth, Scotland, Brazil, "Avenging Angel", BDSM, vanilla sex

Year it was published: 2013

Summary:

In BETRAYED, the second installment of the Trust series, Sophia, Ethan and Alistair will face and revisit their past dark deeds.
Each one of them will need to overcome their guilt, fear and pain and learn to see themselves through forgiving eyes.
Or succumb to their misery.
Alistair Connor MacCraig, a powerful banker, and Ethan Ashford, a steel tycoon, are both in love with Sophia Leibowitz, the ravishing owner of Leibowitz Oil.
Sophia fells for Alistair's seduction. She is determined to have a relationship with him but a dark and terrible secret lurks beneath the surface she presents to the world. When she regains her memories, shame and fear will take control of her. Will she be able to find peace within herself?
Alistair is in love with Sophia but he has difficulties overcoming his guilty over his daughter's death and his sexual preferences. Certain that he doesn't deserve to be loved, he would do everything to push Sophia away, despite his love for her. Will he be able to find redemption?
Ethan, no less haunted by his secrets and lies, lives in an alternate reality because the loss of Sophia is too unbearable to face. He would do everything to have Sophia back in his arms

Characters:

How many licks does it take to the center of the Tootsie Roll? My reply would be G-d only knows. How many layers does Sophia have? G-d only knows. If you think you have fully discovered Sophia in the first book, boy you are wrong. Cristiane masterfully adds more and more layers to her, many I hadn't expected. In the first book I found her an adorable and strong woman who seems to be perfect in every way. In this book we see her vulnerabilities and her dark secrets began to pop out. Perhaps she might be dealing with PTSD (Post traumatic Stress Disorder, I am thinking.) We also see more of her family members; the strong and loyal Felipe, her twin sisters who finish each other sentences, and her younger sister Carolina who has a mysterious fiancé. Alistair undergoes through a lot of changes in the book and I no longer hated him but wanted him to have a happy ending. While Ethan is there as well,  we do learn a lot of his past and he was not a very active character as Sophia and Alistair and were. Gabriella and Alistair's family were there too (Am hoping for a character sheet near the future to keep all the family members straight...)

Theme:

Its possible to heal through love

Plot:

This is written in third person narrative from Alistair's, Ethan's and Sophia's points of view. Just like in previous book the narration moves from Alistair's to Sophia's thoughts and so forth, but perhaps I am familiar with her writing style (at least from the first book,) the style didn't annoy me. Lack of transitions between past and present scenes did annoy me, however and I almost didn't give it five stars. That annoyance did last in beginning only, and towards the middle and end the flashbacks came with transitions. One question that I am curious to ask about is, what are the color of Sophia's eyes? Are they hazel, golden or brown? (Sophia's eyes are always described as either hazel or golden...) There aren't a lot of mention of luxury brands in the book and its very tightly woven and has more action than the first book.

Author Information:
(from goodreads.com)

born
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil April 25, 1970

gender
female

website
http://cristianeserruya.com.br

twitter username
CrisSerruya

genre
Contemporary, Romance, Chick Lit

influences
Classic literature, historical romance

member since
November 2012

I live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with my husband and two daughters. I'm a lawyer, who specializes in cases of sexual abuse and violence against children and women. I also have a Masters in Business Law and a BA in Fine Arts.

I've always loved to read, write and listen to music. I lived and studied in England, France, Italy and Switzerland. Traveling is one of my passions - as is keeping fit and healthy.

After twenty-two years of practicing law, I decided to give writing a go. And - amazingly - it was just the piece that was missing in my life.

Opinion:

Wow, she has done it again, earned 5 stars on my book review blog. This is as good, if not better than the first book; Sophia is still smart and sexy and puts limits on herself and others; Alistair is struggling with accepting forgiveness; Ethan is absent for 98 percent of the book, although he does make appearances and the reader is treated to his history, just as more about Sophia and Alistair is also revealed. If one found the labels annoying, (I didn't, but in case if you did,) then they barely appear in this book, and its more plot driven than before. I also learned to like Alistair and rooted for him almost all the time. (Sorry Ethan,) however I did have a few problems with the book: one is to pay careful attention to the ending date in the first book before reading the second book, (in second book without a warning we are transported to few weeks after a certain event in first book,) and second thing that bothered me are the past scenes without rhyme or reason and lack of transitional words to make it smooth. For example, one scene would be focused on Sophia and Alistair, but then without a transit or mention of why, we are switched to a scene from Ethan's past (She does warn ahead of time, but it doesn't fit the narrative,) these switches really bugged me the first half of the book though. When I was done with it, I groaned to heavens at the fact I have to wait SEVEN MONTHS to hopefully read the last book!

Quick notes: I would like to thank the author for the opportunity to read and review the book.

5 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)