Back Cover Blurb
book 2 in the Safe Harbor Series
genre: new adult romance
Modern-day pirates took more than Jori Virtanen’s friends; they stole his face. Not only does the twenty-four-year-old former model have to confront months of reconstructive surgery, he discovers his previous life was as superficial as his looks. Jori struggles to make a new life for himself as an artist while evading the press. They expect a hero, but he knows the truth. His beauty masks a beast.
Olivia Howard’s given up a normal life for her job, and the sacrifices are finally paying off. The twenty-six-year-old talk-show host’s ratings are heading to the top of the charts. Her dream is to make a difference in people’s lives, but the studio wants mind fluff—like interviewing hot model Jori Virtanen. When Olivia learns the guy helped rescue passengers on a cruise excursion from kidnappers, she knows this is the story she needs to make her case. The only problem is the hero was injured, and now he’s disappeared.
The more Olivia learns about the man behind the scar, the more intrigued she becomes. But Jori is no girl’s happily ever after. Once she finds him, Olivia has to free his heart and help heal the beast.
My Review
5 of 5 stars
Torn Canvas is a companion novel-slash-sequel to A Change of Plans, and boy does it deliver! I really loved book one, but I think I might love book two even more. Torn Canvas overlaps the timeline of A Change of Plans.
I love a broken character who has a fantastic character arc throughout the course of the novel. Jori provided all this and more. Jori has a troubled past, and uses that as an excuse to be less-than-honorable. He is the perfect example of a diamond in the rough, and by the end of the book I loved how he shined (although he still wasn’t perfect). His struggle was real and raw.
One of my favorite parts of the story was the romance between Olivia and Jori. It developed slowly, over time, and in a very believable way, but still with plenty of happy-sigh moments. I loved Olivia as a character as well, and I loved how she was feisty.
A big pet peeve of mine is when companion novels repeat too much of the first book. The author balanced this perfectly in my opinion. I loved seeing where Jori’s story intersected with Lynn’s, but nothing felt like a repeat of old material. It was either mentioned super briefly, or felt new because of Jori’s perspective. She also did a great job of telling enough about what had happened in A Change of Plans to be able to follow Torn Canvas, but not giving huge info-dumps that frustrated me because I’d already read book one.
Despite Jori’s very sensitive issues, they were handled in a very PG-rated way. This book is a great, clean romance. Add to that an interesting plot and compelling characters, and pretty much all I could do was put on cartoons for the kids and keep reading until I had finished the last page.
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Wow! Great write-up. Thanks so much for hosting Torn Canvas by Donna K. Weaver and we hope you find more awesome reads through Lady Reader's Bookstuff Blog Tours in the future.