(When Love Gets Complicated…): Thoughtless by S.C. Stephens

(When Love Gets Complicated…): Thoughtless by S.C. StephensThoughtless by S.C. Stephens
Series: Thoughtless #1
on 2012-11-06
Pages: 530
Goodreads
one-star
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author S.C. Stephens comes the new adult series everyone is talking about.For almost two years now, Kiera’s boyfriend, Denny, has been everything she’s ever wanted: loving, tender, and endlessly devoted to her. When they head off to a new city to start their lives together—Denny at his dream job and Kiera at a top-notch university—everything seems perfect. Then an unforeseen obligation forces the happy couple apart. Feeling lonely, confused, and in need of comfort, Kiera turns to an unexpected source—a local rock star named Kellan Kyle. At first, he’s purely a friend she can lean on, but as her loneliness grows, so does their relationship. And then one night everything changes…and none of them will ever be the same.

Kiera moves to Seattle with a boyfriend who adores her and she loves him in return. Her two-year relationship with Denny has had its ups and downs but they are at a stage where she’s thinking of him as her forever. But his new job has him working longer hours and between her studies and his work they don’t get to see each other as much as they used to despite living together for the first time. When Denny’s job takes him interstate for two months, Kiera grows closer to her rockstar-in-training roommate Kellen. He’s gorgeous, sensuous and is there for her when Denny isn’t. But their relationship grows into something less innocent and Keira finds herself faced with an impossible choice.

With sensual and steamy intimate scenes mixed with interesting relationship dynamics, Thoughtless seems to be the perfect package. It is well-written and romantic. Thoughtless is heartbreaking and honest with realistic and well thought out characters.

So why didn’t I enjoy it?

After reading Thoughtless I can see why so many people loved it. It is emotionally gripping and heartbreaking with a love triangle unlike others I’ve read before. But my own morals and ideals got in the way of me fully embracing the story or the characters.

When you have a story where a woman is in a committed relationship but starts to have strong feelings for another man, there are only two ways in which it works for me. Either the man she is with is either a) abusive (emotionally, physically or otherwise) or b) so bland I forget he exists. Denny was neither. He’s caring and loves Kiera. His only real problem seems to be Kiera is incredibly needy and constantly needs male attention to validate her own self-worth. Her relationship with Kellan is never truly innocent with her having an emotional affair with him from the moment Denny is out-of-town. I found the entire character of Kiera to be a little shallow. She uses the word ‘beautiful’ to talk about Denny almost every single time she thinks about him and his perfect boyfriend behaviour but resents him being around as it gets in the way of her Kellan time. Whilst I liked how her relationship with Kellan developed over the course of the novel – problems and all – I still didn’t enjoy the cheating angle. I wanted Kiera to make a choice and stick with rather than trying to have her cake and eat it too.

The frustrations Kellan feels were incredibly realistic and I found him a very likeable character. His history and unconventional relationship with Kiera were beautifully written with the mess being somewhat enjoyable to read despite how emotionally devastating it was for the characters involved. But it kept getting tied back into the love triangle situation. I can appreciate that had I not been so against the adultery I would have loved how the story was well-rounded and connected back to everything and everyone but due to my own prejudices against these types of relationships I just wanted to ignore that Kiera was having an affair.

I was a little disappointed with the end of the novel. After all the gut-wretching drama and emotional turmoil, I thought the way everything played out at the end was a bit of a cop-out. I don’t know what I expected but I wanted to see more growth from Kiera and for her standing on her own and making up her own mind. That said, the ending was realistic and for the most part authentic with regards for the characters.

Will I be reading the rest of the trilogy? Yes. I liked how this book was written despite almost giving up a dozen times whilst reading. I’m interested in seeing what is next for Kiera and her relationship. My moral issues shouldn’t impede my enjoyment considering Thoughtless wraps up the love triangle. And plus – I had already bought Effortless and Reckless before I read Thoughtless!

 


 

 

Pros:

  • Gorgeous rock star
  • Emotionally and sensual steamy scenes
  • Great secondary characters

 

Cons:

  • Denny’s slang (He’s from where I live and yet occasionally decided to use slang I’ve never heard of before. I had to look it up! Also – I wanted Kiera to say something nice about him which wasn’t his sexy accent or beautiful good looks).
  • Adultery
  • Kiera’s attitude (She thinks she’s a prude but her actions show she’s not as conservative sexually as she would like to think. It just annoyed me)

 

 

2 Comments

  1. I really don’t see myself enjoying this book regardless of the positive points you mentioned. It goes against everything I believe about relationships and love. Lol. Don’t get me wrong, I can, from time to time, enjoy such a trope but there is something about this series that screams, “will induce rage”.

  2. Pingback: Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books That Were Hard For Me To Read - Fictional Thoughts

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