X Marks The Spot by Opal Carew | An unrealistic and lacking romance.

Title: X Marks The Spot by Opal Carew 
Genre: Adult Romance

Synopsis:
Abi has been in love with Del for years, but they never got around to acting on their mutual attraction. And then she met and married his best friend, Liam.

But when Abi and Liam’s marriage falls apart, Abi decides to take control of her life and find her happily-ever-after with Del. So when they’re all staying in a country inn for her brother’s wedding, Abi decides to slip into Del’s bed and seduce him…except she accidentally ends up in Liam’s instead.

Liam never stopped loving Abi, and he plans to use every blazing hot trick in his book to keep her in his bed…even if it means sharing her with Del.

Review

*I received an E-Arc Via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

X Marks the Spot is my first experience with Opal Carew’s work, whilst she is a good writer the plot for this was frustrating and truly lacking for me. Firstly whilst I read the blurb beforehand I went in with different expectations, when it said ‘sharing Abi with Del’ I didn’t think it would mean literally share her. I was wrong.

The book begins with Abi who has had feelings for her friend Del for years, however she ended up marrying Del’s bestfriend Liam but they are now going through a Divorce. Abi wants to tell Del her feelings so her plan is to get into his bed and surprise him however she ends up in Liam’s bed. Abi was such a frustrating character for me, she was hard to like. Opal tries to make you feel emotion for her as she has gone through a miscarriage which is part of the reason for her marriage break down but she was so annoying to put it bluntly. She was childish as she slammed doors rather than talk rationally, she wasn’t consistent, and she slept with both men after saying how much she loves the other each time. I get that you can be in love with two people, but what was annoying for me is she would so easily forget about them to have sex with the other. Her resolve went so quickly.

Sadly the whole plot was too fast and unrealistic to me. I like romances which are somewhat believable but there was far too many what if’s surrounding this book. How are these three supposed to be in a relationship with each other and keep it going, have it kids? What do Abi’s family think? Her father and sisters who were very much present in other moments of the book. How do they come to terms that essentially Abi will have two husbands of sorts? It just really was too far-fetched for me.

I was also really frustrated with Del and Liam in this book. Frankly it was hard to like any of the characters. I was only 31% through and suddenly Del was asking Abi to marry him even though they hadn’t seen each other for months and she had just been sleeping with her not so ex. To be honest I think there was a real like of realistic narrative and story in favour of the sexual elements, clearly the threesome are meant to elicit passion but they were placed in this narrative of divorce drama, pregnancies and a large family so you can’t see how it would work in the long-term.  It poses too many questions that are left unanswered.

Overall X Marks The Spot was a 1 star read for me. I had such expectations of tension and drama but I thought that at the end there would be a realistic resolution but instead it felt a too fast paced novel with annoying characters in an unrealistic narrative. However I will consider trying more of Opal Carew’s work as I can see the potential for her writing depending on the plot.

Useful Links

Goodreads | www.opalcarew.com