ARC Review: THE TRUTH ABOUT HIM by M. O'Keefe

The Truth About Him

by M. O'Keefe

Everything I Left Unsaid, Book #2

ABOUT THE BOOK:

We played our roles, told each other lies.

But now Dylan is no longer just a mysterious deep voice on the other end of the line. We’re face-to-face and our relationship is very, very real.

We still have secrets—but so much is crystal clear:

The thrilling danger.

The raw, naked desire.

The need to keep feeling the way he makes me feel. Forever.

Dylan is putting up walls, trying to keep me safe, but he can’t shut me out. He has seen my darkness and rescued me. Now it’s my turn, if only he will let me.

There is so much going on in this story, so many great insights, that I don’t know where to start.  So I’ll start with my thoughts at the end of the book – LOVE IS WORK and you HAVE TO WORK for YOUR HEA. 

Molly O’Keefe ends her first book, Everything I Left Unsaid, with a whopper cliffhanger. With an intention, she spends no time resolving that issue fairly quickly at the beginning of this book and then the story jumps right into building a relationship on the foundation of two polarities – lies and truth.  Annie pretends she is someone else for the better part of the first book and yet, when she is on the phone with Dylan, she shares her naked truth.  Because of his history and his family’s history, Dylan is guarded.  He hides behind a role and denying his feelings not only for Annie, but for his family as well.  Yet, when he interacts with Annie, he is unguarded, laid bare.  Where do you go from here? 

A curious thing happened while I was reading the first half of this book.  I couldn’t figure out why these characters, who were so alive and vibrant in the first book, felt so flat to me.  And then it hit me; the author’s writing is so brilliant.  The characters are flat because somewhere along the line they start acting inauthentic with each other:

[Earlier] we were really showing each other exactly who we are.  The parts of us we never showed anyone, or even … maybe forgot we had. We showed each other our bedrock truth, without even knowing it. . . .[S]ince we came back here, things have gotten more confusing.  They’ve gotten harder because we’re showing each other that truth anymore.  We’re back to telling ourselves lies about who we really are and what we really want like we used to. 

It is so easy to default back into old behaviors, give in to old insecurities, let the past cloud the future.  This is a story about overcoming those obstacles and demanding truth.  

Dylan and Annie have a lot of challenges to address.  Dylan’s family is dysfunctional and he has long since distance himself from his father and brother.  However, with Annie’s help, he learns to confront the truth of his relationship with Ben and Max.  It’s heartbreaking.  For every two steps forward, there is a step back.  It could’ve been frustrating, but it for me, it added to the layers of their journey together.  

It’s because of the struggles between the two, that the Epilogue is so sweet.  It’s beautiful and it’s right.  

In A Nutshell:

I loved this two-book wonder.  Perfect for those readers looking for a complex romance with the heat that is off the Scoville scale. 

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.  The opinions are my own and I was not paid for this review.