Review: Dirty Red (Love Me With Lies #2) by Tarryn Fisher

Dirty Red (Love Me With Lies #2)
by Tarryn Fisher
Published on: 12/21/12
Self Published
New Adult/Contemporary Romance

Dear Opportunist,

You thought you could take him from me, but you lost. Now, that he's mine I'll do anything to keep him. Do you doubt me? I have everything that was supposed to be yours. In case you were wondering; he doesn't ever think about you anymore. I won't let him go....ever.

Dirty Red

Leah Smith finally has everything she has ever wanted. Except she doesn't. Her marriage feels more like a loan than a lifelong commitment, and the image she has worked so hard to build is fraying before her eyes. With a new role and a past full of secrets, Leah must decide how far she is willing to go to keep what she has stolen.

My Rating: 4 Coffee Cups!

I fought myself on this book. I read and devoured the first book in the series, The Opportunist, but really had no desire to read something in Leah's POV. I didn't want to psychoanalyze her and pity her. But the book just kept calling to me. And of course there was Caleb. So I read it. Forewarning: this is going to be a relatively short review. I can't say much without giving it all away and yes, you DO need to read The Opportunist for this review to make a lick of sense :)

Leah Smith played dirty in The Opportunist, but in the end she got her man. This book filled in many of the gaps that the first book left as far as how she and Caleb met in the first place and what happened when Olivia went to Texas. I started the book hating her. Not really surprising, I figured that would be the case. Her antics didn't help matters. She had absolutely no interest in her newborn daughter whatsoever (to the point of neglect) and she actually resented her for taking Caleb's attention. As the book develops you start to understand the whys and hows of Leah's destructive personality. Her father's emotional abuse and neglect being one part of it. That doesn't mean I liked her, but her family did a number on her so I begun to soften a bit to her. You also have Sam the "gay Manny" who calls her on all of her shit. I also like how Sam was a minor connection to Olivia and brought her and Noah (who are indeed married) into the fold a bit. He actually helps her (to a certain degree) form a bond with her daughter Estella. And you could tell that, as horrible a person as she was, he pitied her. This book shows how truly desperate Leah was to get Caleb and to keep him. There was the pregnancy plan which was shown in the first book and then there were all the little things that she did to keep him and Olivia apart (you knew some things, but more get revealed). The sad part is that she had help in all of her scheming. Her mother, her sister, her sort of best friend and then HIS mother. But literally every tiny little lukewarm feeling that you acquire towards Leah as the book goes on gets smashed to smithereens with one short simple sentence....

"My first clear thought is that I want to make him pay. I flash to an irrational thought, where I picture myself hogtying Olivia and dumping her in the Everglades for the gators to deal with. Of course I would never do that — I would hire someone to do it for me.
I file through all of the other emotional bombs I can drop on him. I have told so many lies that I have an entire buffet of shadiness to choose from. I pluck out the worst one and rub my chin on my shoulder. This one will hurt him, probably deeper than anything that I could do or say about Olivia. Ready … set …"

I really want to see how this plays out. What happens with Caleb and Olivia. I really like Olivia and Noah together and what he's done for her to help her become better and stronger. But it's Caleb and Olivia... And the next book is called Thief and told in Caleb's POV...Gahh, next book now please! :)