ARC Review: Constant by Rachel Higginson

Recommended Read!

“I had to devour it…”
~ Under the Covers

Whenever Rachel Higginson has a new book out, I often don’t even need to know what it’s about to know I’ll want to read it. She’s quickly become one of those auto-read authors for me. And then when I heard about the premise of CONSTANT I was so excited about it because it’s not like anything I’ve read from her before. I always love to read a good bad boy story. I had gone in expecting this to be a dark story but in many ways I’m glad that it wasn’t really dark. There are some dark subjects tackled but this is not a dark romance. So I just wanted to start off by clarifying that in case anyone had reservations about that aspect.

What this book does deal with is the Russian Mafia. Specifically the fact that Caroline, the heroine of this story, has been knee deep in it since she was a child because her father worked for them. She worked for them from a young age. And she was also the reason why Sayer, the hero, was rescued from a life on the streets to work for them. Their lives are so intrinsically entwined with them that when she disappeared and ran away from it all, leaving love and danger behind, nobody saw it coming. And nobody knew the reason why.

I think the POV in this story was both one of my favorite things as well as the most frustrating. It’s told in First Person POV entirely and I was dying to know more. I needed to know things outside of Caroline’s head. It was a great way to experience the story because it allowed it to unfold at the pace it needed to for the reader. Good for the story, bad for my anxiety because I couldn’t read fast enough to know everything! Even if I had things pretty much figured out.

All the elements worked perfectly together for me in this one. The setting, the characters, their personalities, the moral ambiguity at times when it served a higher goal, and ultimately the chemistry between the main couple. I came to really like Sayer even if we don’t get to see a lot about him at first, and I absolutely adored Caroline. Of course, there are also great side characters especially her best friend Francesca because… what a great name! LOL The life Caroline has created for herself in Colorado is a life of looking over her shoulder and staying away from people but she has her few close relationships and they felt like real connections even as she tried to deny that to herself. I felt her hunger for a normal life.

I’ll admit this was a little bit of a slow starter for me. I didn’t immediately get sunk in even though I absolutely adored Sayer and Caroline’s connection as kids trying to survive in that world. But once it hooked me, I couldn’t put it down. I had to devour it and I’m anxiously awaiting the conclusion of this duology (coming February).

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