Review: Devotion (The Hunted #4) by Ivy Smoak

Print Length: 344 pages

Publisher: Ivy Smoak (October 27, 2016)

From Goodreads.com:  Tick tock. One day before the wedding of her dreams, Penny is in a city that is no longer her home. Alone. Heartbroken. Lost. Could the past few years really mean so little to a man that became her world? To a man she'd do anything to protect? There is no future without him. There is no her without him.

With only 24 hours until the wedding, is there enough time to repair the damage? Tick tock.

And even if Penny and James do come back to each other, Isabella is still out there plotting. The world is still against them. Darkness still lurks in the shadows of James' past. A student and her professor were never meant to be forever. They thought it was an everlasting love, but it was doomed from the very start. Tick tock.

Temptation led to addiction, which exploded into an eruption of chaos. And when the pieces settled, only one thing became clear...devotion. One great love. A love worth fighting for. Because the only thing that lasts forever is love.

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My Rating: 1 star out of 5

How many times can one author repeat the same useless drivel at a reader? Apparently in the case of this author, A LOT. Honestly over the course of not just this book, but the other three I wish I had kept track of just  how many times I read that James "lowered both his eyebrows (apparently he spends a lot of times with them raised), or how many times during sex Penny felt "the familiar warmth" of his semen, "spread up into her stomach". 

Ugh. 

Once again we are treated to the angsty "love" between James and Penny - although honestly aside from some mediocre sex (that is meant to be really hot, but never gets there) there is nothing between these two. It's quite easy to see why his ex-wife (and James himself) repeatedly says it isn't love they share but he's addicted to her/sex. 

I liked how the author tried to add substance to this novel through the use of James' ex-wife Isabella, however her villainy was just so over the top bad that I couldn't take her seriously either. I mean come on now - I'm expected to believe that one woman was so evil and diabolical that she not only enlisted the help of a former enemy of James, but a police officer, a member of his security team, a lawyer (to formulate fake paperwork), a nurse, AND James' own mother and absolutely NO ONE figures it out sooner? Come the heck on now! Sure one or two things might have slipped through the cracks, but not all of this. Added to that, when Penny and James are questioned by a new detective who is taking over their case and the detective point blank says he is missing key information when another officer was supposed to fill him in AND NOT A SINGLE PERSON IN THE ROOM THINKS THIS IS SUSPICIOUS? 

And then we have the fact that EVERY SINGLE DOCTOR AND NURSE NOT BEING PAID OFF TURNS A BLIND EYE TO EVERYTHING GOING ON. I mean Isabella managed to get into his hospital room twice and none of the other staff thought it was odd even though the man was shot three times at his wedding reception? They literally have a list of people who can visit (his own friends are not allowed) and security on the door and no one sees his ex stroll in and out on two separate occasions? Anyway - the last time she gets in there, she has the member of his security team use chloroform on Penny and she wakes up in the hospital room duct taped to a chair. Isabella wakes James up from the sedative the nurse had given him and the whole time she's threatening Penny with a gun. AND NO ONE NOTICES THIS? I mean there IS more than one nurse on a floor.
So then Penny gets loose (after James tricks Isabella to get close to him and strangles her until she's unconscious) but she wakes up after only a couple of minutes and is going to shoot them both (because instead of getting help they have to hug it out or some nonsense), but luckily his other security guy busts through the door and shoots Isabella.... and the window behind her. And she falls out of the window. Ummmm okay. Sure. Let's go with that.

The part I'm most annoyed with? Is that I HATE leaving series unfinished. And just when I started to celebrate the fact that I have made it through four books of this unrealistic and unbelievable nonsense, I find out there are three more books written under a different name. Although to be honest, I can't tell if they are a continuation of the Hunted series or if the author decided to condense four books worth of a hot mess into three and finally come up with an actual ending for these characters instead of another useless cliff-hanger.  Although they too appear to be available on KU, I think I'm going to take a break from this author for a good long while and then maybe, MAYBE, on a drunken whim try the new series. MAYBE. 

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                                        Devotion is available from Amazon.com
                                           (for free if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited)