Review: Dangerously Close by Dee J. Adams

 To sum it up: Bad-boy rock star Seger Hughes hit rock bottom after a near-fatal tragedy at his concert. He hates how his life has spun out of control. After changing his appearance and his name, he transforms into a different man: Mel Summers. Now he just needs a place to hide out from rabid fans and paparazzi.

An isolated cliffside mansion is perfect. Ashley Bristol, his only neighbor, is blind—and her assistant is a classical music fan. They have no clue who he really is, but someone else does and she’s waited her whole life to be with him.

Struggling to find her way after an accident that took her sight, Ashley is determined not to feel anything. Yet she gets to know Mel and can’t help falling for him. When her assistant mysteriously disappears, Ashley must rely on Mel more than ever. But then his past comes back to haunt them both, and just when they must pull together to avoid danger, betrayal and lies threaten to tear them apart...



★★★Over-all rating? 2 ½ Stars.★★★


Joe Manganiello definitely fit the bill when it came to the hero- he was perfect for the way Mel was described in the book.

Angela Osvart definitely reminded me so much of the heroine Ashley, who was blonde and rocked a pixi haircut. 

Over-all, this book just didn’t do anything for me- It wasn’t horrible… but it was far from great, and not something I would read again. The romance between the hero, Mel and the heroine Ashley was very slow to build- this is something that I typically love in my romance novels, but it was taken to the extreme in this book. I love that the whole “insta-love” thing didn’t happen like so many novels out their now-a-days feature, but I couldn’t count the number of times that I had wished the book would pick up speed. As for the hero and heroine, they both tried their best to hide their new selves from the real world, and in the process thy both found out that they had more in common than they thought- Ashley had lost so many months of her life in a coma from a past accident that scarred her on the inside and the out. Mel on the other hand, lost more of his life than he realized drowned in booze and hangovers. Those middle months of his tour was a complete blur- maybe not anything like Ashley had experienced, but his own hell nevertheless.

For the first time in his life, Mel felt like he got to be himself when he was with Ashley- He liked the way she made him feel... for once he felt comfortable in his own skin and it had been too long since he felt that way. She was the only person who ever made him feel like he was worth befriending simply because of who he was on the inside. For Ashley, Mel was the one person who gave her that hope that she had always felt was lost. The girl had been through more than enough hardships, the hardest being blind. She wasn’t capable of functioning as the independent woman she knew she was, and she truly hated feeling like a burden and relying on anyone… until Mel came along and a friendship grew between them. They had both grown to care for each other in all ways possible, and snuck into each other’s world and became best friends- but they tried their hardest to never cross that line that could possibly ruin the friendship that they both needed and craved.

The writing in this book wasn’t really an issue for me, but there was definitely too many plot details, in my opinion. What the ocean looked like on a warm summer’s day wasn't necessary. How the banana bread looked sitting on the counter, didn't matter. ...And don’t even get me started on how many freaking times I had to hear about the heroine’s dog. I swear, you couldn’t turn the page without it being introduced somewhere- I wouldn’t be surprised if the author came out with his own book in the future. My point is, so many meaningless details that were mentioned in this book were unnecessary and made the story completely drag.

All-in-all, nothing about this book was special. And to be honest, I was bored until the last page. The suspense aspect of this story was a little over the top in my opinion, and borderline cheesy. Unrealistic drama and extreme naivety can completely kill a book in this kind of genre, which I felt happened repeatedly in Dangerously Close. The villain was your typical stalker who followed the hero around for years- She bought his music… watched every interview he did… read his magazine articles… anything under the sun that would classify you as stalker potential, this woman did it. She felt like the hero belonged to her, so she did absolutely everything in her power to drive a wedge between the hero and the heroine… and of course neither one of them had expected her to be as crazy as she turned out to be. *rolls eyes* 

Don’t do what I did and let the “damsel in distress being saved by a rock star” theme make you want to buy this book- it wasn’t worth the money, and definitely wasn’t worth the time.