Review by cherryalakei -- Escape by Belle Ami

[cherryalakei]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Escape" by Belle Ami.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Escape
By Belle Ami

I have really been enjoying the romance genre lately, although from most of my romance reviews or ratings you would probably think otherwise. The thing is, I’m relatively new to the “romance” genre. I’ve always been kind of judgmental about strictly romance novels. I’m sure I’m not the only one to pass by the Harlequin Romance books at the grocery store and snub my nose at them disapprovingly. Making the jump from young adult novels like Twilight, The Hunger Games, The Selection, and even Percy Jackson- into full-fledged romance and erotica was not going to be easy but I was determined to give them a shot for a few reasons. Number one, I thought I was being too judgmental. What if I missed out on a great book because I literally judged the book by its cover? Number two, I thought reviewing romance books would be good for me because while I like love, I also had gripes against romance books and thought I could look at the genre with an unbiased opinion and see if I could indeed be won over.

The pattern I’m developing is this- I have a love/hate relationship with this genre. I like aspects of these books, but there are a lot of things that irritate me or get on my nerves too. I wanted to read Escape when I first saw it as Book of the Day a while ago. The cover looked sexy, and the synopsis sounded intriguing. By the time I got to reading it, I’d already read a few romance novels, and was starting to pick up on the checkpoints of the genre. I was hoping to really like Escape, and surprisingly I did. But of course, there were some issues for me.

Our story is about Layla Wallace, who is an art history major; (that always scores points with me because I’m an art major) and an only child of a renowned nuclear scientist. Her mother died when she was a teenager and on her deathbed, she vowed to her mother that she would remain a virgin until she found the person she was ultimately in love with. It is pertinent information to the story that she is Jewish, and dating a Saudi boy named Zamir who is pretty wealthy. Zamir has agreed to wait for her until they finish school, and while the relationship isn’t super serious; it’s serious enough that Zamir wants Layla to meet his parents in Dubai over Spring Break. Upon meeting them in a series of most unfortunate events, she and Zamir are kidnapped. They are thrown into Evin Prison, and while Zamir’s family gets him out, they leave her behind. The corrupted guards and officials think she is valuable and knows something, and Layla finds herself in a sticky predicament. Our other main character is Cyrus Hassani, a cold-blooded spy who is very good at his job. He is instructed to get Layla out of Evin Prison, and make her trust him, to get the “valuable” information by seducing her. Things ultimately change, and the two become hunted as a series of events unravels Cyrus’s spy status and his orders change to get her out completely before things escalate into a dire situation.

This is what sounded appealing to me- Stockholm syndrome meets spy thriller romance? That sounds great! It was great, at least parts of it were. One of my biggest issues in the beginning was I felt like a lot of the exposition was really thin. It felt like the author was following a checklist, making sure they hit all the necessary things that most books need. For instance, Layla’s backstory feels really forced. The dead parent, the virginal promise, the boyfriend who is ultimately expendable, the single parent who has worked on technology that could be dangerous for all of them. Layla is the focal point of most of my issues with this book, and in contrast to that; Cyrus is my favorite aspect of the book.

Cyrus’s backstory is not thin by any means. His exposition isn’t forced or stereotypical. Cyrus has been a spy since he got out of school, and is impeccable at his job. It doesn’t really leave him room for error, but he circumvents the tightrope and manages to obtain the trust of the enemy who feels so close to Cyrus he treats him as his own, and is also very good at keeping his affair with a high-profile widow pretty tightlipped. His mother and sister were taken into protective custody and had their deaths faked, because Cyrus agreed to be a spy for Israel. He has no real loyalties, other than to his job, but yet there are layers to his characters that Layla does not have. Even towards the end of the book, Cyrus’s emotional state and inner turmoil is fairly deep and complex and I really enjoyed his character and arc.

The biggest issue I have is the relationship between our two main characters. I can completely understand the setup- in a most impossible situation, Layla depends on Cyrus to keep her safe. She refers to him as Superman, and she needs him to escape the predicament she is in, in one piece. She needs to trust him. She thinks he’s attractive, and he makes her virginal loins quiver. I get it. The way he’s written it’s not hard to comprehend HER attraction, but HIS attraction to her is faulty. He thinks she’s pretty. That’s it. It’s alluded to that he thinks she’s feisty because she argues with him and has a temper, and he likes that; but her ”feistiness” isn’t really that as much as it annoying. He asks her to do things, and she questions him afraid of him leaving her on her own, or she coyly flirts with him because she thinks he’s hot and she wants him to want her- you know so she can be in control of the situation- so he will WANT to help her.

A lot of people complain about characters like Bella Swan or Anastasia Steele, but even these characters have complex reasonings why they are attracted to their love interests, and there’s more to them than just being pretty. The other big issue I have is that every time Layla is truly in danger from another man, it’s because he’s trying to rape her. Cyrus saves her from being raped at least three times. That coupled with her virginal promise, just makes me feel like her character doesn’t offer much else to anyone other than sex. Cyrus, the knight in shining armor protects her virginal status by having “almost sex” with her because you know, they are under surveillance, and his boss is expecting him to have sex with her to earn her trust so he can deliver on the goods with the information they think she’s’ harboring. Ultimately, I can smell the set up a mile away. Because she thinks she might not make it out alive, she doesn’t want to leave the earth a virgin and wants Cyrus to take her purity. The two even have a discussion because there are no condoms, and Layla reasons that she probably won’t make it and even if she does manage to get pregnant she won’t bother him with that. I knew as soon as she said that how the story was going to end.

The action sequences in this story were really good. There’s not a lot of sex in this book- maybe 3 sex scenes total, which is a drastic difference from some of the novels I’ve read leading up to this one. The spy thriller part of this book was great, clandestine orders, vibrant setting, being on the run. At times, it felt like an episode of NCIS or Burn Notice. I really enjoyed this about the book. One thing that did irritate me though was that there was a lot (and I mean A LOT) of double spaces or extra spaces between words. It was abundant through the book, and I’m not sure if it was just my Kindle app or if it was edited this way, but it threw me off every time I came across it.

I honestly would say this book was not a bad read. I would give it 3 out of 4 stars. I couldn’t give it 4, because of some of the issues with Layla and their relationship, not to mention to cheese factor some of the lines had. I didn’t feel it deserved a 2 though, mostly because what Layla lacks in character complexity for me Cyrus definitely makes up for it. I would recommend this to anyone who likes spy thrillers. If you are a fan of shows like NCIS, Burn Notice, or movies like The Bourne Identity, but you want some steamy love, this is the book for you. I’d also recommend this book to anyone who wants to test the water with the romance genre, as this book is a great gradual progression rather than an in your face affair.

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Escape
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Like cherryalakei's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Jazz14]

I read the book and wrote a review too but don't you think that the ending was quite predictable? By the way this was my first romance book. I never actually read this genre, I am more of a Mystery and thriller fan but I decided to read this....

[Jeremie Mondejar]

Nice review.
I feel the thrill on your review on how a woman tries to protect hers. while reading it, I feel like I'm watching a movie. Thanks.

[Naval Aulakh]

The review is very good. I enjoyed reading it ?

[cherryalakei]

I read the book and wrote a review too but don't you think that the ending was quite predictable? By the way this was my first romance book. I never actually read this genre, I am more of a Mystery and thriller fan but I decided to read this....

I did feel the ending was pretty predictable, much like I felt the story itself was kind of predictable. It adds to the "checklist" I mentioned in my review. However despite that predictability, I did like the story as a whole. I'm gonna have to check out your review!