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Suzanne's Reviews > Random & Rare
Random & Rare (Lock & Key, #2)
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ARC received & read.
My review was originally posted on EDGy Reviews as part of a group review.
Random & Rare takes this story back to when Dig and Grace first met, only from Dig’s POV. First up I thought, what? This is Dig’s story? No, surely not? Had my memory failed me? Was it going to be a paranormal book or had something occurred that we weren’t aware of? Well, needless to say I went into Random and Rare a little confused. I usually read the previous book in a series before getting into the latest release to refresh my memory of where the story was at. So I picked up and read Lock and Key (L&K) , then before I’d finished it, the Buddy Read had commenced! I threw caution to the wind, stopped reading L&K and just jumped straight into Random and Rare. Best decision ever. IMO there is no need to prepare for this book if you’re reading this series in order, you’ll be fine. The story is presented in two parts, first part being Dig’s POV and the second featuring Grace and Miller.
Dig takes us through his take on how he and Ruby’s little sister aka Grace met. Now this is where I struggled a bit. Part 1 covers old ground and being familiar with it all from Grace’s POV, hearing it again so soon, his POV felt a little slow to me. It was good to hear his thoughts and reasoning behind his actions and in hindsight it was important to the story overall.
Once I moved on to the second part, which had returned to the future (and really where I expected this story to start), focusing on how Grace and Miller and their individual struggles as they become weighted down by all that surrounded her, giving this section a distinctive melancholy overtone for the majority of the time IMO. I started to wondered how much bad luck could one group of people endure.
What haunted me as Grace struggled through, was how much of an influence Dig had on the events that played out in Part 2. Could he be still being that protective force, having started a continuum of righteousness triggered by the good deeds and justice he metered out over the years? He was helpless as a child. As a man, he had the power to influence and prevent the evil that some depraved characters inflict on others. The goodness Dig was trying to cultivate contained copious possibilities. It was the only way he knew to fight the memories of his family’s demise, to never let anyone suffer the way his sister Evie and his parents did that day. He would never cower. In his quest to shelter Grace from the darkness of the memories trapped within him, he kept her in the dark, not privy to what he was up to and when she only had the benefit of her own observations and snippets others shared with her did she formed a misjudged perception of Dig’s behavior during the lead up to that last ride. And so did I…
For a while there I was expecting Dig to do a Lazarus and in retrospect he did through symbolic and random coincidences that Grace didn’t notice until the mystery of ‘that girl’ is resolved. At that point I shook my head, how did I miss all this, the title of the book all of a sudden made so much sense. There was a need for not only Grace to come to terms with the accurate take on the events that have shaped hers and others lives to see the beauty in all that appears random and rare. Whether it be coincidence, chance or orchestrated – it provided a platform for the life that eluded Dig to finally come to fruition and in some abstract way have him a part of it.
Overall, Random and Rare is very moving story. There are minor plot lines intricately woven into all that Grace and Miller have to contend with. The story itself was presented in a way that was not how I imagined it would be (to be honest, I was wondering what was going on when I saw the prologue). I wasn’t disappointed, it was more that I didn’t expect the story to pan out the way it did.
The epilogue wrapped up what was at times a difficult story to read, thank you Cat for bringing it home for me so neatly in a way that was not done so for the sake of finishing a book!
What I loved:
*Dig handing over his sunglasses to that girl in need
*Tania, good friends see beyond the moment
*The epilogue, I needed it
What I struggled with:
*The horrific flashbacks
*Creeper – he was creepy, weird and depraved
* Reading L&K again before heading straight into R&R
My review was originally posted on EDGy Reviews as part of a group review.
Random & Rare takes this story back to when Dig and Grace first met, only from Dig’s POV. First up I thought, what? This is Dig’s story? No, surely not? Had my memory failed me? Was it going to be a paranormal book or had something occurred that we weren’t aware of? Well, needless to say I went into Random and Rare a little confused. I usually read the previous book in a series before getting into the latest release to refresh my memory of where the story was at. So I picked up and read Lock and Key (L&K) , then before I’d finished it, the Buddy Read had commenced! I threw caution to the wind, stopped reading L&K and just jumped straight into Random and Rare. Best decision ever. IMO there is no need to prepare for this book if you’re reading this series in order, you’ll be fine. The story is presented in two parts, first part being Dig’s POV and the second featuring Grace and Miller.
Dig takes us through his take on how he and Ruby’s little sister aka Grace met. Now this is where I struggled a bit. Part 1 covers old ground and being familiar with it all from Grace’s POV, hearing it again so soon, his POV felt a little slow to me. It was good to hear his thoughts and reasoning behind his actions and in hindsight it was important to the story overall.
Once I moved on to the second part, which had returned to the future (and really where I expected this story to start), focusing on how Grace and Miller and their individual struggles as they become weighted down by all that surrounded her, giving this section a distinctive melancholy overtone for the majority of the time IMO. I started to wondered how much bad luck could one group of people endure.
What haunted me as Grace struggled through, was how much of an influence Dig had on the events that played out in Part 2. Could he be still being that protective force, having started a continuum of righteousness triggered by the good deeds and justice he metered out over the years? He was helpless as a child. As a man, he had the power to influence and prevent the evil that some depraved characters inflict on others. The goodness Dig was trying to cultivate contained copious possibilities. It was the only way he knew to fight the memories of his family’s demise, to never let anyone suffer the way his sister Evie and his parents did that day. He would never cower. In his quest to shelter Grace from the darkness of the memories trapped within him, he kept her in the dark, not privy to what he was up to and when she only had the benefit of her own observations and snippets others shared with her did she formed a misjudged perception of Dig’s behavior during the lead up to that last ride. And so did I…
For a while there I was expecting Dig to do a Lazarus and in retrospect he did through symbolic and random coincidences that Grace didn’t notice until the mystery of ‘that girl’ is resolved. At that point I shook my head, how did I miss all this, the title of the book all of a sudden made so much sense. There was a need for not only Grace to come to terms with the accurate take on the events that have shaped hers and others lives to see the beauty in all that appears random and rare. Whether it be coincidence, chance or orchestrated – it provided a platform for the life that eluded Dig to finally come to fruition and in some abstract way have him a part of it.
Overall, Random and Rare is very moving story. There are minor plot lines intricately woven into all that Grace and Miller have to contend with. The story itself was presented in a way that was not how I imagined it would be (to be honest, I was wondering what was going on when I saw the prologue). I wasn’t disappointed, it was more that I didn’t expect the story to pan out the way it did.
The epilogue wrapped up what was at times a difficult story to read, thank you Cat for bringing it home for me so neatly in a way that was not done so for the sake of finishing a book!
What I loved:
*Dig handing over his sunglasses to that girl in need
*Tania, good friends see beyond the moment
*The epilogue, I needed it
What I struggled with:
*The horrific flashbacks
*Creeper – he was creepy, weird and depraved
* Reading L&K again before heading straight into R&R
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Reading Progress
February 11, 2015
– Shelved
Started Reading
March 7, 2015
–
Finished Reading
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.chel.
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Mar 11, 2015 12:35PM
Can't wait to hear your thoughts on this one
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.chel. wrote: "Can't wait to hear your thoughts on this one"First biggie is there is no need to read Lock& Key again to refresh your memory :)
I really enjoyed it, not as much as Lock and Key, but still a good one!
Lock & Key is on my TBR already, guess this one will be now too:) Great review, Lily (still trying to wrap my head around that LOL)!
Elle the ClosetRomanceReader aka Leftie wrote: "Lock & Key is on my TBR already, guess this one will be now too:) Great review, Lily (still trying to wrap my head around that LOL)!"Haha, me too :)
Make sure that you have a break between reading L&K and R&R. Part 1 being Dig's POV will be very familiar but you'll love him just a little bit more :)
Ah, good to know! xx
