Review: Facade by Nyrae Dawn

Can love save them?

After her father commits a crime that shatters her family, eighteen-year-old Delaney Cross is tired of pretending everything is all right. Packing up her car, she sets out to find the people her father hurt. Her search leads her to places she’s never been—and into the arms of Adrian Westfall.

To the outside world, Adrian is a sexy, charming ladies’ man. But his playboy persona is just an act. Secretly his soul is tortured by a memory too painful to share. Only Delaney seems to see through his façade to the real man underneath. And for the first time in his life, Adrian feels he can begin to open up about his past.

Together, Adrian and Delaney share a passionate love they never expected to find. Yet both still harbor their own secrets. When the dark truth is finally revealed, will it bring them closer together—or tear them apart forever?

4.5  Star Review

I adored Colt and Chey from Charade. So much so that I would not be surprised if Nyrae Dawn had a restraining order put out on me. Her second book in The Game Series, Façade, does not disappoint. Adrian Westfall and Delaney Cross are both tortured souls for different and yet similar reasons. Adrian is a party loving, nail every female in sight, kind of guy. His nightly ritual is having tons of people, half of whom he has no idea who they are, over to get drunk, high and meet the girl of the night. The next night-it will start all over again, but with a new girl of course. He is tormented by visions of his nephew, Ash’s, death and his guilty part in it. Alcohol and drugs numb his pain; even if it’s just for a little while. Delaney and her brother Maddox have always depended on each other. She is 18, he is 3 years older. Their father is in jail, and their mother has a habit of trying to commit suicide and blaming Delaney for letting her live. The siblings decide to move to a new town, although Delaney has a specific town in mind for a specific reason.

Adrian is outside talking to Colt and Chey (Oh, how I have missed you two) when Delaney pulls up to unload boxes for her new apartment. Seems she and Maddox will be living in the same complex as Colt and Chey. Adrian can’t let a good opportunity to hit on an attractive female get by him and he seizes the moment. Introductions are made and some flirty banter is exchanged. Finding they have an instant attraction, the moment is ruined when Maddox drives up on his motorcycle and Adrian mistakes him for Delaney’s boyfriend. He retreats as he has no interest in triangles and drama.

“My friend’s girl is over there. She’ll tell you I’m nothing but a huggable teddy bear.” I almost throw in a “Wanna cuddle?”  but I think it’s too much.

These two are destined to meet again. Delaney is well aware of who Adrian is, but Adrian has no idea that she knows more about him than what he has told her. He shows such a soft protective side when he is with her. The remedies to cope with the pain don’t seem quite so necessary as they did before.

Delaney struggles with her secrets. Adrian has become so important to her that she worries if he knows her secrets he’ll hate her. Meanwhile, she is trying to keep a relationship going with her mother, who is nothing short of abusive to her, and trying to hold the family together for her brother, who has his own set of problems.

Like all good secrets, Delaney’s eventually manage to surface. Will this tear them apart? Can both of them live with the demons in their pasts?

I loved this book. Seeing many of the characters is like visiting old friends, especially Colt and Chey. Adrian is one of the most tortured souls I’ve ever read about; he wears his guilt like it was part of his skin, embedded into his soul and he is incapable of forgiving himself or finding closure on his own. Delaney is like a salve to his wounds and even though she too is fractured she brings out the best in him and helps him heal. There are a couple of twists in this book that will throw you for a loop, and make you wonder if you read that right or not-all part of the journey you are travelling. This is a wonderful book!

“You helped me stop bleeding. You made my heart beat when I thought it was gone. All those things you said I do for you? They’re nothing compared to what you do for me.”