Review: Desert Heat by Elizabeth Reyes

Title: Desert Heat
By: Elizabeth Reyes
My Copy: Netgalley.com
Book Whisperer's Rating: 

Besides working three jobs, worrying about her family back home, and running from her past, the worst thing to complicate Bethany Amaya’s life further would be a romance. But after a second-run in with the irresistibly sexy detective Damian Santiago, that’s exactly what she gets. In the blink of an eye, she’s caught up in a passionate romance with one of the most intense men she’s ever met.

Awestruck for a second time by the beautiful and intriguing performer, Damian is both surprised and delighted that Bethany agrees to something he didn’t even expect to be asking for so soon—exclusivity. As things heat up, Damian’s skills of detecting and reading body language begin to raise suspicions—Bethany is keeping something from him. Try as he might to calm his suspicions, the blatant signs become impossible to ignore.

Some things are better left unsaid. At least that’s what Bethany keeps telling herself. She never imagined falling in love so quickly, and she refuses to get Damian caught up in her troubles. She knows what he suspects—sees it in those possessive eyes. With Damian’s suspicions mounting, time is of the essence. The race is on, and Bethany finds herself scrambling to fix the past before the truth comes out and Damian finds out that it’s much worse than he suspected.

You know that we love Elizabeth Reyes here on this blog and we knew that we had to get our hands on her new book…and we did! 

Damian, a detective (that’s sexy), meets Bethany at a speed dating session.  There first four minutes together was nothing but a flat meeting but something in Bethany sparked a curious flame for Damian and after their second meeting, Damian knows that he wants her.

This book had me from the beginning.  Reading how Damian and Bethany quickly got to know each other was so simple and cute; it all started with a missing hair clip.  After the initial ‘getting to know you date,’ it seemed that their relationship started to build and build fast. 

However, Damian started to notice that Bethany was hiding something from him and as much as he questioned her about her secretive phone calls or text messages, he always was lied to.  I loved knowing that there was something going on that we were not privy to just yet, but soon it would be released and boy was it!  

*Spoilers*

This is, unfortunately, where it lost my 100% attention.  When I found out who Max was and what Bethany’s relationship was to him, I was done with Damian even knowing Bethany.  But then to have Damian dig deeper and find out more, so much more that he goes to Bethany to get more information from her and Max drops more bombs, it just made me angry.  Why and how would Damian still love Bethany let alone trust her?  And then, everything was tied up in a perfect bow in the end…nope, I needed more anger from Damian and a longer ‘work it out’ period to really believe that this bow could be that perfect.  He was never mad at her lying to him or keeping so much from him.  It was like after he found out everything, he just decided to ignore it all.  He threw away his career, he paid every debt off for her, and never once did he tell her that what she did to him was pretty crappy.

So, I will say that up until 70% of this book, I solidly loved it and wanted to know what was going on and how these characters were going to be affected by the secret drama lurking in the dark.  However, I think the secret drama was rubbed me the wrong way and I seriously think Damian should have been more upset about the situation than he was in the book.  All this being said, I still 100% love Elizabeth Reyes.