Guest Review: Hide to Seek (London Lies #2) by C.F. White

Jackson Young has gone into hiding. Fighting to get his name cleared and his truth heard, he’s followed Fletcher Doherty to Ireland for a safe haven from those who want to silence his story.

As they work on Jackson's biography, their growing attraction gets harder to resist. Fletcher's made it clear though—their professional boundary isn't to be crossed, especially with so many loose threads from each of their pasts left hanging.

But as he learns more about the once coveted celebrity's rise to fame, and the manipulation and control that came with it, Fletcher finds it increasingly difficult to distance himself from their intimate moments. Lust fuelled attraction is easy to ignore, but an emotional connection is harder to deny.

Surrounded by Fletcher's meddling family, and ex boyfriends who still harbour feelings of being jilted, Jackson has to play the part of his lifetime. Can he prove that he does have talent and win Fletcher's heart as well as his trust?

And can he do it all before their idyllic hideaway is compromised?

*sad stars*

Reviewer: Annery

I’m sad to write this review.

C. F. White is a NTM author and I came to this series with high hopes. Even after my less than stellar experience with Fade to Blank, book 1 in the series (which you should definitely read first), I thought the author could turn it around. I was still feeling optimistic about 40% in and then all dreams were dashed.

After the events in book 1 Fletcher and Jax fled to Ireland, specifically to Fletcher’s family farm in Donegal. The idea is to hide out there and write Jax’s tell-all which clear his name of any wrongdoing and expose nefarious characters and deeds within the world of British celebrities. The descriptions of the natural beauty of the land, life on the farm, Fletcher’s family, and the animals were beautiful and evocative and gave me hope, but alas this isn’t a pastoral. The story is about Jax and Fletcher and sadly they’re the most uninteresting people on the planet and maybe a bit dimwitted to boot.

The same improbabilities from book 1 continue, Jax and Fletcher are still incapable of having a regular conversation, much less one where a journalist asks pertinent questions from a source or does any kind of research. Woodward and Bernstein they are not. Towards the end of this book, which also ends in a cliffhanger, some preposterous revelations are made meant to recast Jax & Fletcher’s relationship as other than insta. It would have been best if that was omitted. As for the villains? I don’t believe or understand them. They seem cartoonish at best and their plots bare more than a whiff of current conspiracy theories.

I won’t belabor this any longer. I can say this was not for me and that YMMV and leave it at that. My favorite character was Maggie and she’s a black lab.