Review: Across the Hall by Kylie Walker

Note: This ARC was provided by Rock Star Lit PR in exchange for an honest review.

Whenever I sit down to write a review, I try to find at least one good thing about the book, even if my overall feelings toward it weren't all that great. In the case of Across the Hall, an erotic romance from Kylie Walker that employs the falling-for-a-sibling's-best-friend trope, I'm at a bit of a loss because it wasn't a terrible book, but I wouldn't call it a great one either. My feelings are bordering on ambivalent at the moment and a lot of it has to do with my lack of connection with any of the characters. Yes, the story had a creative touch or two--a parolee who happens to be an extremely wealthy young man at the helm of the family-owned corporation and a recent college graduate with a broken heart who is stunned when the cause for the broken heart re-enters her life and his connection to the guy she's now falling for--and I did finish the book, but I wasn't invested, emotionally or otherwise, so by the time I finished, I had no residual feelings and didn't spend any time thinking about the characters or the not-so-surprising twist in the story.

Jude Falken and Jillian Warren are connected through Jillian's older brother, who happens to be Jude's best friend. They also happen to be neighbors now that Jude is out of prison. Both are warned away from the other by Jillian's brother, but as expected, neither one really heeds the warning. They initiate the physical part of their relationship quickly, but I did appreciate that the emotional part took a bit longer to develop. However, there were certain things about their story that felt off or didn't make sense. Take for example the fact that Jillian had no clue about Jude's last name or his family business, and yet she was an intern for one of the corporation's subsidiaries in France. Based on experience, knowledge about a company's history and background is essential, not just in job applications but also in internships, so how could she not have known? Didn't she do any research? Then there's Jude not telling her about his imprisonment, and instead of him admitting he was at fault and taking responsibility for it, he turns it around, she feels terrible, and then it's never discussed again. Huh? Seriously? That's it? Over and done?

I acknowledge that what I had in my hands was an advanced reader's copy, but I was really bothered with the way the text was formatted, and I don't know if it was done on purpose or not. The thing is, it occurred numerous times through the book that I was beginning to think that it was meant to be that way. Cutting a paragraph off just when a character's about to speak with a comma and to put what he or she says in a separate line or paragraph was weird. Maybe it's the editor in me, but I can't help but take note of those things and while I'll let one or two of those go, it happening repeatedly bugs the heck out of me. There were also a lot of really, REALLY lengthy paragraphs, some of much didn't really add much to the story as a whole. If I looked at the story and the characters as separate entities, I wouldn't really say that either one was horrendous. As a matter of fact, they were okay, but put together and they were just...meh. I so wanted to like this book, especially since the author is a new one for me and I like discovering new authors to fawn over. Unfortunately, this simply wasn't for me, and I'm giving Across the Hall two out of five stars. ♥

Date Read: 25 February 2016

Learn more about Kylie Walker.

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