Every Breath by Ellie Marney

Title: Every Breath
Author: Ellie Marney
Series: Every #1
Publisher: Tundra Books
Release Date: October 14, 2014

Summary from Goodreads:

When James Mycroft drags Rachel Watts off on a night mission to the Melbourne Zoo, the last thing she expects to find is the mutilated body of Homeless Dave, one of Mycroft's numerous eccentric friends. But Mycroft's passion for forensics leads him to realize that something about the scene isn't right--and he wants Watts to help him investigate the murder.

While Watts battles her attraction to bad-boy Mycroft, he's busy getting himself expelled and clashing with the police, becoming murder suspect number one. When Watts and Mycroft unknowingly reveal too much to the cold-blooded killer, they find themselves in the lion's den--literally. A trip to the zoo will never have quite the same meaning to Rachel Watts again... 

Review

I don't know why I didn't care for this book. Well, that's not true, I'm about to tell you why I did't care for it. Rather, I don't know why I didn't feel what everyone else felt for this book. Every Breath EXPLODED onto my radar not too long ago and all I've seen since are 4 and 5 stars from some very trusted people. I thought to myself, "I NEED this book!" and quickly got my hands on a copy and moved it to the top of my TBR. And yet here I am, having had a very different experience than seemingly everyone else.

I just didn't feel anything for these characters or this story. Nothing about Mycroft or Watts pulled me in. In fact, I found their personalities to be rather bland. Mycroft didn't hold a flame to Sherlock Holmes. He wasn't as eccentric or as amusing or as charming and so I failed to be impressed. And I already forgot about Watts because there really was nothing special about her IMO. I also did not feel whatever was supposed to be brewing between Mycroft and Watts. This OTP had none of the characteristics that I usually love and therefore, this is one ship, I do not care whether or not it sinks. Overall, I just felt bored and uninterested and I considered not finishing on a few different occasions but decided to power through because I hate not finishing books, especially books that everyone seems to love.

I also felt the writing and dialogue to be a little jarring. There is a lot of Australian lingo that I struggled with and so this didn't read seamlessly or naturally for me. I understand this is a personal-thing but it is a reason why I didn't love it. And just for the record, I've read books based in Australia and written by Australian authors and have never had this problem before.

While I am on a role, I will also say that I felt indifferent towards the mystery and there were quite a few things I found to be unbelievable - such as the idiocy of the murderer and the willingness of so many people to talk about things they probably shouldn't, whether because it was illegal, incriminating or what not.  I've definitely read better.

Now, don't get me wrong - this book wasn't bad or painful to read. I just don't understand all of the fuss. And because I had such high expectations, my disappointment was all the more disappointing and is why I am being so critical. I honestly don't know whether or not I will read Every Word. And I'm just going to leave it at that.