6 Clues Your Nemesis Loves You
Author: Kelly Siskind
Reviewer: Jen
Rating: A-
What I’m Talking About:
Lennon and Maggie have a secret history, and now that Lennon has returned home after his 11-year absence due to WITSEC, he’s ready to bring their secrets out into the open and pick up where they left off. He needs to apologize for a trespass from his last night in town, but Maggie wants to leave their history in the past and pretend nothing ever happened.
Shared (almost exclusively) from Lennon’s POV, 6 Clues Your Nemesis Loves You details Lennon’s pain and grief over losing Maggie, friends, and his relationship with his father. He struggles with feelings of inadequacy and being unlovable. It’s absolutely heartbreaking at times. But Lennon is determined when it comes to Maggie. He wants her with every fiber in his soul and knows they are meant to be. This is where the story shines.
Maggie is a complex woman, and since we don’t get her POV, readers are left with Lennon’s impressions of her. Luckily he sees her true worth and values her friendship, but he doesn’t know her whole story. Over time, she explains to Lennon her worries and concerns, which are deeply rooted and hard to untangle. Lennon is patient and kind, but he also hurts when she pushes him away. He doesn’t share those feelings with Maggie out of fear she’ll leave him for good.
6 Clues Your Nemesis Loves You is nearly a perfect story. I loved Maggie and Lennon’s journey. The author creates intense and honest emotions that I felt in my heart and soul. I laughed; I sobbed. The author writes that she worried readers would be extra hard on Maggie, but I honestly liked her and think she’s a relatable character. I LOVED how much Lennon loves her and sees the person she is and could be when with him. That said, what I didn’t love is that Maggie had to fail every time the author needed her to pull away from Lennon, creating emotional distance. I got extremely frustrated that every time Maggie gave a bit more of herself to Lennon something would blow up. Why? Why have Maggie “fail” over and over? It was predictable and aggravating.
I also feel the need to complain just a little about the fact that the author chose to include one small chapter from Maggie’s POV at an emotionally critical part of the story. While it was nice to see things from her side, this is a series written from entirely the male main character POV, including 99% of this book. So why make an exception? It pulled me out of the book and interrupted the emotional flow of the story.
In the end, I really did love reading 6 Clues Your Nemesis Loves You. Ms. Siskind works magic with her characters, giving readers something real and beautiful. Relationships can be hard, but worth the work to get to the HEA. Maggie and Lennon are worth the work.
My Rating: A-
Jen
About the Book:
In high school, Maggie Edelstein set the rules of our secret relationship, but I’m calling the shots now. In my dreams.
Maggie’s still infuriating and confusing, and absolutely stunning. She’s also still pretending we barely spent time together as teens, when we met up nightly at her family’s pond.
Over a decade later, I’m back in my hometown and some things haven’t changed. My chemistry with Maggie is once again hotter than a four-alarm fire, and she’s intent on denying it. I don’t blame her. The last night we saw each other I made a horrible mistake and hurt her, then I vanished into witness protection for ten years.
But there’s something else going on with her.
I recognize a secret when I see one, and her friends say she doesn’t do commitment. If I can get her to forgive me and open up, maybe she’ll break her rules and give us a second chance. Or she’ll light my heart on fire and dance around the flames…
Release Date: May 3, 2023
Publisher: Self-Published
Series: Bower Boys #3
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Format(s): paperback (340 pages), e-book
Book Source: Author
Purchase Info:
Amazon (affiliate link)
Reviews in the Series:
50 Ways to Win Back Your Lover by Kelly Siskind (Bower Boys #1)
10 Signs You Need to Grovel by Kelly Siskind (Bower Boys #2)