Tackling the TBR Buddy Review: Night Owl by M. Pierce

Title: Night Owl
Series: The Night Owl Trilogy #1
Author: M. Pierce
Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pub Date: February 2014
Rating: 2 Stars

Our thoughts...

Underdeveloped ~ Convenient ~ Lacking

This book surprised me, and not in a good way. I know so many people who rated this four or five stars and I can’t go above two. I would have marked this baby DNF early on if it weren’t for the fact that I was buddy-reading with Liz from Read Catch Kiss. Needless to say, I will not be continuing the series. I apologize now for what is definitely my “rantiest” review to date. I have reasons for it (well, most of it) but in the end, this book just ticked me off.

Liz and I picked Night Owl because we both had it on our TBR and was already waiting patiently on our Kindles. I’m sure this method for picking buddy-reads will prove to be successful at some point. At the very least, it allows us to actually read the books we prematurely purchased.

Night Owl jumps right into the physical relationship between Matt and Hannah with very little set-up. I learned more in the blurb than I did in the actual story. Their relationship goes from zero personal knowledge of each other to cybersex without any steps in between. None. Really? The story lacked substance and development until almost fifty percent in, which is when personality finally started to show up to the party (but not much). However, by this point, I was past being invested in their relationship. I just couldn’t bring myself to care. Up until that point we only see the strictly physical connection. The personal and emotional connections apparently happen when we aren’t around which makes their relationship appear very basic and not worthy of the trouble and heartache caused throughout the story.

Hannah comes across as weak. Matt is a jerk but he is weak, too. Both are immature and lacking redeeming qualities. Why should we like these two? We don’t even know why they like each other so completely. The positive attributes and compliments are greatly associated with physical qualities and sex, whereas the negatives are consistently related to personality and behavior. Where is the balance?
When they aren’t having sex, Hannah complains way too much about Matt and Nathan’s money. We get it, Hannah: you are insecure about the difference in financial standings. Get over it. And Matt…grow a pair. Please. [end rant]

The relationship between Matt and Hannah is like a hologram: it’s a different picture depending on how you look at it, or in this case, what part of the story you’re reading. I don’t mean this in a “the relationship is developing and changing” kind of way. I mean this in the “these characters aren’t planned out well and are constantly representing themselves differently” kind of way. I found this inconsistency to be distracting. It was almost like watching two people with split-personalities; it’s not quite as striking as that but the inconsistencies are not minor.

Overall, the characters lacked depth, the relationship lacked meaningful connections (that we see, anyway), and there are way too many convenient coincidences. Everything happened at the most convenient times. EVERYTHING. I don’t like stories that are predictable, neat, and easy. This story is all of those things.

Go check out Liz's thoughts on her blog, Read Catch Kiss, to hear another perspective on the book.



Night Owl on Goodreads
Night Owl on Amazon
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