RITA Reader Challenge Review

The Strongest Steel by Scarlett Cole

This RITA® Reader Challenge 2016 review was written by SRose. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Best First Book, Romantic Suspense category.

The summary:

Harper Connelly never expected to find herself outside of a tattoo parlor at one in the morning, summoning the nerve to take back her past. She’s determined to forget her old life and is looking for an artist who can tattoo over the scars on her back.

Trent Andrews, local legend and owner of the Second Circle tattoo studio, has his own reasons for specializing in inking over scars. And in spite of her mysterious past and the difficult road ahead, he quickly realizes that Harper is funny, smart, and–under her ridiculously oversized clothing and SPF 100 sunscreen–totally hot. He’s happy to take on the challenge of designing a meaningful and deadly full-back tattoo for her.

But when cryptic messages start appearing on Harper’s phone, strange deliveries arrive at her door, and Second Circle is vandalized, Harper is convinced that her ex-boyfriend has tracked her down, and worse, that he knows about Trent. Running was the only thing that saved her last time, but now that she’s started to put down roots in Miami, she’ll have to decide if she can finally fight back instead.

Here is S.Rose's review:

Trigger warning for domestic violence

The Strongest Steel is a new adult novel about Harper Connelly, a domestic violence survivor with extensive scarring on her back from where her ex-boyfriend carved a phrase into it, and Trent Andrews, the tattoo artist whom she wants to tattoo over her scars.

This novel hits several of the new adult tropes. Terrible trauma? Check. Green eyed heroine? (Green eyes are the violet eyes of the new century.) Check. Tattoo artist hero? Check. Hero has a gold-digger ex girlfriend? Check. Hero is a play the field kind of guy now that his dreams of love were crushed? Check. Heroine has a BFF that just insisted on being her friend? Check. Hero and his BFF believe that talking about feelings is a girl thing? Check. Heroine has a slut shamey interaction with former one night stand of the hero? Check. Heroine is healed from her severe PTSD and touch aversion merely by trusting and loving the hero? Check. Hero refused to put high SPF sunscreen on the heroine because he wants her to have a nice golden tan? Okay, that one is new. Also, controlling and gross, and also, as a person whose ancestors were never meant to leave their moist cave in Scotland, a tan is just your skin showing damage. Always wear sunscreen.

The first half of this book was a long, slow slog. It took me about five days to read the first half; I assigned myself 10% on my Kindle a day, and it was painful as I slowly forced myself to read through it. After the first half, the characters moved from two-dimensional to more three dimensional, and the writing flowed more smoothly.

There were issues with characterization throughout, though. For example Trent is a huge Dante fan. How do we know? Well, he says it a lot, he knows a few quotes and also has a depiction of the seven circles tattooed on him. I wasn’t convinced. Harper is supposed to be this amazing teacher, who just has a gift for teaching. How do we know? Everyone says so. She teaches all these people and they say how amazing she is; they get such good grades. We never see how amazing she is though; everyone tells her and the reader.

In the last half, Harper’s abusive ex…

Show Spoiler
is stalking her by proxy from prison, sending her anagrams – which she is totally into and loves, but this is a fact which we find out about as it happens. Also the anagrams are solved instantly in the text. Only at the final one is Harper shown solving it.

There is a big conflict about trust and Trent has issues with her not immediately telling him all her secrets about where she is from. But Trent keeps from her that he is looking at becoming a judge on a tattoo show in LA. Also, Harper stays away from the police because she was treated very poorly by them, as her ex’s family was a big contributor to police retirement. There was a sense of Harper gaining some agency by learning self defense, and her ability to fight back when

Show Spoiler
 her abusive ex finds her in Florida and kidnaps her.

Objectively the author writes well, the work flows well together and her syntax and structure work well. Subjectively the plot and characterization didn’t work well for me. I had many notes, but on balance I felt others might not have the same objections. So a B for writing and a D for plot and characterization, averaging to a C.

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The Strongest Steel by Scarlett Cole

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  1. cleo says:

    Fun review. I loved the NA tropes list. And not letting someone put on sunscreen is really weird and controlling – I hope it doesn’t become an NA trend. 🙂

  2. genie says:

    He doesn’t let her put on sunscreen? How is that hero-worthy? I got married so I’d ALWAYS have someone to put sunscreen on me. (Ok, not really, but it’s one of his jobs and he would rather do that than listen to me whine about sunburns or get skin cancer).

  3. AJ says:

    I have a hard time believing a tattoo artist would value a golden tan over the benefits of protecting tattoos from sun damage! My artist reminds me about sunscreen at every appointment.

  4. Meg says:

    Can we PLEASE see this in the next edition of Cover Snark?

  5. Gloriamarie Amalfitano says:

    Is it my imagination, or are most of the guest reviews unfavorable of these RITA nominated books? And is it also my imagination or are we giving them low grades for the same reasons? Faults in plots, lousy characterization, telling not showing, the occasional TSTL heroine, the occasional jackass hero?

    Which raises the question how does a book get nominated for this award and who does the nominating?

    I agree. This is a definite entry into cover snark. Just look at those teeth. They scare me.

  6. Linda says:

    I want this idea that not wearing sunscreen will allow you to have a golden tan to DIE. More likely she would just burn and then also get a melanoma.

    Also, dictating someone’s appearance is controlling/abusive boyfriend 101. I know it’s one thing to suggest a preference, but also I’m not comfortable w/ dudes suggesting preferences if they know their girlfriend will immediately do it and wouldn’t EVER think to contravene him.

    Great review though, really love that trope list.

  7. Carmilla says:

    Ah, darn it, this totally sounded like my catnip, but the refusal-of-sunscreen thing is a great big glaring NOPE. Great review though 🙂

  8. DonnaMarie says:

    She’d stand a better chance of a golden tan using sunscreen. Without it you’re just a whimpering red wreck haunting the analgesic aisle at drugstore.

    Great review SRose.

  9. Rach says:

    As someone whose ancestors were also not meant to be exposed to direct sunlight, this hero sounds super strange! I feel like this book has some catnip for me, but I’d just be spending the entire read thinking about every peeling sunburn I’ve ever had. If I can get a sunburn in February in the pacific northwest, I’m not going to get these characters.

  10. Teev says:

    @Gloriamarie: I’ve been thinking the same thing, and it’s frustrating because there were books that came out last year that I loved and somehow didn’t make the cut, beat out by all these apparently mediocre books.

  11. Gloriamarie Amalfitano says:

    @Teev, thank you. I really am curious about the process of nominating books for these awards. I’ve reviewed four books for this reader review thing. Two were well written, the other two were so full of gaping holes in the plots that I wondered how they even were published in the form they were in.

  12. After reading the review and the comments, I wondered how many of you that commented have read the book or just read the above review. Yes I read it and I would suggest all those that commented read it. After reading this book, there are so much more to it than “sunscreen”

  13. Gloriamarie Amalfitano says:

    @Debbie McCreary, While that may be true there was so much in the book description alone that put me off that the review only confirmed my sense that there are too many other books out there I would really enjoy to waste it reading one I personally would not.

    I appreciate deeply that here at SBTB we have very individual tastes. That is valuable to me.

  14. Lisa McGuire says:

    Honestly, I’m wondering if we read the same book! I thought this book was well-researched, beautifully written, and couldn’t turn the pages fast enough!

  15. Pat F says:

    I have to agree with Lisa McGuire… I found the book inspiring, well written and entertaining. One of my favorite books of the year . With all the trauma that this young woman has survived, and is triumphing over the discussion is about sunscreen? Sorry, I respectfully disagree.

  16. Kerry H says:

    I agree with Lisa. This book is definitely well researched and beautifully written. I can’t believe that a blog that reviews so many books would put so many spoilers into a review, it’s disrespectful to the author and so is the bashing this reviewer is doing to this book, you may not have liked it but there was no need to concentrate on the sunscreen and blow that scene out of proportion. It’s a small scene in a much bigger storyline. I’m so upset over this review. I absolutely adore The Strongest Steel.

  17. SB Sarah says:

    It is possible to explain your enjoyment of a book and, more importantly, offer a counter-argument as to why you enjoyed it, without complaining about the reviewer’s reaction. This reader found that scene bothersome. I can understand why that scene bothered her: it made that character seem overly-controlling. Everyone has different reactions to what they read.

    I’d be much more interested in hearing from readers who liked this book if the overtone didn’t include, “You didn’t like it? What is wrong with you?” We are (I hope, anyway) a space where if a reviewer adores a book, there’s room and an invitation for anyone to comment as to why they didn’t like it. The reverse is true – if a reviewer didn’t enjoy a book, there’s room to explain why you did. But not if the sentiment is that the reviewer is wrong for disliking it in the first place. Your reaction to a book belongs to you; someone else’s reaction belongs to them..

    That said, if there is a spoiler and we didn’t hide it, please feel free to email me to let me know what it is so I can do so.

  18. Gloriamarie Amalfitano says:

    @KerryH, I don’t know if you are familiar with the process in which a Guest reviewer’s review gets published. I make no speculation one way or the other about that.

    I know from my own experience that our Guest Reviewer reviews are reviewed and sometimes even edited by the SB. Therefore whatever appears on the blog has been vetted.

    In my personal opinion, your remarks criticizing the review should have been directed at the SB, rather than at the reviewer. As I read your words, I’ll be honest, I winced and was so glad I was not on the receiving end.

    Clearly, this is a book that generates emotion and there is a wide variety of responses to it. Clearly, this is a book that has made a lot of people think.

    May I point out that on the spreadsheet asking for reviewers, each book had two slots. I don’t know of there is another slot open to review this book nor do I know if the SB have time to post another reader review before the convention, but if anyone feels they would like to review the book from a different POV, maybe that would be worth investigating.

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