Can a guilty conscience keep wounds from healing?
Fine arts major, Candace Parker, grew up with a mother who thinks image is everything, and her daughter’s perfection will never be good enough. About to graduate college and pursue her dreams of becoming a professional ballerina, Candace decides it’s time to let go and have a little fun. But fun is short-lived when a brutal attack leaves her completely shattered.
The memories that consume and torment Candace are starting to destroy her when she meets Ryan Campbell, a successful bar owner. He feels instantly connected and tries to show her that hope is worth fighting for. But is Ryan harboring his own demons? As walls slowly begin to chip away, the secrets that are held within start to become painful burdens.
At what point do secrets become lies?
Fading was recommended by a friend of mine and I'm glad I got a chance to read it.
The book starts of in Ryan's point of view. He's in his office, fed up with nameless girls when he hears a girl outside screaming. When he goes outside to check he's shocked by what awaits him.
The story then continues in Candace POV. Her character is strong, funny, sweet and kind. It shows her meeting up with a guy she knows through her parents club called Jack, who she goes on a date with. When she admits she doesn't feel a connection to him she goes out with him one last time to break it off with him.
What should have been an easy let down turns into something horrific for Candace. She runs from the party scared out of her mind, to be chased down by said Jack and raped brutally.
This part of the story I skipped, as I couldn't read it, so I have no idea what happened here, but I skipped to the hospital and from there on out I cried. I cried for the girl she was, for the hell she was living and for what happened to her. The story is so emotionally bang on E.K.Blair couldn't have written it any better. It brings out everything and I honestly felt like I was sitting beside Candace and involved with her story.
She shuts everyone out apart from one of her best friends who is gay. Their relationship is what gets her through the worst part, but it's meeting Ryan that helps her move on.
The story continues with her fears, her lack of social life and what have you. It really brings out the emotions when reading it.
Candace has a bad relationship with her parents because she wants to become a dancer. But when her dancing career is jepodized because of her lack of emotions after her attack, things start to feel worse for her. I really admired her strength to get through it but there were time I screamed in my head at the book and wished she would press charges. She had so much evidence to prove it was him that attacked her, who hurt her, yet she let him roam free to move on with his life. I don't know what I would have done in her situation, I could see her point at not wanting to press charges, but she could have erased her fear of him. She was so scared about seeing him, about him popping up out of nowhere that she could have prevented that.
Anyway, her story doesn't end there. It turns out Ryan is hiding his own secret, one he didn't know for sure about until things happen to get heated between the two.
I felt the booked dragged a third of the way through and I just wanted it to end, but I enjoyed the ending. I'm glad I didn't give up with it because I really did enjoy it and it's the beautiful, heartbreaking story around. It's not all about doom and gloom, but about strength and moving on. It really was a brilliant read.
4*
