Review: With Visions of Red by Trisha Wolfe

Title: With Visions of Red

Author: Trisha Wolfe

Genre: New Adult, romance, mystery, crime

Reviewed by: Cassie

Summary (from goodreads.com)

Criminal profiler Sadie Bonds knows blood. Her affair with the gruesome, dark world of killers began long before she started applying her analytical skills to investigate gory crime scenes. She gets inside the killers' heads, breaks them down, relates to them on an arcane level. She prefers it this way- because it's safer to ally herself with the villain than the victim. At least, that's how she's coped ever since she was abducted and tortured as a teen.

She will never be a victim again.

Now, she's honed her skills in order to bring justice to these ritualistic offenders. Working alongside her colleagues, armed with sharp wit and a SIG, Sadie always catches her sadist. Until one ruthless serial killer gets inside Sadie's head, turning the tables. He knows her secrets. Her obsessions. The darkest, most deviant part of her soul.

When she meets Colton Reed, dangerous stakes are raised as he threatens to unravel her control and reveal her darkest fantasies. The sexy-as-sin bondage rigger at an exclusive BDSM club pushes her boundaries, forcing her to acknowledge that side of herself she fears. Plunged into a realm of torture and suffering, pain and pleasure, Sadie balances on the razor-sharp edge of two intersecting worlds threatening to swallow her.

Passion and lust ignite. Dark and light battle. This explosive first installment of the Broken Bonds series sets the exhilarating pace for a cat and mouse game where no one knows who's really pulling the strings.

Greetings, readers! Thanks for stopping by Fiction Fairies - hopefully you don't get scared off by our blunt nature and ever present sarcasm!

(Can you deny Ryan Gosling????)

Anyways.

Some of you may be wondering why there's a blank book cover for this book, and the reason is pretty simple: I felt the real cover is way too inappropriate to put on this site. Sorry everyone, but I try to keep it PG-13 around here. If you're feeling adventurous, go right ahead and look it up, but I honestly think it would deter a number of readers from reading the book. It gives off a completely different, bad impression of what the book is, so I didn't want the cover to taint anyone's first impression.

Let's begin!

With Visions of Red immediately reminded me of this show I watch: Hannibal. Anyone else a fan? It's extremely well done and fascinating . . . Well, never mind that.

When I read about Sadie "becoming" the killer, and envisioning herself as this person, I INSTANTLY thought of Will Graham. Adorable, haunted, damaged, and incomprehensible Will Graham.

(Played by the delightful Hugh Dancy)

So I was a bit skeptic when beginning the book. Was this going to have tons of parallels to the TV show? Yet I was also anticipating the possibilities; what if there was a Hannibal in this book? A truly repulsive yet magnetic killer, whose mind is a mystery to most of us mere mortals.

With Visions of Red was a bit too short for me to answer these questions. There are definitely similarities between the two works, but not so much that I question the author's originality. As for the evil mastermind figure? Well, there's hope. All I can say.

The characters

Sadie was interesting. I say that with caution, mind you. On one hand, she never became Will Graham - complex, haunted, paradoxically innocent/pure. But on the other hand, she did step out of normal NA heroine boundaries. She's not lust-driven, needy, suspicious, petty, etc. She is damaged, but she's also a fighter and wants to overcome her issues. She also has a unique job most NA main characters don't have. I'm not sure how I felt about her; it's too early to tell.

Colton was a strange one. For the longest time ever, I giddily thought he was the killer, until I dejectedly decided he wasn't. He's oddly obsessed with Sadie and it's kind of creepy, but I mean, who am I to judge? For some people, this works. I don't know, the two have a weird relationship. They secretly watched each other for 3 months, and suddenly they're romantically involved and shedding secrets left and right. Insta-lust? Perhaps.

Ah, but what of the killer?!?

"Unsub", he is called. 

. . . My opinion of him is neutral right now. I can't tell if I'm interested by him or not. He may turn into a cliche serial killer, ya know? 

The plot

Relatively compelling. I read it in one go, so that must say something, right?

The writing

Most of the time, it was really well done. It flowed nicely, drew the reader in, and had a decent contrast between the different POV's. At times, Wolfe's writing was a bit melodramatic and cliched. You know, those times when characters say something really deep and meaningful, but it just ends up sounding lame and unrealistic? Yeah, there were some of those in there. Sometimes Sadie would mention the "darkness inside her" or whatever, while she's doing scandalous things with Colton, and I would just go

Other than those fleeting moments of disbelief and scorn, I enjoyed the writing.

The verdict?

Try it out! I liked it for the most part. If you're looking for an entertaining read to kill time, or maybe you're craving a crime romance, go for it.

Hugs and kisses~~

Cassie