Façade by Nyrae Dawn

Book #2, Games
Published by Forever on September 24th 2013
Paperback copy from Fully Booked
304 pages

Synopsis

Can love save them?

After her father commits a crime that shatters her family, eighteen-year-old Delaney Cross is tired of pretending everything is alright. Packing up her car, she sets out to find the people her father hurt. Her search leads her to places she's never been--and into the arms of Adrian Westfall.

To the outside world, Adrian is a sexy, charming ladies man. But his playboy persona is just an act. Secretly his soul is tortured by a memory too painful to share. Only Delaney seems to see through his façade to the real man underneath. And for the first time in his life, Adrian feels he can begin to open up about his past.

Together, Adrian and Delaney share a passionate, carefree love they never expected to find. Yet both still harbor their own secrets. When the dark truth is finally revealed, will it bring them closer together, or tear them apart forever?

Façade is the second book of Nyrae Dawn’s Games series. The book follows Adrian Westfall, Colt’s best friend, and Delaney Cross, the girl whose story couldn’t be more intertwined with the tragedy that has left Adrian broken. Both have been bleeding for years and are still being tormented by the terrible misfortune that connects the two of them by a thin, thin thread. The same thread which brings them closer and closer with every breath. But how will the façades ever be taken down when one runs away from the truth, unable to face it, and one hides the truth, scared that it will destroy the other?

Adrian smokes weed constantly, throws parties almost everyday and hooks up with more girls than one could count with their hands. This is the façade he puts on to mask feelings of guilt and pure pain. Adrian conceals his dark thoughts by acting like he’s down with whatever. No one really sees through him, except for Delaney Cross, the girl with ghosts in her eyes.

Delaney didn’t come all the way to Brenton to be hit on by a random stranger. She’s out to find closure, thinking that it would help save her broken family. What she didn’t expect to find though, was this: meeting Adrian and falling for him.

“Let me kiss your scars, Adrian. Show them to me.” She said.

What did I love about this book, you ask? Every damn thing! What did it for me: ADRIAN WESTFALL. Oh I cannot explain to you all the angst and emotions, I felt whenever I read Adrian’s POV!!!! His words, his thoughts, his emotions, are all written in such a beautiful, heartbreaking way and I CANNOT HELP BUT FALL IN LOVE. While I was reading, I was frowning almost every second. Not in a bad way. I mean it in a way that says this-book-hurts-so-much-i’m-on-the-verge-of-tears-but-i-refuse-to-cry. Seriously. There were times I was frustrated because everything was just so sad that I was spiraling in depression but hell, I could not put it down. I loved Adrian so much all I wanted to do was jump in to the book and kiss away his pain.

Delaney’s alright although I was really really mad at her for taking so long to finally admit the truth to Adrian (this is mostly the reason to blame for the minus one in my rating). I really liked her and Adrian together though. I liked how their story developed, liked how Laney helped Adrian’s façade to slowly slip.

“Haunt me,
my little ghost,
Possess me.
Live inside me,
And scare away my sins
Until there’s nothing left.
But you.”

And then there’s the way Adrian realizes how he truly feels for Laney. OMG I’ve never swooned so much in my life. Adrian’s words can be morose but damn do they take my breath away.

“You helped me stop bleeding. You made my heart beat when I thought it was gone.”

This book just tore me apart! I didn’t cry as much as I cried when I read Charade but boy, oh boy, did my heart ache so much while reading this one. If you already have a messed-up idea about this book that is preventing you from reading it, I’m telling you to let it go. I assure you that this book will shake you up. So I’m telling you: GO. READ. NOW.