Customer Reviews

Tempting Faith (Indigo Love Spectrum)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I loved Faith and Zander's story. They had a romance that was based on a friendship that began in high school.
Faith believe that he died in a flood and had a hard time getting over him. She later finds out that he used the flood to leave town. He changed his name and became Hollywood's newest heart-thob.
Zander aka Alex tried to put his poor, abusive and hurtful life in West Virginia behind him. Once he saw Faith again, he realized she was the once thing missing in his life.
I like the fact that Ms. Hubbard didn't waste a lot of time on Zander and Faith denying how the felt for each other. She allowed them to rediscover each other without games and unnecessary drama.
I agree with the other reviews, you could definitely feel the depth of Zander and Faith's love for each other. This was truly a sweet story and I highly recommend reading it.

Let me start by saying I have read a few of Crystal Hubbard's books, and I generally enjoy them. I enjoyed "Tempting Faith" as well, but there were some major things wrong with this book.

1. Why do all of her lead female characters look the same? Do they all have to have long hair, same complexion, and dress the same way?
2. There was an entire chapter devoted to a play in which Alex performed. This was completely unnecessary.
3. Spoiler alert! Alex going to Faith's father to ask his permission to take her out when they were in high school was a MAJOR event. Why was this glossed over?
4. The name "Booger Hollow" made me cringe every time I read it, and I'm from West Virginia!
5. Speaking of WVA, West Virginia University is just that, or WVU. It's not "the University of West Virginia".
6. Faith was NOT an outcast in their hometown. She was pretty, smart, and wealthy (her father owned the coal mine). Comparing her issues to Alex's was ridiculous at best.

Despite the book's flaws, I did enjoy the book, and will recommend it.

Once again Crystal Hubbard weaves another INTRIGUING tale with a MEMORABLE cast of characters and her signature brand of witty dialogue throughout. I enjoyed Faith, she's a strong, independent and honest woman. I love the way Faith sees the real Alex Brannon with ALL his "scars" and still readily accepts him and loves him regardless of what the small minds of Booger Hollow have to say about him. The innocent attraction between Alex and Faith as teens is HEARTWARMING. And when they FINALLY reunite the passion between them is SIZZLIN'. My heart went out to Alex, with all the INTENSE physical and emotional abuse he endured as a youth and then having to make the ULTIMATE sacrifice and leave behind the ONLY person that ever showed him unconditional love. BUT will Faith's love be enough to pull Alex/Zander from the shadows of his painful past?!! Or will he let the "demons" of Booger Hollow destroy his second chance for a HAPPILY-EVER-AFTER?!! Mrs. Hubbard delivers another engaging and TEMPTING treat.

Stalwart reporter Faith passes on a huge career opportunity to reclaim the love she thought was lost in Hubbard's latest, which harkens back to the zest, passion and cleverness of her Crush. Actor Zander Baron is a Hollywood-made creation in which lies Alexander Baron, the abuse survivor who made a grave decision in the past to protect Faith's relationship with her parents and his own heart. The writing, as is typical of Hubbard is lovely and stirs all the senses. Love scenes are imaginative, descriptive and tres hot. Good to have the old Hubbard back and I wait for the next.

This book touched on so many things that I feel a lot of romantic/love stories fail to do. Faith and Alex's love began as teenagers and that love they had for each other never died - even in adulthood. I think the fact that neither had serious relationships as adults or were even close to marraige speaks to their undying love. Faith is the kind of woman that every man needs. She was always there to encourage him, she always saw the good in him and the potential he had in himself as a young teenager. She refused to let him believe that he was good for nothing and wouldn't amount to anything. After 10 years and they finally reconnected she still tried to help him see past the hurt and look towards a bright future full of happiness - with her.

This story to me speaks to a universal issue - unconditional love. As a couple they worked through a lot of hurt and pain and found their way to the path of happiness. Confronting and letting go of past hurts is one of the hardest thing a person can do and Alex and Faith were able to do that together regardless of their career goals. They had many obstacles in their way and I like the way Ms. Hubbard never let them lose sight of what was important which was their love for each other. Love truly conquered all in this book and it left me saying "Awwwwwww" at the end!

I tried to like this book. I read one other book by Crystal Hubbard (MR. Fix It)and didn't like so I decided to give this book a shot. The protagonists are just not likable. In this book Faith Wheeler seems to not understand why a physically and emotionally abused man would not want to go back to the town that housed the people that abused him. Rich Faith compares her upbringing to his saying that they were both outcasts. Yeah, ok. His situation was not by choice, hers was.
The women in Ms. Hubbard's books tend to be shallow jerks and they all look the same, dress the same and have the same personality traits. There seems to be no range here.

On a side note...how did this book get published with about a chapter and a half of a play in the middle?

I think I'm about the only one here who didn't really care for this book. I just finished this book today. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't terrible but I struggled to get through the book. I didn't really want to finish it, but I hate not finishing a book so I soldiered on to the end.

This book had way too much filler. There were scenes that could have been left out completely. There were also portions of the book that were way too drawn out....for an example the part where Zander performed in the stage play....I was like oh my goodness will this ever end and can we please get on with the story? The scene with the orangutan was a bit much! I didn't really care for the plot and the book just seem too tedious and boring. I literally had to make myself finish the book. This one is definitely not a keeper. This was the first book that I read by this author. I will definitely give her books another try. I hope all her books aren't like this!

Tempting Faith is a great new novel from Crystal Hubbard, one of my favorite authors. It is the story of Faith Wheeler and Alexander Baron, two people who first met while growing up in the little mining town of Booger Hollow, West Virginia. The name Booger Hollow might sound amusing, but there's nothing funny about the life Alex had there. Faith was the one person who befriended him and that friendship could have been so much more if Alex hadn't "died" in a terrible flood.

Ten years later, Faith is an entertainment reporter in Los Angeles and she recognizes Alex, only now he's a rising action movie star and he goes by the name Zander. Anyone who has ever lost touch with a school crush can identify with Faith's confusion and longing to complete something that never got started.

I love Crystal Hubbard's books but I think this one is now my favorite, maybe because I live in California. Ms. Hubbard's other books have been mostly set in Boston. Ms. Hubbard captures a lot of the absurdity of Hollywood both in the characters behind the scenes and in front of the cameras. There is so much humor (like a band called Knuckle Deep that performs in a bar called He's Not Here) in this story and so much real emotion in the way Faith and Zander rebuild their relationship as adults.

The love scenes made my chin sweat, especially the one in the spa and the one in the bar. Flashbacks are woven through the story to show Faith's and Zander's lives as teens in West Virginia. I like how Faith's memories show the beauty of her hometown and Zander's show only the ugly since they had two very different upbringings.

The event at the end of the book where Zander has to make a life-altering decision was really good. I thought Ms. Hubbard handled it with sensitivity and respect for what people go through in situations like the one Faith's hometown faced. I already can't wait for Ms. Hubbard's next book.

I'm a fan of Crystal Hubbard, but this book didn't cut the mustard. I agree with the other reviews that rate this book as 2 or 3 stars. The story had a good beginning but derailed quickly. Faith knows this "secret" about Alex which is really no secret--at least not anything anyone would bat an eye at. Ms. Hubbard is very talented, but this story went downhill very quickly for me. When it first began, I thought it was going to be like another book I love very much, 'Being Plumville'; not even close. The storyline was weak and the love story was lost. There is also a part in the book where Alex is in a play. I could not believe the author made us "sit"/read through it--it served no purpose to the rest of the story. I had to force myself to finish this book. The characters are not well developed. I was told that Faith had a lot of strength, but I didn't witness that strength from anything I read in the book. Nor did I care for her holding a "secret" over Alex/Zander's head. For someone who had an "I don't care" attitude in his youth, Alex was pretty weak as a man. I wanted him to keep that bad boy image. This could have been such a good book, but it was lacking.

Anybody who says there just are not any good, well-written IR books out there, need look no further. This book was superb in every way. I enjoyed the way the author very smoothly weaved the events between Faith and Alex in the past with their interactions in the present. I could not help liking both characters and really pulling for them to rekindle the love that was so evident between them. There were no fillers in this book. Every part of Faith and Alex's story was important, relevant and necessary. The sexual tension and the sexual contacts between Faith and Alex were never gratuitous--but I gotta tell you, the sexual encounters were hot!!! And, I liked that. They just didn't jump into bed 5 pages into the book. There was a gradual build-up leading to their first sexual encounter as adults.

This book will appeal to everyone who wants a very romantic story, that's well written, coupled with some hot sexual encounters. I can't tell you how many IR books I have read that have left me shaking my head in confusion and asking that age old question, "Huh?" Not so here--this book makes sense. You can relate to how the heroine or hero feels and acts---you understand their motives. That's what makes this a wonderful, satisfying, sensual read. Also, as an aside, this book was not rife with errors--great editing job (which is very important to me). So, all in all, this book hit the bulls eye. I say, "Bravo Ms. Hubbard. Keep'em coming!"