Review: The Opportunist by Tarryn Fisher

The Opportunist by Tarryn Fisher
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication date: November 14th 2011
My rating: 5 stars

 

 Olivia Kaspen has just discovered that her ex-boyfriend, Caleb Drake, has lost his memory. With an already lousy reputation for taking advantage of situations, Olivia must decide how far she is willing to go to get Caleb back. Wrestling to keep her true identity and their sordid past under wraps, Olivia’s greatest obstacle is Caleb’s wicked, new girlfriend; Leah Smith. It is a race to the finish as these two vipers engage in a vicious tug of war to possess a man who no longer remembers them. But, soon enough Olivia must face the consequences of her lies, and in the process discover that sometimes love falls short of redemption.

I think that after the first time you give your heart away, you never get it back. The rest of your life is just you pretending that you still have a heart.

After reading a review of The Opportunist, a while back I had planned on staying far away from this story.  It sounded like drama and frustration, and I have little patience for either.  But after my trusted friend Arlene badgered encouraged me to read this, I had to give in.   As I expected there was drama, (lots and lots and lots!) BUT there was very little frustration.  After reading a few pages I was COMPLETELY hooked, and couldn’t put this book down.  The story is riveting, and the writing was amazing!  I’m currently pimping this story to anyone who’ll listen, so I’ll have more victims people to gossip with. 

Olivia and Caleb were together in college and had a horrible breakup.  Actually, horrible is an understatement.  The scars left a permanent mark on both of them, and continue to hurt even now.  Olivia runs into Caleb years later and finds that he’s lost his memory.  Initially, Olivia plans on just walking away and leaving things well enough alone, but she runs into Caleb a second time, and he wants to see her.  Unable to resist the draw, Olivia starts seeing him again, all the while keeping the past a secret.  She knows her days are numbered, because Caleb will eventually get his memory back, but she loves Caleb so much she’s willing to take what she can get. 

I have to say this story utterly consumed and HAUNTED me.  If I had to use one word to describe this story, it would be INTENSE.  We get this story in Olivia’s POV, and she is one passionate and obsessive character when it comes to life, but especially when it comes to Caleb. 

He was my crack. I could never get enough, and when I had him I was already thinking about when I could have him next.

Caleb was like a hurricane that swept through my life, stirring up things inside of me that I never knew existed.  He’s a longing I will never cure.

Not that she lets many people see that.  She has a wall as thick as Fort Knox around her heart, she’s so guarded.  Even though you’re not in Caleb’s head you can tell he feels exactly the same about her.  These two so desperately love and need each other, yet their manipulations and lies completely sabotage everything!!  Normally this type of behavior would completely frustrate me and I’d want to chuck my Kindle across the room.  This story was the exception.  Tarryn Fisher so skillfully makes you empathize and feel for the characters, you can see why they do the things they do. 

Most of the time I find that alternating from the present to the past continually, annoys me.  It didn’t here.  I can’t gush enough about the brilliant way things were slowly revealed, ratcheting up the story a little more each chapter until the tension is about to kill you.  My stomach hurt reading this, because I kept wondering when the bottom would fall out. 

My heart and head still hurt, and even though it’s days past since I’ve read it, I continually think about this story.  I read Dirty Red, the sequel the next day, in one sitting.  As I said in the outset, my friend Arlene convinced me to read this.  We attended a book convention this last weekend, and all we did the whole time was gossip and theorize about this series! We convinced my husband to read this, too and he was right along with us in our obsession.   I still can’t get this story out of my head.  It was heart pounding, stomach clenching INTENSE, and I loved it!!! 

Right now this story is a steal of a deal for .99 cents on Amazon.