I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

Maggie leaves work while walking to her car she get held up by gunpoint and gets rob. As she goes to court she stop at a cafe she meets Ally and they have a instant connection.
Ally finally find someone she connects with only to learn that Maggie is the viticm that her brother had rob.

As they try to work out a relationship between them as I feel what Maggie going through her thinking about being recluse and getting a gun to feel safe I just didn't like how she was putting everything on Ally to me.

Ally mother Shirley just being in denial about the whole thing and blaming Ally and having Carey take accountable for his own action and I was happy he finally did.
I like the secondary characters and how Dani gave Ally advice about forgiving and letting go.

'ARC provided by both NetGalley and The Publisher in exchange for a honest review'

**'Books are compendiums of bad behavior and literature is the gossip about it..Writing fiction is Not self-expression..'

Erin Dutton's books can be hit,miss or in between and this book ended up being the latter. The storytelling was good but not great but she did rise to the occasion when it came to her compelling and extensive detail on the crime and legal system -- the story did deliver an informative and emotional tale. She even does a fine job balancing out all the mayhem with a huge dose of acceptance guilt and self-reflection on Carey's part.
What gives 'WAVERING CONVICTIONS' its real flavor are the portraits of the justice system and the romance that Ms.Dutton weaves throughout the book with a few revealing stories about family dysfunction, gun policies, being court ordered to a rehab facility etc..
Maggie wants to reclaim her self esteem and confidence after that robbery & aggravated assault incident but in trying to do this, she had to deal with her court case and having the nerve to confront her attacker (Carey). Here she meets Ally, someone she likes but is unaware of her connection to her attacker. It's an unraveling moment when both realized who each were.
The ethereal Maggie seems like the polar opposite of Ally: Maggie is less incline to do any dating for obvious reason and is still upset. Ally is open to finding Ms.Right, she is willowy and affable and her head is filled with lots of ideas about creating her own furniture making business -- something that she enjoy doing. Maggie acts tough and is very skeptical of Ally's true intentions towards her while Ally has a soft exterior and is not afraid to show her feelings -- with having to be the caretaker for both her mother and Carey, himself an addict suffering from a prolong stint with substance abuse.

Luckily, for both Maggie and Ally, their situation did turn out relatively okay -- given where and how their relationship started. If anything the lessons both learned: the need to be mindful, the willingness to forgive, the importance of friends and trustworthiness. Everyone makes mistakes -- it's if you decide to take responsibility.

unfortunately I couldn’t connect with this book at all. Yes it’s a very complex and dark storyline which at the beginning pulled me in when I read the blurb. However the delivery of it was not what I expected from Erin Dutton who for me is one of the very good authors out there. I think the issue is the constant repetition of what Maggie was going through due to the robbery that happened to her. For some reason, I couldn’t feel sorry for her! I didn’t like the character she was too passive, too annoying and very blah! Ally on the other hand was a bit better, but again, nothing exciting.
If I would imagine myself going to dinner with this couple, I would probably imagine a very dull outing. Even their connection wasn’t believable!
I didn’t like the supporting characters as well, none of them added anything exciting to the book! Probably the book wasn’t for me!
Overall my rating is a 2.25 and i can’t get myself to round it up to 3.
I received an ARC copy of the book for an honest review.

This book done nothing for me. The story line was promising, the characters were likeable in their own ways. Maggie grated on my nerves at times but I suppose that is understandable due to the ordeal she went through. Ally was my preferred character, although in all honesty, I felt that there was no connection/chemistry between the two main characters. They came across as more friends with benefits than lovers. I felt Maggie had a stronger connection with Charlie (Police Officer) than with Ally.

Overall, the book for me was just an okay read.

I received an ARC copy of this book by the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

This is the first book I've read by this author and I liked it.

The narration is my fav, told in third person and from both point of views. With that said, I warmed to Ally more than Maggie, whereas given what Maggie endured I often wondered if I should've felt more empathy for her...and more importantly, why I didn't.

At times, the story lagged due to having a repetitive feel to it. I get the crippling effects of PTSD, but there comes a point when I no longer need it drummed home. Did that make sense?

With all that said, the story kept me engaged, and I look forward to checking out more book by this author.

The plot of this story is a bit complex in its nuances, so I think this book will have a very varied kind of reviews. And after two days of finishing it, I actually don't know how it made me feel. On the one hand, the story itself is a bit tricky for me, because my experience in a somewhat similar situation, although it was not completely like the one described, makes me fully empathize with Maggie and understand all her actions and reactions. But with so many situations related to aggression, the subsequent trial, the insecurity and need to feel protected that Maggie has, have been a bit unpleasant for me, so in several parts of the book I felt like leaving it unfinished or skipping pages. With all this, sympathizing with Ally has been a bit difficult. But I have to admit that the author has done a pretty good exercise in positivizing a very negative situation and has managed to interject the desire of Ally to not let pass a relationship that may have a future and fight for it. After all Ally's situation also leads to a certain sympathy towards her, but not much at the beginning. As I said I can not be very critical with Maggie, but then Ally has also caused some pity as she is in the middle of something that she has not provoked or loved and that can ruin a future that she glimpses as happy, something that It is unusual in her life. It is not an easy book or a pleasant story in some moments, but that does not ruin it completely either. My overall opinion is in the middle up because the two protagonists at the end act with enough coherence and common sense. I do not know if I can recommend this book to everyone.

I guess it's my time to read a few vastly different sorts of Lesbian fiction romances (just got done with Falling by Kris Bryant, definitely recommend it!)

In this one Maggie is at the courthouse because she was robbed an assaulted and they caught the guy. She meets Ally in a very crowded coffee shop as she's freaking out before the court session.

What she doesn't know is that Ally is the sister of the young man who attacked her.

Even so, they find themselves not just attracted to each other at first sight, but, they slowly get closer (despite the circumstances) as the court stuff keeps going on.

What I thought was amazing about this book was how many topics were covered (drug abuse, assault, gun control/ownership) and yet none of them felt like that part of the story was being shortchanged, shoehorned in, or preachy. It was brilliant writing and it was done so well that I could see the point of view of every single character and even if I didn't agree with that point of view, it made me think.

It was awesome!

I received this book via Netgalley thanks to Bold Strokes Books.