Review

The biggest take away from this story is that Bank’s knows how to write an alpha male. Ash McIntyre is the most intense alpha male I’ve read in a long while. He’s extremely protective, controlling (with reason), and he will do whatever he has to do to get what he wants. Add in the additions of success, money, and killer looks, Ash is definitely in a position to gain all his heart desires.

The funny thing is he only wants one thing—Josie Carlysle. Our heroine is a little creeped-out by Ash’s attention in her at first, but quickly comes to accept the idea that he’s worth giving a chance to. She’s just an infatuated with him as he is with her, and the recent sale of some of her paintings shows her things are only going to go up. With Ash by her side, offering her the relationship she’s only dreamed of will ensure it.

The plot is somewhat mysterious. I knew some of the coming conflicts, but others I was surprised by. The villains are plenty. Between ex’s and family members from hell, Ash and Josie have plenty of external conflicts to keep them occupied. I did enjoy how both characters did talk through their problems like adults versus internal conflict being driven by poor communication. This helped add depth to the story, but I still found myself skimming.

The main reason this story got a ‘3’ rating was because I wasn’t anxious to slide my finger along the Kindle screen to get to the next page and the fact I wasn’t as invested in the relationship. This may have been because it develops fast. The whole, ‘we’re together in a matter of days’ didn’t work for me and I couldn’t connect with Josie’s frame of mind, her belief in trusting Ash. I’m still holding my heroine’s to a tougher standard, but Ash had money for a background check though and Josie didn’t. I’m supposed to escape, but in contemporary romance it’s difficult to set aside the safety practices for female characters when I live in that dangerous world every day.

The other thing that may turn off some reader’s is Ash’s obsessive use of the ‘f’ word. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sailor, but every section of Ash’s POV and even his dialogue usually referenced the word at some point. In 353 pages that particular word and its variations are used 185 times. Now I don’t hold this against Ash, but I mention it because some readers may not enjoy books where characters excessively curse.

Overall, this is just an erotic tale with some heavy alpha-male tendencies and some BDSM. Fans of previous books in the trilogy will enjoy seeing the final chapter, though this book does work as a standalone. Previous characters do make appearances, and there are a few wrap-ups to Gabe and Jace HEA’s.