by Katee Robert
Rating: 4 out of 5 starsMy Review:
Another first-time-by-this-author book for me. I thought about reading book three in this series, but decided I should really start with book one. This one was a well developed, emotionally rich story. Two characters coming from opposite sides of the tracks, learning to find peace with who they are.
Elle is such a unobtrusive heroine. She's shy, has trouble standing up for herself and basically tries to make herself invisible. But somehow she gets the gumption to try to seduce her boss, Nathan. The funny thing is, it's Nathan's brother Gabe that she ends up seducing. And that's pretty much how the whole of Elle's life goes. She finds her spine and her own distinct personality through Gabe's force of character. By the end, she's capable of owning who she is and following whatever her heart desires.
I didn't like how she treated Gabe when things got rough. She really did paint him into a corner and make it seem like he wasn't good enough for her. But she really pulled through at the end and owned up to her issues. It felt like she really grew and understood what her issues were and decided it was time to solve them.
I would have loved to see more of Elle's interactions with her painting. The few times it's mentioned, it seems like such a huge part of her life, but we only get a few brief glimpses of her painting.
Gabe is a pretty hunky hero. He's loud, uncouth and tattooed. Everything Elle's convinced is bad for her, but she secretly likes a lot. I loved that Gabe could be alpha and push Elle without turning into a jerk or objectifying her. The tattoos were slightly a turnoff for me, in that I saw a picture of the idea behind one (skin pulled back to reveal some Bible verses) and it really grossed me out. It just looked a little too real and gory to me. I don't think I could go for a hero who looked like he had skin peeled away from his arm. Luckily, the tattoo design itself is only mentioned a couple times so I didn't think about it too much in terms of the story, even though tattoos as a whole were a huge part of who Gabe was.
As an aside, I couldn't figure out one of the Bible verses mentioned. Hosea 11:9 was supposed to remind him of what his mom thought he should aspire to be. But the verse says “I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again. For I am God, and not a man – the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities.” (NIV) Maybe I'm just missing something, but I couldn't connect what he should be aspiring towards.
Gabe and Elle were good multi-dimensional characters and I liked the secondary characters too; Gabe's brother Nathan and Elle's friend Roxanne. They both added some extra depth to the story and balanced out the two lovebirds' angst. Elle's mom was pretty nasty and was definitely a tough situation to reconcile, but the author did a pretty good job of keeping it real and forcing Elle to stand up for herself without simply brushing the conflict away afterwards.
The story ticked along pretty quickly and I will definitely be looking for more books by this author. This one had a perfect amount of angst and character growth. I loved the path that Gabe and Elle took to find their happily-ever-after. Nathan's story looks interesting and I'll definitely be buying the rest of the books in the series soon.
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