Making Over Maris by Sabrina York

Making Over Maris
by Sabrina York
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

My Review:
I had a few too many alpha-male, I-will-dominate-my-woman books lately so someone recommended I try this book. Nerdy and nice hero who's happy with the heroine taking charge. Seemed like the perfect recipe for what ailed me. I really liked how the book started off. Lots of good sexual tension, misunderstandings, and pining.

Sara was recovering from a bad relationship and was so nervous to show her true self. Jack had been in love with Sara forever and was finally ready to make his move. Jack decides to ask Sara to help give him a makeover. She gives him a list: gym, diet, clothes, haircut, even beard trim. She doesn't catch on that he's really doing all of this to make himself more attractive to her. And he'll pretty much do whatever she says. It was all very sweet.

I really liked how the two of them had to actually talk about what they wanted. They were both nervous but still took the initiative to check with each other before they got involved. It's such a refreshing change from just blundering along and thinking the other person doesn't really like you.

Once they started figuring the relationship out, it lost some steam in the tension department for me. It went from a bit of power play to rather kinky, femdom sex stuff pretty quickly and some of it was a little more hardcore than my cup of tea. But by the end, it traded in the sexual tension for emotional tugging. I was crying right near the end, it was very moving and courageous.

I found some of the writing to be rather choppy. Little details thrown in that didn't seem to have a set up or match with the rest of the story. Jack is this nerdy, shy hero, but then when the story needed it, Sara saw him as obviously a horn-dog who would go after anything in a skirt. They've been friends for years, but Sara knows almost nothing about Jack. The details that were thrown out made Sara seem like a self-centered cheerleader type, but all her actions in the story don't match up with that.

I had a really good time reading this story and I liked the storyline and the pace enough that I started another Sabrina York book right away. This was a fun story that takes two underrepresented romance characters and gives them a chance to shine.