Taking Him by Jackie Ashenden

Taking Him
by Jackie Ashenden
Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

My Review:
How can I describe how much I enjoyed this story? It's passionate and intense, sweet and quirky. A computer game designer girl and a general contractor-type guy. I love books that give the heroines all kinds of smarts as just a normal part of life. There wasn't a big deal about Ellie being a computer geek or making her conspicuously out-of-the-ordinary. She was just herself.

I loved Ellie's fascination with Hunter. I swear Jackie Ashenden pulled out every possible detail on Hunter and made me feel like I was witnessing this story as it happened. I could believe Ellie's attraction in an instant. Ellie was always the kid in their relationship and it took her a lot to make Hunter see her as a woman. I loved how fearless she was.

Hunter was morose and complicated. He got pulled in to a relationship with Ellie, almost kicking and screaming. Ellie knew what she wanted and went after it with everything she had. She had a certain innocence but a lot of determination. I was fascinated with Hunter just as much as Ellie was.

But, for all the passion, I did get a little irritated at Hunter. There were times he was violent, in a grabby way that left bruises, when he was upset. I understood where it was coming from, but there were times I wanted to tell Ellie that you just don't stick around a person who does that to you. There were times when this book reminded me of Surrender To A Wicked Spy by Celeste Bradley (I think that's the one). Ellie and Hunter have the same sort of I'll-save-your-soul-through-sex journey that Olivia and Dane go through. From that perspective, I wanted Hunter to get some outside help before the story resolved, but in the fantasy of this book, his problems went away as soon as he faced them. Luckily, the rest of the book was so good that I was able to believe in him.

And now that I'm reading Having Her, some of the background questions in this book are being answered, leaving me goggle-eyed and saying “ooooh, that's what was going on”. Both books are stand-alone stories, but they take place during the same time period, so read them close together to get the full effect.


I enjoy the older-brother's-best-friend trope, so when you combine that with Jackie Ashenden (who I just discovered recently and love, love, love), it was an auto-buy. I couldn't seriously pass it up. The story was so well written and so gripping. I was enthralled and barely put the book down. And I ended up crying near the end. It totally sucked me in. I didn't even highlight passages because I was so into the story. This one goes into my read again pile.