Review: Decent story, author has lots of potential
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 17, 2014
I was introduced to Desiree Wilder when Losing Control was a freebie on Amazon. As someone who loves discovering great new Indie authors, I'll often give free books a chance. I was pleasantly surprised with Wilder's writing style and the way she broke free of molds with her characters. Instead of the aggressive male lead, her main character, Gia, is the aggressor in this novel -- and Ethan, the sweet concert owner, was the one who wanted to give her more in the relationship than just a weekend quickie.While the writing was smooth and the book was an easy read (I literally flew through it in about a day and a half), I found myself feeling a little like the story was rushed at the end. I know sometimes what's left unsaid can be just as tantalizing and what you WANT to see happen, I'm a HEA girl. While Gia does finally come around and expose her vulnerability, parts of the book felt underdeveloped and I would've liked to see Wilder flush out the plot lines a little better. It felt too short once she got to the good parts with Ethan -- which after all, is the whole point of the book. Do note, this is book one in a series, and it looks like Wilder does expand the plotline more in future books. That said, I'm not a big fan of the shorter, novelette-style reads that leave you hanging and feeling like something is missing unless you read book two. While it is okay to have a series, and leave some things for future books, the first book should still be flushed out enough and be perfectly fine as a stand alone book. While this one kind of is, the end would be considered highly underdeveloped and rushed without reading the remaining books in the series. And that's not my cup-of-tea with romance (or any other) novels.So, overall, I did like the book. It was a fun, quick LIGHT read. Perfect for a bubble bath or beach day (or in my case, carpool line!). And I probably will read more of Wilder as I think there is a ton of potential here. I just hope more romance authors move away from this type of "series" novelettes and just do the entire novel justice from the start or as a stand alone.