Review: Not as good as I expected - Spoiler Alert
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 26, 2012
I really enjoy R.L. Mathewson's books, especially the Neighbor from Hell series, but this one fell short for me.  I really liked Chris in Tall, Dark & Lonely.  He was a badboy, but loveable.  In this book he was just mean until the very end. Some of the things he said to Izzy were just unforgivable.  Sometimes I really enjoy reading books where the hero is kind of mean and hard to love.  They usually know when to back down though and admit they were wrong.  Chris was relentless throughout this book. His turning point should have been when Izzy and their baby saved his life, but he just got worse.A small part of me understood Chris' frustration with his weak mate.  When he forced Izzy to confront the shifters early in the book, hoping her fighting instincts would kick in, she literally curled into a fetal position on the ground.  I think most people, even if they are a coward, would try to defend themselves in some way.  I think the author wanted to portray Izzy as the opposite of Chris.  He has the brawn, she has the brains.  But she didn't really play up Izzy's intelligence the way she should have. So no matter how cruel Chris was to her, Izzy kept coming back for more.  In Chris' mind he had to choose between his family and Izzy, and his family would always come first. He just wanted Izzy for sex, and wanted her out of his life ASAP. I was beyond frustrated with both of them most of the time.  Chris apologized to Izzy at the end of the book and said he wanted to be with her and the baby, after he realized his entire family planned to move with her to a new home.  Izzy pointed that she would never come first with him, but ended up forgiving him anyway.  IMO he should have been groveling a lot more than that.Overall though, I thought the story was good. I liked that the characters from T,D & L were prominent in this book.  I just wish Chris had been more likeable and Izzy not quite so weak.