Review: Action, drama and sexual tension galore!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 30, 2013
Taming Cross was such a fracking exciting book! It was stressful and frustrating and scary and sweet - you will experience the whole range of emotions with this one.When we last saw Cross at the end of Selling Scarlett, he wasn't in a good place. He had been injured pretty badly in a motorcycle accident, then almost sold to a nasty Mexican drug cartel along with his BFF Lizzy. As he's recouperating, his thoughts turn to Merri, the mistress his father had taken then had sold to the same group of people. And, Cross decides he's had it with his awful father and goes down there to rescue her. When he finds her, they start running for their lives and almost lose them time and time again before it's all over.Cross is such an amazing character. The guy is so damaged, both physically and emotionally, it's a wonder he hasn't gone blooming crazy. His parents - especially his father - are the worst sort. His job that he loves requires him to work with his hands, and now he's lost the use of one of them. The girl he liked is engaged to someone else. And guilt is eating him alive. Yet, he digs deep and does what everyone would consider impossible - he heads into the bowels of the Mexican drug cartel to find the girl that he feels like he abandoned down there.Cross was the source of most of my angst. He truly is a good guy and he has put so much pressure and blame on himself, and it's not right. He feels unlovable and not useful. It breaks my heart.Meredith Kinsey was also done well. She was sold to the head of a nasty cartel and passed off as his girlfriend even though he was gay. Eventually, she escaped to a convent, but things are about to go south in a bad way when Cross shows up, pretending to be "Evan," a bounty hunter working with the US government. Of course she isn't going to trust him, but she still escapes with him because he's the lesser of two evils.Merri is such a strong woman. She has endured the absolute worst things, and all because she was just a victim of circumstance. Then, she's being shot at by the people who want to take her back. And then she's with the son of her worst enemy. She has every reason to break, but she doesn't. In fact, as it turns out, She and Cross are the medicine that each of them need.Taming Cross is told in dual POV. I love that we get both sides of the story from the people living them. And, in this case, getting inside Cross' head was so valuable to my understanding of the story.We get to see little glimpses of Lizzie and Hunter - the characters from Selling Scarlett. That's always nice. We also see a few other characters from the first book - Suri and Marchant. I think my only complaint about Taming Cross was the ending. I feel like there were still a bunch of loose ends that didn't get tied up. But, I trust Ella James to bring those stories to a satisfying close in the final Love Inc. book, Unmaking Marchant.