Review: I love an "arrogant, rude and prickly" hero
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 15, 2012
I do love a cop romance, and this one gives me a very virile, dominating and surly hero. I have a thing for jerk heroes, those men you don't know whether you'd rather slap or kiss them first. Raith is pretty much that man, deserving of some abuse but charming and likeable despite his flaws. He does damaged hero pretty well, and he has bitterness down to a fine art. But underneath that snark and bitterness, we see a man in need of love. He actually longs for it, wanting very much to be connected to a woman, to have companionship, and this very longing scares him to death.And how does he deal with it? In a manly, wishy-washy way, of course. One minute, he's in deep with the heroine, Willow; the next, he's pushing her away and accusing her of things she's not guilty of. He's so possessive of her, so jealous of any man around her; yet, he cannot help but want to put some distance between them. He's that wound up about her. And I loved this push and pull. It led to all sorts of sexual tension and chemistry. They bickered a lot, very much a verbal and a fighting type of foreplay. These two hated each other, but more so, they hated wanting each other.Overall, this was a good read for me, but a few little things kept it from being a great read. And that disappointed me. What I didn't like-- the heroine has a couple of TSTL moments. I like a strong heroine, but one who's stupidly willful? Not so much. For the most part, I did like Willow; I just needed her to be a bit smarter about her stalker/intruder. Not listening to advice and leaving her back door unlocked was not a good way to show a man how independent she is. Also, after their misunderstanding, I thought Raith could have grovelled more and that Willow could have been more than just perturbed with him. And concerning the stalker, Raith definitely needed more grovel time on that point. Also, this story isn't overly erotic, but it is listed as contemp. romance, I think. There are a couple of scenes, but I wish less of the action had taken place off camera, so to speak.Even with all that, there was just something about this story and this hero that pulled me in. It has some great sexual tension going for it, and the interaction between h/H made the story for me. It's 244 kindle pages of opposites attracting and hating every minute of it. These two really tried to resist each other, but that magnetism was just too strong and exciting. So this is very much a book to read if you love sexy cops, opposites attracting and bickering, a strong caveman alpha, and the theme of enemies to lovers. Even with a few quibbles, this was a good read for me of a new-to-me author. What I read here, I liked a lot, making me eager to check out more titles by this author.