Review: Losing Control
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 17, 2014
I love a good unrequited-to-required love story; they are my jam. I was therefore, so excited to come across LOSING CONTROL, especially after reading the synopsis and the prologue. While the writing came across a bit stilted and the inner monologues--at times--a bit forced, I was still excited to see where the story was headed. Sadly, I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped.Kim Rawlings was sheltered growing up. Her father checked out after the death of her mother and as such, she has approval issues when it comes to the opposite sex. She marries young (18) and divorces only 4-years later after a hellish experience. To say she is clueless is an understatement. She goes to work for Jake Knight's security firm, which protects people from what exactly, I'm not sure. However, we're told it's all ex-army, that Jake--the bleeding heart that he is--has rescued them and that they're good at what they do, Kim included. It's been four years since she was taken in by the firm and Kim has transformed into a "strong, take-no-prisoners, marriage-is-for-idiots, fighter woman-in-combat-boots" who is trying to be taken seriously and not coddled by the boss (who she believes is just being protective, the aforementioned bleeding-heart that he is). Jake's protectiveness is borne from love, not solely kindness. He realized only four months earlier that he was in love with Kim and only needs to figure out how to get her to love him back. She's of course, oblivious. I'm sure you're surprised at where this is going...Kim is not oblivious, she's stupid. There is a scene in the book where ANYONE with an ounce of common sense can determine that Jake is hot and bothered for her, but she's all: "who, me?" about it. This comes about after Jake learns that she's looking for casual sex with someone and says in no uncertain terms "that someone should be me." Yet, Kim is still looking around in the crowd because he can't obviously be talking about her! Fine, I'll deal with naveté, but the secondary characters were useless, the dialogue questionable and Kim's vacillation frustrating. He's her best friend, but he's hot, but it'll change things, but she wants him, but I now have a headache.I ended up skimming paragraphs and rolling my eyes at the clichés. One thing I will say about the latter: it's a romance novel, so of course they'll be there, but if they're executed sloppily, it just sends the whole thing out the window. I'll give props for the storyline and the potential, it just wasn't my cup-of-tea.