Review: Read it all at one sitting
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 7, 2012
I enjoyed this book enough that I didn't even peek at the last chapter to see if I was going to hate the ending.  If I had, I'd have missed a lot of good reading because I'd have stopped reading as soon as I found that part.  I trusted the author.  Now I'm looking at other books by SE Smith because her plots and characters are worth this author's going to the top half of my "must buy" list.  The product description, unlike some product descriptions for her books, was grammatical and quite understandable.  The book offered what was advertised and more.  Had the product description included Mak's history of rejection because of his size and that he really wanted a home and family (and was envious of his brothers who had them), I'd probably have bought the book even sooner.  Mak was a tender-hearted hero who was hurt by the rejection of others who feared him due to his size.  This was a bit of a Beauty and the Beast story.The heroine was kick-butt without being whiny or emasculating.  She was just someone who felt the need to make the world a better place.  Her insistence on working solo is a little annoying at times, but that didn't ruin it for me.  I like that at no time did she find his size (he was near 7 feet if I remember correctly) frightening.Now for the bad.  Since I haven't read her other books, I do not know if Ms. Smith's editing has improved in this book over her previous books.  Lately I've been  finding a lot of humor in poor word selection but a belly-laugh during a sex scene does tend to break the sexual tension in the passage In one author's sex scene the hero "interred" (rather than "entered") the heroine when she was ready. I giggled for quite some time imagining him burying her vajay.  Maybe they had a funeral for it.  I imagine most authors want to be remembered for their beautifully rendered descriptions rather than ignorant-sounding word choices.  I often tell friends about one author whose heroine was given an "obscene jester" (sic) by a passing motorist and I still imagine the court jester (dressed in hat and shoes with bells) mooning her on the freeway.  That's not what I want to remember about a favorite author!  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Ms. Smith made any blunders of this magnitude, but there WERE several places where I was stopped dead with a stunned look on my face and a "say what???" on my tongue.  Her mistakes were more of the find/replace sort of boo boos or incorrect choices among homophones ("to, two, too" or "breath/breathe" for example).  I am not a grammar Nazi and don't find my students' essays unreadable if they misplace commas, but some errors make you wonder if the writer gave a rap about her/his book.SPOILER WARNING:If you are upset by D&S; / BDSM scenes in which the hero "punishes" the heroine by tying her up and causing pain (in this case including nipple piercing without permission), either steer clear of this book or avoid the scene.  It occurs toward the end of the book.  There is only one scene of this ilk though continued BDSM play is referenced and assumed to be enjoyable for the heroine.  Not everyone objects to this and, while I am of the "whatever floats your boat" persuasion, I definitely was taken aback by this scene and it left a bit of a sour taste for the hero toward the end.  If it's not consensual, it's not something I want to see my heroes do.  This is why I didn't rate it 5 stars.  I want at least a little warning that the hero is going to turn into an abusive Dom.