Review: Where Did Marabeth's Backbone Go?
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 06 17, 2013
My biggest problem with this book is that I liked both Sam and Marabeth better at the beginning of the book than I did at the end.At the beginning of the book Sam is a protective but sexy alpha male.  By the middle of the book he's extremely controlling and is playing little headgames with Marabeth that make me want to kick him almost as much as she wants to kick him.  And by the end of it, he's more than controlling, he's also patronizing.At the beginning of the book Marabeth is a strong-willed woman who has an unfortunate attraction to a man that she doesn't want to be attracted to.  In the middle of the book she's fighting for recognition from both her father and her soon-to-be husband - not just recognition, but respect.  She's fighting the good fight, demanding answers, working on projects for the good of the country and insisting that Sam stop treating her like a child and that he respect her work.By the end of the book she has given up everything to him.  She's incensed about how he doesn't listen to her, the fact that he's pursuing a project directly opposed to one of hers, and his constant patting on her head and acting like she's bubblehead... but as soon as he admits his love to her who cares about all that?  Hey, he said the L word... all those other problems? Big deal?!  We never get to see how they work out any of those issues, what happens with their conflicting projects, or whether Sam ever starts treating her if she has any brains.  The story is over with as soon as she knows what his feelings are towards her.Well you can love a dog, but that doesn't mean that you'll treat it as your equal.  Since that was what Marabeth was fighting for the entire book it was pretty upsetting to me when she surrendered in the ninth round, apparently not caring that none of the issues she's constantly pushing Sam about have been addressed.  I hope she doesn't expect him to change into a caring man who respects her opinions and ideas after the wedding, cuz he didn't even compromise about that before it.