Review: Hot, angry, sexy and vulnerable
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 13, 2014
This is my third Katee Robert contemporary. I need to be in the right mood to really enjoy these, but it's scratches exactly the right spot. Mostly they're best when you can give them the 2-3 hours they deserve. I've tried in my head to compare this book to some specific type and I think the closest I'm getting is some of the angry 80's Diana Palmer books (maybe like Heart Of Ice), but with a healthy dose of female agency thrown in. You know the ones, “I can't stand you, I'm going to yell and scream at you, but now we're kissing, how did that happen?!”Brianne and Ryan are at each other's throats almost from the first moment of the book, but they're also totally in Lust. Think: wild, angry sex is the only way we can keep from yelling at each other. They snipe at each other constantly unless they're having sex. It could have turned into just a caricature of a romance but it didn't. See, these two aren't angry to hide their lust or because they're just too innocent to understand their attraction. They're actually so wounded that they can't let anyone close. They know just where to prick at the other's vulnerability so it takes a long time for them to calm down and see the wounded animal in the other. They eventually start opening up and healing and it was beautiful to see. They took baby steps and had lots of fits and starts, but they did it. They gave each other compassion and understanding, forgiveness and space to heal.It was a rather narrowly focused book. We didn't get many details about either character's work or daily habits. They had a couple friends/family members that were instrumental in the romance but weren't very clearly defined secondary characters. I loved the interplay between Ryan and Brianne, but most things outside their immediate, romantic sphere were blurry and indistinct – a pretty normal occurrence with this length of book.I ended this book knowing that Brianne and Ryan really belonged together. They fought hard, with each other and with themselves, but they came out of it better, more vulnerable people. I knew that they'd do whatever was necessary to work out their issues together. When you need an angry, passionate romance with lots of satisfying sex; and two breathtakingly wounded, vulnerable characters, look no further than In Bed With Mr. Wrong.I received a complementary ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.