Review: Hero? Really?
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 28, 2013
Ashley 's banter can be so wonderful, so I ignore the great many things about her stories that bother me. Such as the hyperbole, punctuation, idiot women, and stupid men. Her heroes have lots of good qualities, but are intensely in need of a boot to the head.SpoilerIn Tate's book, it was bad enough that he didn't do anything about the rampant police corruption, but he had a kid, so it's understandable. In this book, Chace buckled under to protect his grown parents, and became a dirty cop. That's ridiculous. He's not a hero, he's a schmuck that eventually decided he should try to do right by his badge. For the heroine to say he has nothing to be ashamed of, she's also a schmuck.Also, the idea that he became infatuated with her years before his coerced marriage, but didn't ask her out because he wanted to get the wild out, yet assumed she would remain chaste, is just terrible. In my opinion, that shows an extremely chauvinistic attitude. And frankly, I've never been a fan of Ashley 's stereotypical gender roles; they're not traditional. They're misogynistic. She's not supposed to pour her own drinks? She's at the counter, opening the wine, with her glass ready, but she needs to put it down, step back, and have had wait time for a drink doubled so THE MAN can walk over and get her drink for her? That's just pointless.There is a lot of pointless description. I don't care what his house looks like. Ditto for his clothes. Same for her apartment and her clothes. Pages and pages of irritating filler, when it could be handled in a few paragraphs.Near the start of the book, ALL of Chace's are threatened by The Elite, then he finds out his girlfriend and her friends are snooping into them, and by the time they've killed 2 people, he's letting her walk around unprotected? As a cop, he should know better. Good bodyguards scope out all possible exits and stay within reach of their charge; they don't let them go to the bathroom on the other side of the bar, near the rear exit, alone. He should have explained the danger and guarded against it. If the girlfriend is truly an intelligent person, she would understand the reality and put up with a guard. Yet, somehow, this is never even brought up. If a man claims he's going to take care of you, and you need to let him, because he is THE MAN, then darn well better be able to. If you get kidnapped, it better be because the bad guys had better resources, not because it never occurred to him that someone might carry through on a threat.