Review: Tempting Mr. Parker
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 16, 2011
Tempting Mr. Parker starts out with a confrontation between Cade, the older white wealthy guy, and Shakara, the young African-Amercan girl who has had a very difficult childhood. Cade berates her for being in his home because he strongly disapproves of her and because of what she does (or did) for a living. Shakara is a former stripper and now works in a Hooters style restaurant. Shakara is feisty on the outside but a bit of a doormat on the inside. She fights back when Cade confronts her but inwardly she admires his physique even while he berates her. Cade makes his opinion of Shakara quite clear yet for some reason Shakara is secretly attracted to him. My first impression of both Cade and Shakara are not good at all. Cade is a downright jerk for being so nasty to Shakara. He clearly feels superior and strongly disapproves her and her background and is not a gentleman in how he expresses his feelings. He even has a rule that she must address him as Mr. Parker.His extreme outward behavior is to mask his shame and embarrassment he feels about being attracted to Shakara. Shakara allows herself to be disrespected while secretly longing for a man who is treating her like she is far beneath him.I'm sure you've got a feeling for my impression of Cade by now. Unfortunately my opinion didn't change much throughout the story even after he revealed his affections for Shakara. He went from demeaning her to `I love you and you should love me back now' rather quickly. He did eventually go above and beyond to win Shakara's affections so he gets points for that but his actions toward her in the beginning bordered on cruel and I had a hard time forgiving him.Shakara has had romantic feelings for Cade since she first became friends with his sister several years before. She has lived on her own from an early age and has done what she had to do to survive. I felt a strong sense of sympathy for her for the most part but her attraction to Cade just didn't make sense. He was never kind to her until he made his big declaration of love and she went from putting up with his abuse to accepting his love very quickly. Shakara is a street smart girl who has practically raised herself so I really had to question why she was so quick to trust Cade even with her long felt attraction to him.I've done some complaining about the two main players and it sounds as though I didn't enjoy the book. The thing is, even with my criticisms of the characters, I did enjoy reading this story so I really struggled with how to rate it. Tempting Mr. Parker appealed to my love of imperfect protagonists where I can hope for redemption and my affection for the Cinderella troupe. Although I found both Cade and Shakara to be questionable in character, the story still held enough water for me to want to continue to read. I held out hope for both Cade and Shakara until the very end hoping for the magic "ah-ha" moment were I would come to understand where they were coming from on an emotional level and understand their attraction to each other. That moment never came yet at the end of it all I was happy they found happiness in each other.