Maverick : All About Romance %

Maverick

Sex alone does not make for a solid romance and, unfortunately, good sexual tension will only take you so far. Bad sexual tension takes me nowhere whatsoever. Maverick features a couple who have great sex, but there is no possible way I can picture a happily ever after for them, something I find necessary in order for a book being marketed as a romance to be remotely believable.

Risa Clay has decided to take her life back. As a victim of sexual assault by a stranger, as well as unspeakable abuse by her father, she’s isolated herself from everyone but a small, trusted group of friends. She decides to meet a man her friends want to introduce her to, as well as, sight unseen, that he’s the one she’ll have sex with for the first time since her attack. Still, convinced that she’s completely undesirable, Risa bolts when he shows the slightest hesitation, only to discover later he’s her personal bodyguard assigned to protect her until the mad scientist who wants her dead is caught and his assassin eliminated.

Micah Sloane is a member of an Elite Ops team with the job of keeping Risa safe and taking out those who want her eliminated. His own personal history with the assassin and his fascination with her makes the assignment non-negotiable for him: He’s the only man for the job. He’s watched Risa from afar for years and admires the woman she’s become. His intention is to make the limited time they are together count for them both.

When Risa realizes Micah’s purpose, she feels betrayed by her friends, rejected as well as humiliated by Micah, and victimized all over again by her past. As much as she fights him, Micah refuses to let her give into self-pity and helps her discover the beautiful, strong woman that she is, while keeping her alive.

I always feel guilty when I don’t like a character who has been the victim of extreme violence and abuse, but the simple fact is I didn’t like Risa. The entire time I was reading, I felt as though she had her priorities terribly mixed up. Instead of being concerned about the man she hardly knows sleeping in her bed or the strange drug she’s still reacting to years after exposure, she’s more concerned with the fact that he might find her ugly and so unattractive that he may not want to have sex with her. Instead of being overly concerned about the assassin and the mad scientist who wants her dead, she’s completely focused on the fact that her father told her she was so ugly that he had to pay someone to rape her. Her unattractiveness was mentioned so often that I didn’t care by the end of the book just how unattractive she was or wasn’t.

Also, there was no point at which the couple fell in love. While there are some mighty strong possessive feelings on Micah’s part, there’s far more anger between the couple than tenderness – something that doesn’t appeal to me at all as a reader. They are forced together because of a bad situation and spend a good deal of time having sex and arguing, none of which makes me picture that necessary happily ever after.

While I tried to feel some sympathy for the heroine, I found it near to impossible. As such, I couldn’t really relate to the story or warn up to the couple.

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