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A review by lizshayne
Takeover by Anna Zabo
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Neolithic Sheep, you are a gentleman and a scholar, thank you for publicly recommending romances on twitter.
Anyway, it was contemporary romance, but I forgive it because it was both kinky and gay and thus meant that I was unlikely to run into the bug bears of contemporary romance…this man thinks controlling women is sexy. Also, like I said, Shep has no idea who I am, but he’s a trustworthy soul on twitter so I expected this to be fine.
I, somehow, didn’t expect it to be as much fun as it was. Zabo’s characters are a delight.
But, in the ongoing essay that I’m writing about romance novels one review at a time, this one basically exemplifies the point I was making…last year/two weeks ago about principles. Zabo has very strong feelings about how their characters will be and do good, what it means to make ethical choices in an non-ethical world, and the extent to which this conversation extends. In many ways, it’s a conversation about individual morality. At no point, e.g., do we touch on any of these companies’ environmental impact or relationship to manufacturing. And there’s no reason to, except that Zabo is DEEPLY concerned about their characters deserving-ness. Both Michael and Sam consistently do the right thing in the cutthroat world of capitalist business practices…which is great, obviously we’re not rooting for dickwidgets, but the fantasy of romance that consistent ethical behavior gets rewarded just, it makes me really happy.
There’s a SUPER interesting conversation to be had between Alexis Hall’s Arden St. Ives series and this one about business, kink, consent, and power and how Hall and Zabo respectively negotiate it.
What Zabo has done here is created the equivalent of Regency romance ™ for 21st century American corporate culture. The interplay between the extremely well researched details that get the reader in the right place and the wildly idealistic possibilities open to the main characters matches beautifully. Not to mention, again, the ongoing lack of questions about where the wealth comes from and what it is doing.
I want more books in magical fantasy versions of reality where all the men are good looking, all the power brokers are kind, and all the penises are above average.
Anyway, it was contemporary romance, but I forgive it because it was both kinky and gay and thus meant that I was unlikely to run into the bug bears of contemporary romance…this man thinks controlling women is sexy. Also, like I said, Shep has no idea who I am, but he’s a trustworthy soul on twitter so I expected this to be fine.
I, somehow, didn’t expect it to be as much fun as it was. Zabo’s characters are a delight.
But, in the ongoing essay that I’m writing about romance novels one review at a time, this one basically exemplifies the point I was making…last year/two weeks ago about principles. Zabo has very strong feelings about how their characters will be and do good, what it means to make ethical choices in an non-ethical world, and the extent to which this conversation extends. In many ways, it’s a conversation about individual morality. At no point, e.g., do we touch on any of these companies’ environmental impact or relationship to manufacturing. And there’s no reason to, except that Zabo is DEEPLY concerned about their characters deserving-ness. Both Michael and Sam consistently do the right thing in the cutthroat world of capitalist business practices…which is great, obviously we’re not rooting for dickwidgets, but the fantasy of romance that consistent ethical behavior gets rewarded just, it makes me really happy.
There’s a SUPER interesting conversation to be had between Alexis Hall’s Arden St. Ives series and this one about business, kink, consent, and power and how Hall and Zabo respectively negotiate it.
What Zabo has done here is created the equivalent of Regency romance ™ for 21st century American corporate culture. The interplay between the extremely well researched details that get the reader in the right place and the wildly idealistic possibilities open to the main characters matches beautifully. Not to mention, again, the ongoing lack of questions about where the wealth comes from and what it is doing.
I want more books in magical fantasy versions of reality where all the men are good looking, all the power brokers are kind, and all the penises are above average.