A review by sarahesterman
Stalked by Eva Marks

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I feel mixed feelings about Stalked. Your girl loves a stalker romance (don’t worry, my therapist is aware). Your girl loves an over-the-top obsessed hero (again, my therapist knows). Dr. Theo Wentworth is both of those things. But even so, this book didn’t really hit for me. Like it was ok, but also kind of hollow? 

 

What I liked: 

• The spice was spicing. This was my first Eva Marks book, but based off snippets from other books I’ve seen, that’s something that you can expect from Marks’ books.
• Theo’s stalking was perfectly unhinged. A lot of times in stalker romances the stalking is acknowledged and accepted by all parties as soon as the couple gets together, but since this was an instalust/love from both parties, that wasn’t the case. I liked that even though Theo was having a crisis of conscience, we still got that dark, dubious consent messed up side of things that make stalker romances so juicy (again, I have consulted my therapist). But come on, how did Prue sleep through all that? This insomniac needs that kind of deep sleep for real. 

 
What didn’t work for me:
 

• I didn’t feel like Prue or Theo were fully baked, but especially Prue. We didn’t learn much about her except that she started the book as a virgin, she worked hard to get her education and job, and of course her traumatic upbringing. She was basically just her past, and not even in a haunted way. She just felt… empty? 
• The plot with Prue’s father was odd? Like I didn’t hate it, but her actions at the end of the book don’t track with her actions in the rest of the book? If she’s gonna turn out to be a little messed up herself, shouldn’t we have gotten peeks of it as we went along? 
• And my biggest complaint: California is a dual consent recording state (!!!) and Theo would certainly have known that—so all of his threats to the baddies about voice recordings he took of them fell super flat. The people he threatened may have even known it too. It feels like this is something that should have been addressed and could have been looked up with a simple google search. 

 
While Stalked didn’t live up to my expectations, I imagine it would be a good fit for people who are mostly in it for the spice and don’t care as much about the surrounding story.