nancybeth 's review for:

Even If It Hurts by Sam Mariano

2.0

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I was not as fascinated by this as Untouchable by the same author. I thought it was less masterfully constructed. I found the first 30% of this book pretty boring. Nothing was happening. Then when the main characters started to interact more, I was more engaged. Aubrey wanting to be reliant on someone else because she has been the sole decision-maker for her family was a great setup for Dare to swoop in and start manipulating her life. However, that foundation was less clear as the plot went on and the author could have threaded it better throughout the book. Then as we got closer to the end, I thought so much of the suspense plotline was dumb. It didn't make much sense and it made me think Dare was actually pretty stupid and not very good at manipulating the world to his whims. There were a couple of points in the book where Dare did cross the line from "I'll give it a pass because this is dark fiction" to "this is not hero behavior." Sam Mariano doesn't build heroes who would sacrifice anything for their heroines or ever put them first. Aubrey was Dare's toy. The biggest problem with this book is that it ends with Aubrey unhappy. She is frightened and uncomfortable around Dare. This felt a little lazy on the author's part to not even try to build to where Aubrey actually likes her relationship with Dare. I wouldn't exactly call this a successful romance - it was more of a domestic thriller, and a mediocre one at that.

Sam Mariano is probably not the author for me, but the reading experience is always interesting.