*drinks coffee*
Okay.
He placed his finger under her chin, tilted her head up and kissed her. She melted beneath his touch as his mouth covered hers. His arms surrounded her, pulling her close. She responded to the strength and warmth of his kiss. In his arms she felt released from the pain and uncertainty of her life. She'd wanted this for a long time.
His arm wrapped around her waist. His stubble grazed her smooth cheek as he deepened the kiss. His hand brushed through her hair and touched her ear. She couldn't pull away if she'd wanted to. He kissed her lightly several more times before tilting his head back.
Breathless, she opened her eyes.
There. There was some sweet kissing for you to enjoy.
Now, on with the story!
Morgan Smith - or should I say, Magdalena Chávez - has been in the Witness Protection program for two months. She's gotten a job on a horse ranch working for Alex Reardon. She loves horses and is great with them, but Alex is frustrated because he likes her but can't get to know her better. Every time he attempts to talk to her about her personal life, she shuts down. We know this is because she is in Witness Protection, but he finds it frustrating.
The whole book basically consists of Magdalena dealing with unending attempts on her life. UNENDING. First someone rattles her doorknobs and knocks her down when she goes out to the barn. Then there's a fire in the barn when Magdalena's inside it. A strange rider spooks her horse and she's thrown in the river. A poisonous snake is turned loose in her room. A car hits her car and runs her off the road, nearly killing her. A car tries to run her down while she's crossing the street. Then of course we get to the climax which involves lots of running, shooting and attempted strangulation.
Nearly getting killed all the time is stressful enough, but on top of this Magdalena has to deal with Alex acting like a hurt puppy because she won't tell him jackshit about her life. I would be super-annoyed and frustrated with him, but she is sad because she likes him and she can't be 'honest' with him.
Alex is actually a pretty believable combination of a mensch and a man who is losing patience with a woman he's trying to get to know better.
MENSCH:
He demanded no answers or explanation from her for why she was so afraid.
...
"I'm not leaving you here with that guy coming after you. What kind of man do you think I am?"
However, I wish he had been MORE patient and calm with her. Men can never be TOO patient or TOO calm. Especially since she's nearly dying every day. Doesn't that make him suspicious? Like maybe she has her reasons for keeping her mouth shut? o.O
No slut-shaming in this book. That's a plus.
GOD
The God and Jesus talk is kept to a minimum and isn't too grating. We have some nice stuff in here, like Magdalena quoting Proverbs 15:1 and a woman 'doing the Christian thing' by feeding Alex and Magdalena when they come to her door bedraggled and in trouble. This was pleasant. I highly support the idea that Christianity should be associated with kindness, compassion and mercy.
Then we have some neutral stuff like Magdalena questioning her faith after seeing 'the evil in people' or something.
Lastly, we have the annoying stuff like, "You can get through it, Morgan. God's not afraid of your honesty. You can shout at him if you need to, just don't stop talking to him." Not only does Alex see fit to tell Magdalena this, he also says stuff like,
The anger he'd felt earlier had subsided. "If Jesus can die on a cross for the likes of me, I can forgive you for all that I've been through."
You know what, Alex? FUCK YOU. Fuck you. How dare you say that to her?!?!!? One, she was not just keeping her past from you for shits and giggles, Alex. She was under Witness Protection. Do you even know what that means?!!?!? Two, I hate HATE when (usually it's born-again) Christians get all "I forgive you," and I'm like, "Thanks, but I didn't even do anything." I have a really low bullshit tolerance and as soon as people start condescendingly forgiving me for alleged sins (against them) while comparing themselves to Jesus I lose my shit. How can you BE with a man who thinks it's okay to talk to you this way?!!?!?!?!? I have LITERALLY broken up with men because of this. LITERALLY.
Deep breath, Carmen.
He also says, "Because I love you, silly." I don't know, this would rub me the wrong way. Condescending.
There's a lot of romantic face-touching in this. I guess Dunn thinks it's a prelude to kissing that's a little sexier than hand-holding? I don't know, I'm weirded out if a man is touching my face all the time, but okay.
There's also a nice subplot about an angry young man named Craig who works as a laborer on the horse ranch and is snarly and disrespectful to Magdalena. Alex wants to step in and be all forceful, but Magdalena slowly and sweetly wins Craig over with kindness and patience. I thought that was nice. Although there are missteps He was only a teenager, but no male liked a woman stepping in to defend him against another man. but overall I thought this side-plot was well done.
Alex is certainly not one of those non-violent Christians. He is very much with the punching. He punches lots and lots of bad guys in this. And he does other stuff like saves Magdalena from drowning and risks his life to pull her from a car wreck on a mountainside and stuff. So he's a really physical and forceful guy, no turn-the-other-cheek ideas here. He really gets tons of punching in. I was starting to think he must be an undercover agent or something, not just a horse rancher. Man's got a left hook and he knows how to use it.
Tl;dr - Well. This certainly isn't the worst Christian romance novel I've ever read. The absence of slut-shaming is particularly nice. However, I don't think it was the best one, either. Alex was getting on my nerves sometimes.
2 REAL STARS, 2 ROMANCE STARS