⭐⭐

Evie is a computer nerd by day and a stripper by night. Her friend, Lottie, sets her up on a date with Danny (who everybody calls Mag), except for Evie. Danny has some issues of his own after his career in the armed forces. He works with Mo, Lottie’s fiancée.

Evie was in big trouble because of her brother, and since she is very self-sacrificing, she would have just gone along with everything that happened. But Danny took over right from the moment they met and spent a lot of time and energy trying to keep her safe. Evie always considered herself a loner, but suddenly she found support and friendship from the Rock Chicks (Lottie’s gang of friends), and her fellow strippers, as well as Danny and his group of friends. And all of these people seemed to want to make Evie’s decisions for her, as they all think she will not take care of herself in the process. I have to say, Evie did push back against this wall of “taking over”.

I liked Evie, though she really had no sense of self-preservation. And she wasn’t used to having people in her corner, so she had a tough time adjusting to all these new people who wanted to help. Danny was a bit intense for me, and I didn’t like him much at all. He is domineering, arrogant, and over-possessive. And I don’t buy the idea that a guy has to solve his problems with aggression to be considered “alpha”. Between Danny and his group of friends, there was way too much testosterone flying around, and not in a good way.

I haven’t read the Rock Chicks, so I felt like I missed something a bit, but not enough to still follow this story.

I am not a fan of the writing style. Many of the characters sound the same when they talk – they use the same sort of phrases, and there isn’t really a distinction between them as such. The plot was fairly good, but Evie was about the only character that I liked and connected with. There are also a lot of repetitive statements and phrases used that I have never heard real-world people use, such as “Thus being to the fact”, “That turn being me”, and “Doing so”. There are loads more examples.

So, while I enjoyed the plot, and Evie, I didn’t really care for the rest of the characters, and the writing style is hard to ignore to get to the heart of the story, that’s why I’m giving it a 2.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Was I hooked by this book? Not really.

Genre: Contemporary Romance