Reviewer: Casee Mastered (The Enforcers, #1) by Maya Banks
Series: The Enforcers #1
Also in this series: Dominated (The Enforcers, #2), Kept (The Enforcers, #3)
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: December 29, 2015
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Point-of-View: Alternating Third
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Erotica
Pages: 368
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Reading Challenges: Casee's 2019 GoodReads Challenge
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Series Rating:
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Breathless Trilogy comes the first novel in the Enforcers series—a bold new direction in erotic romance that explores the games men and women play, and the price they’re willing to pay for pleasure.
What he wants, he takes with no remorse or guilt.
She stood out in his club like a gem, unspoiled and untouched. A lamb among wolves, she clearly didn’t belong. Drawn to her innocence he watched as she was surrounded by men who saw what he did—but no one but him could touch her. He summoned her to his private quarters. He sensed her fear. He also recognized the desire in her eyes. And he knew she wouldn’t leave before he possessed her. She had no need to know his secrets. Not until he had her under his complete and utter control.
What he wants, she isn’t sure she can give him.
The moment he told her want he wanted, she couldn’t resist. Instinct told her to run, but her heart said stay and walk the fine line between pleasure and pain. Though she wasn’t sure she could ever completely surrender, the primal part of her wanted to try, even knowing this man could break her in ways she never imagined. Because once he possessed her, he owned her and it would be too late to turn back. She can only pray that he doesn’t destroy her in the end.
Coming May 2016: The Enforcers Book II: Dominated
I love Maya Banks and have for years. It’s true that my reading tastes have changed, but what can you do? I was going through my “to-read” shelf on GoodReads and noticed that Kept (#3 in the series) was on the list. This is a trilogy that I was really looking forward to years ago and I don’t know why I never read it.
Let me preface my review by saying that this isn’t exactly a romance. I don’t even know that there are true romantic elements here. This is a BDSM book where the hero takes complete control of the heroines life and does unspeakable things to hurt her. Unforgivable things to most of us. Things that may be too much for a vanilla romance reader to read. Sometimes need overcomes all else and that what happens here.
After a thoroughly disaster first sexual encounter, Evangeline has revenge on her mind. Well, it’s not really on her mind. It’s on the mind of her three best friends. After dressing her to the nines and giving her a VIP pass to one of the hottest clubs in New York, they send Evangeline on her way to show Eddie just what he’s missing. Except their plan backfires in a big way. When Evangeline arrives, she immediately knows that she doesn’t belong and it’s evident that everyone watching knows it too. After (barely) being admitted inside the club, Evangeline feels even more out of place. She doesn’t notice the men staring at her. What she does notice is the women sneering and looking down on her. Deciding to write the whole night off as a mistake, Evangeline attempts to leave when she runs into Eddie. Which goes nothing like she imagined. When the bouncers step in to save her from a violent attack, she is humiliated. Even more so when they take her to their boss.
Drake noticed Evangeline as soon as she walked through the doors of his club. She has a look of innocence and sweetness that men wanted and women hated. She didn’t belong there. When she is attacked, Drake is enraged. When his men bring her to his office, he intends to tell her exactly why she doesn’t belong there. Except she apologizes profusely and tells him that he will never see him again and that she knows she doesn’t belong. Everything he was going to tell her sounded like blasphemy coming out of her mouth. The only way to shut her up was to kiss her and kiss her he did.
My biggest problem with this book is Evangeline’s lack of confidence and self-esteem. The woman thought nothing of herself. She had pride in spades, but she thought she was only with Drake until he was sick of her. Which she knew was going to be sooner rather than later because she just didn’t measure up to who he was used to being with. She was just a southern girl that was trying to take care of her ailing parents. She was nothing.
Honestly, it got old and fast.
She doesn’t quite know what Drake does for a living, but is happy with him so shrug. When it’s time to protect her life, Drake goes to awful lengths to protect her. He humiliates her in all the worst possible ways, but especially as a woman. The little confidence she had as the woman Drake could possible love is gone in the blink of an eye.
As much as Evangeline bugged me, the story still sucked me in. I read it in no time at all and moved onto the next one as soon as I finished this one.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5.
The Enforcers
I have mixed feelings about books by Maya Banks. She can write some compelling stories.