Reviewer: Tracy
Awakening (A Dangerous Man, #1) by Serena Grey
Series: A Dangerous Man #1
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: May 2nd 2014
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 84
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Series Rating:

His voice is hoarse. “I am going to make love to you now.” He says, “So if you want me to stop, tell me.”

I shake my head frantically. If he stops at this point, I’ll probably die.

Sophie Bennett has virtually no experience with men. Orphaned from birth, she’s gone from living with her reclusive spinster aunt, to a sheltered education in boarding school. So nothing prepares her for David Preston. The intensely attractive business-man is entirely out of her league. Can she handle such a dangerous man, or is she in over her head?

Sophie lives in a small town near Seattle, Washington. Her mother died giving birth to her (she has no idea who her father is) and her nasty aunt became her guardian. She was given no love, no affection and allowed no friends. She lived there until being shipped off to Catholic boarding school. She was planning on going to college until her aunt died and left her nothing but $1,500.00 though the aunt’s estate was much larger. Now Sophie is working temporarily in a gift shop in town with some plans to move to Bellevue.

One day about 4 months after her aunt died Sophie is alone in the shop when in walks a man named David Preston under the guise of buying his mother a gift. The truth is that he saw Sophie standing outside the shop and was intrigued. David asks Sophie out to dinner and she accepts. At dinner Sophie is quite chatty and tells David everything there is to know about herself – while getting no info in return except the fact that he’s 27 to her 18. Sophie is very attracted to David but thinks he’s so far out of her league she’d never keep his interest. He mentions at dinner that he was on his way home from a local conference when he saw her and asked her out. He kisses her and they end up at Sophie’s apartment. Now here’s where things get a bit strange. They end up in bed, of course, but only after David says to Sophie,

“Somebody should have warned you to stay away from men like me.”

He also says that he wants her and she responds in kind. He then states:

“I can’t make any promises, Sophie.” There is a rueful smile on his face. “You don’t deserve someone who will forget about you the moment he is out of town.”

To me this should have been a big red flag but I could tell that Sophie was soaking up the attention and was looking at David through her 18 year old starry eyes. The girl had never had a boyfriend before so of course sex is going to fuck with her emotions!

Cut to the next day and it’s time for David to leave. After a strange incident with a neighbor that Sophie hardly knows, David get a bit possessive and when Sophie asks him to take her with him when he leaves he says that they only way that’s happening is if they get married.

At this point I said, WTF? This guy knows everything about you – you know nothing about him. You know you love sex with him but you think you are now in love with the man that, again, YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT, and yet you’re going to marry him? You have no idea where he lives, what he does for a living, who his family is and most importantly why the hell would he make such a rushed and rash decision about marriage? Oy, my brain was working overtime and this was just from 36 pages! The story ends and Sophie’s not sure she’s made the right decision…fade to black.

Now I love a good short story as much as the next person but this one, while interesting in a detached sort of way, really didn’t do much for me. I could tell that this David was possessive and was probably controlling (red flag: he ordered her dinner for her without consulting her) and Sophie’s so innocent she falls for his charm. Although when I think about it, there wasn’t even much of that in evidence. Sophie may be desperate for attention but she should have been smart enough to know that knowing someone for about 12-16 hours does not a marriage make. I have to say that though I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing (Sophie didn’t use many contractions in her thinking and it was a bit annoying), however, I will more than likely read the next story just to check on Sophie and see what’s up with her and David.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from Raven Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.