Book Binge

Holly's review of When You Dare (Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor, Book 1) by Lori Foster

The tougher they are, the harder they fall…

Professional mercenary Dare Macintosh lives by one hard and fast rule: business should never be personal. If a cause appeals to him and the price is right, he'll take the mission he's offered. But then the lovely Molly Alexander asks him to help her track down the men who'd had her kidnapped—and for the first time, Dare's tempted to combine work with pleasure.

Fiercely independent, Molly vows to trust no one until she's uncovered the truth. Could the enemy be her powerful, estranged father? The ex-fiancé who still holds a grudge? Or the not-so-shy fan of her bestselling novels? As the danger heats up around them, the only anchor Molly has is Dare himself. But what she feels for him just might be the most frightening thing of all…

Foster is really hit or miss for me. I decided to pick this one up after reading the sister's story in the The Guy Next Door anthology. I liked it, with the exception of a few dumb moves on the part of the heroine (She was a total Mary Sue) and the fact that I felt insulted by the author's mini-rant about readers. I haven't decided yet if I'll continue on with the series.

While on a mission to save his best friend's sister, Dare Macintosh comes across Molly Alexander. Like Alaina (the friend's sister), Molly has been kidnapped and is being held in Mexico. Unlike Alaina, Molly isn't about to be sold on the white-slave market. There's something else going on, and Dare wants to figure out what. He rescues both women, but isn't sure what to do with Molly. When she asks him to help keep her safe until they find out who had her kidnapped, he agrees. He didn't realize he was going to find her so intriguing..or that his feelings might deepen...

Molly isn't sure what's going on, but she knows she feels safe with Dare. She hates feeling like she's clinging to him, but she can't help herself.  She wants to find out who was responsible for this and move on with her life. Unfortunately she can't seem to let it go without Dare. Are her feelings for him tied up in her rescue, or is it something deeper and more lasting..for both of them?

Dare was a strong man, a lot on the alpha side. His possessive attitude toward Molly could have been overbearing, but wasn't because he didn't want to control her. He respected her intelligence and genuinely cared what her opinion was. He isn't in the market for a relationship, but he can't help his feelings for Molly. From the first she confused him. He develops a healthy does of respect for her, along with a mighty case of lust.

Molly held up extremely well considering what she'd been through. Although she had some minor, throwaway flaws, for the most part I felt like she was a little too perfect. I kept waiting for the events of her ordeal to catch up with her so she could deal with them, but that never happened. Not only did she seem to take her kidnapping and torture in stride, finding out who was behind it didn't phase her either. She even went so far as to help another victim. All of that is admirable of course, but she just didn't seem very affected by any of it. A woman is held in a Mexican camp and tortured for 9 days, but other than feeling a little "clingy" toward her savior life goes on as usual? I didn't buy it. Especially since it was obvious someone was still after her (she almost got snatched twice more).

Because the timeline of the book was so short, I had a hard time believing that not only were they in love, but that Molly was emotionally stable. I was also bothered by Molly's complete lack of thought for her sister in the beginning of the book. In the anthology that comes before this, her sister is in a near panic because Molly is out of touch. Yet Molly doesn't even think about her sister once upon being rescued. That didn't ring true to me.

Molly's rant about readers and reviewers really stood out to me as out of place and a way for the author to get the last word about negative reviews. I blogged about it in a separate post, but I wanted to include a quote from the book so you can see what I mean:

"Well, the thing is, my last book garnered a lot of controversy. There was a vocal group of readers who really..." She looked from Dare to Chris, and shrugged. "They were really pissed off with a certain twist in the plot."
"How do you know?" Chris asked.
"Trust me, readers make sure you know when you've let them down."
(...)
Dare sat back in his seat. "How'd the book do with all that reader disgruntlement?"
"Great, actually." In an effort to explain to them, she leaned forward, elbows on the stone bar. "With every book, there are good reviews and bad reviews, rants and raves, readers who love it and readers who hate it, and a whole bunch of reactions that are in between those extremes. You know the old saying where you can't please all the people all the time? That sames goes for reviewers and readers."
Dare didn't look convinced. "So it wasn't a big deal?"
"Well, it was a big deal to me, at least in some ways. Given the level of anger over it, I'm sure I lost some longstanding readers. No matter what, I hate to disappoint anyone, but I especially hate to let down loyal readers who've been reading me from the beginning."
"Bummer," Chris said.
"But..." She lifted her shoulders. "I also gained new readers and expanded my audience. Truth is, if I had it to do all over again, I'd do it exactly the same way, because I have to write the story the way it wants to be written, not the way readers want me to."
Chris noticed that she didn't look overly hurt by that.

As I said, taken on it's own this probably isn't that big of a deal. But it seemed to come out of left field in the book, and when you look at it knowing about the controversy over Foster's last novel...well, it's suspect and it offended me.

The mystery plot wasn't much of a mystery. It became clear early on who was responsible for Molly's kidnapping. I was surprised at a few of the mistakes Dare made when it came to Molly's safety and the investigation. Maybe this is just a personal pet peeve (one of the many reasons I rarely read RS) but simple security mistakes from an expert because he's "distracted" by the heroine drive me insane. I will say his reasons for being distracted were better than most - it wasn't just lust, but her emotional well being that he was stuck on. That made it easier to take, but didn't totally excuse it.

They did have great chemistry, both in bed and out of it. I didn't doubt that they cared for each other or shared passion, I just wasn't fully convinced it was enough for marriage and babies and happily ever after.

3.0 out of 5

The series:
Savor the Danger (Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor)


This book is available from HQN. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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