Thursday, January 28, 2016

BOOK REVIEW: Soldier by Maggie Sweet

~Blurb~
MICK 
I knew I shouldn't have come back here. Too many memories and not enough action. 

How am I supposed to make a future when no one will let me forget the past? 

But as soon as I see her, I know I have to hang around, just for a few more days. Even if she says no. She needs protection, and things are worse than she realizes. 

RAINY 
I have to get out of here. This town is going to drown me alive. I know that people need me, but keeping them afloat is dragging me to the bottom of the well. 

The only way I'll feel safe is if I can start again, somewhere else. Nobody ever seems to make it out of here. Look at Mick - he was kicked out and he's still back in town. 

Mick, that guy is nothing but trouble. Trouble and muscles. 

**standalone novel intended for mature audiences. No cliffhanger!** 




~Book Review~
4 Stars

Michael “Mick” O’hare  just got discharged from the army.  He’s back in his hometown and looking…well, to get laid. Renata “Rainy” Lupita Diaz waitresses at the local bar, but she really just wants to be a college student and get out of this town.

I have to admit, my first impression of Mick wasn’t the best. The opening scene paints him as a total horny douchebag.  I really questioned if I could get on board with him as the ‘hero.’ But then the humor in the story starts to kick in and he actually started to grow on me.
“Well, what can you expect. All the ladies love me.”  —Mick
Rainy, meanwhile, well she also threw me for a bit of a loop too when she was actually the one to suggest the hook up and then proceeded to drop her shorts at the bar.  The plan is to never see each other again. Of course it doesn’t go that way.
“Sometimes you discover your latest one-night stand naked in your kitchen. It happens.” —Rainy
Turns out Mick’s dad takes in foster kids and low and behold Rainy happened to be one of them in the years that Mick has been away.  Now not only is he temporarily living with her, he’s also forced to work with her.  Oh and there’s a whole lot of nefarious dealings going on with the businesses in town.
“It is like a never ending train wreck in slow motion. All I have to do is get the fuck off, step away from the train wreck.”  —Rainy
Imagine my surprise when before this very quote, I shook my head and thought, “these characters and this plot are a bit of a train wreck!”—you know when you really shouldn’t watch but you can’t take your eyes off it. Well that’s how it was as I kept tapping pages, glued to my kindle screen, occasionally my mouth gaping open. And since the characters thought that, and I thought that, well I guess we were all on the same page so…party on!
“Mick jogs down the driveway, still shirtless but now wearing a pair of Army-issue sweatpants. I can see his donkey cock flopping back and forth under the fabric as he jogs.” —Rainy
Yes, back to Mick and the train wreck. He supposedly smells (Rainy’s words, not mine. At first I thought in a bad way, but later I began to amend that interpretation) and he’s well endowed (there was no confusion about that). Donkey cock, horse cock, ferret, baby’s arm…all these very visual descriptions of Mick’s third leg and you can see why it was a little hard to put down. (Take the pun if you want—go ahead, it’s probably fitting.)

Anyways, there’s a bit of suspense about what’s all really going down with Mick’s old cronies and the workings of the bar.  There are quite a few supporting characters, and I’ll admit I was a little confused on the dynamics at times. There are also some grammatical and continuity issues that another proofing would clean up just fine. (Updated Note: This review was based off an unproofed ARC copy courtesy of the author.)

But the banter between Mick and Rainy was the most entertaining and I found myself rooting for them.  Rainy is a strong female character and she held her own well with Mick, at times even getting the upper hand. Deep down Mick does have some integrity and the pair are hot together.  With that being said, I actually wish the story was longer. Told via Mick and Rainy’s alternating first person POV, the ending comes up rather abruptly and I felt like there was so much going on that there was definitely more story to be told. Plus, I really wanted to read more about Mick and Rainy!
So if you’re in the mood for a shorter, fun and sexy read, Soldier is one to check out. 

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