review || PROTECTING HER by Alexis Noelle

Self-Published | June 15, 2015 | Romantic Suspense
★★★★1/2

SOURCE: AUTHOR, THROUGH GIVE ME BOOKS

I don’t do love. Hearts, flowers, dates, girlfriends, it’s all pointless. Why tie yourself down to one person when you can have a different one every night? Sure there have been a few that have intrigued me but none ever made me think about hanging around. No one ever haunted my thoughts after I left.

Until Her.

I just wanted one night of freedom. A chance to live without prying, judging eyes. When I met him, the moment he first touched me, it’s like I was hypnotized. I got caught up in the moment and made a mistake, I never thought he would be so cold after it. No one has ever made me feel that way.

Until him.

When you push love away will you be able to recognize it when it’s right in front of your face?

Or will everything be ripped away before you get the chance to really live?

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I almost gave up on this book.

Recently, I decided that it's ok to give a book a DNF rating. I try hard to at least skim a book I don't like to find something to write about. Maybe the plot was good, just not written how I'd like. Maybe the characters were fairly rounded, I just couldn't connect with them. Just because I don't like a book doesn't mean I can't find something that somebody somewhere would like.

And while that still holds true to an honest review... Why am I forcing myself to read a book that I don't like, just to give it a 3 or 3.5 with reasons how I think it could have been better? Because let's be honest, I didn't write the book -- it was written the way it was written, and maybe that author and I simply don't jive.

So again, I almost gave up on the book.

I didn't like Hunter. At all.

In his point of view, he's extremely honest with the reader -- he's a player, he's a one-time man, wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am. He doesn't give promises, he treats women like dirt, he sinks it and walks away. He dips it in a new woman every night and never goes back for seconds. I hated him. 

But then he's confronted with last night's conquest -- and he still treats her like shit. I have multiple highlighted portions in this title with words like, "Ass" and "Cocky" and "Hate him"... and the occasional word that starts with an 'f' and rhymes with 'trucker'. He gives her the name 'cupcake' because of her anatomy and is crude above and beyond that simple explanation (...it becomes an inside joke, though, so eventually I forgave him for that).

...grasping her chin in between my thumb and forefinger, lifting her head so our eyes meet. I know people might be watching but right now, I don't care. My only concern is the beautiful girl standing in front of me, looking like she was just crushed.

And there. Right there, is when my opinion changed and I grasped for every word in this story. The more he gets to know Samantha... the more he witnesses her and the shit she puts up with? The more he finds himself falling for her. He has his 'rules' for a reason, and he finds himself torn when it comes to letting Sam in.

Since she was nine, Samantha has dealt with a mom-ager, and her mother is certainly intense. There is so much verbal and emotional abuse, it's amazing Samantha has gotten to where she is in the book. I liked that Sam and Hunter went from detesting one another to giving in to one another. With Hunter, Sam learns what acceptance can be. With Sam, Hunter learns that it's ok to let go and let someone in other than his (very good) friends.

When I started, I did not think I'd be ending the review with this line, but my goodness, did I enjoy this story. I will be going back to read Jules and Brian's story -- I enjoyed their interactions and the type of friends they were to Hunter and eventually to Samantha. This is now a series that I'm invested in.