Reading Under the Willow Tree

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I rarely accept author requests these days as I don’t have much time but after reading the blurb for this one I was instantly interested and decided that I was going to say yes. I got stuck in straight away but instantly found out that this was not really the book I thought it was going to be. It had some good parts and some bad parts, it was entertaining enough but not a book I went crazy about.

I will start with the things I liked and then move on to the bits I didn’t. I thought Eugene’s writing was strong in the thriller aspects of this book a lot stronger than the romance side. She weaves a good story and I was interested in the action parts of it. I found parts of it exciting and was entertained.

I also liked that she created a male character that had a real dark side. Gabe was not always that nice and it made a change from the purer than pure action man I am so used to reading about. He struggles with his mean side, struggles to do the right thing and I enjoyed it.

Unfortunately Maggie was not someone I liked. I just couldn’t relate to her at all. I understand her germ phobia makes things difficult (I know that for some people it is a severely debilitating condition) but often I felt she came across as a bit of a snob and I wasn’t a fan. Her way of speaking didn’t help either, it was like she had walked straight out of a regency novel and I lost count of the amount of times she called Gabe a brute.

My main issue concerned the early moments of the romance. There were a couple of occasions where Gabe touched Maggie when she was restrained, against her wishes, where he almost threatened her (although he didn’t plan on actually doing it) with sexual violence if she didn’t comply. It wasn’t a massive thing, and he wasn’t completely inappropriate, it was under the surface and it was enough to make me a little uncomfortable. Any unwanted sexual advance, especially when the woman is tied up to a chair scared for her life is a turn off for me.

Steal My Heart had some nice moments and some not so nice moment but for the most part I enjoyed it.


The publisher provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review