Lightning Review

Mastered by Maya Banks

DNF

Mastered

by Maya Banks

I always feel guilty when I can’t finish a book, but it happens.

At age twenty-three, Evangeline gives up her V-card to her most recent boyfriend, Eddie. However, he only saw her as a conquest and kicked her out of bed as soon as the deed was done. Evangeline’s roommates insist she get all dolled up, go to the hottest club that Eddie is known to frequent, and show him what he gave up. She does so, rather begrudgingly. Eddie is, of course, there and assaults Evangeline in the middle of the club. The club’s owner Drake intervenes and decides that HE MUST HAVE HER. Cue her receiving oral sex in his office.

The hero and heroine felt more like caricatures to me and not like real people at all. Evangeline is constantly bemoaning her appearance. How average she is and how she doesn’t fit in with the club’s rich and beautiful people. She actually tells Drake this once she meets him, to which he responds with the standard lines of “You don’t know how beautiful you are and every guy here wants to be with you, can’t you see that!”

However, what really brought out the DNF stamp was the hero. Following their foreplay in his office, he tells her that she’ll be picked up the next night. When she doesn’t show up because she has to work, Drake has his right-hand man collect her (Evangeline never told Drake where she worked since they interacted for all of maybe an hour). Once she gets to the club, she realizes she needs to text her roommates so they don’t worry.

And this is what Drake tells his crony:

Go assure Evangeline’s roommates that she is perfectly all right, but she won’t be coming home tonight, or any other night for that matter. Inform them that she’s moving in with me and will be in contact with them in the next day or two and will explain everything to them.

NOPE.

This sort of dynamic may work for many readers, and that’s cool, but it doesn’t work for me.

Amanda

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Surrender Trilogy and the Breathless Trilogy knows what makes readers hot. Now she turns it up in Mastered, the explosive first book in a new series of a desire too dangerous to resist.

What he wants, he takes with no remorse or guilt.

She stood out in his club like a gem, unspoiled and untouched. A lamb among wolves, she clearly didn’t belong. Drawn to her innocence he watched as she was surrounded by men who saw what he did—but no one but him could touch her. He summoned her to his private quarters. He sensed her fear. He also recognized the desire in her eyes. And he knew she wouldn’t leave before he possessed her. She had no need to know his secrets. Not until he had her under his complete and utter control.

What he wants, she isn’t sure she can give him.

The moment he told her want he wanted, she couldn’t resist. Instinct told her to run, but her heart said stay and walk the fine line between pleasure and pain. Though she wasn’t sure she could ever completely surrender, the primal part of her wanted to try, even knowing this man could break her in ways she never imagined. Because once he possessed her, he owned her and it would be too late to turn back. She can only pray that he doesn’t destroy her in the end.

Erotica/Erotic Romance, Romance
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  1. Alex says:

    This book feels like it wasn’t written by Maya Banks.

  2. Lacy says:

    Be glad you didn’t finish it. I made myself and I found it upsetting. I won’t take it to a used bookstore for credit because I don’t want another woman to be subjected to it and I loved 50 shades. This was bad.

  3. @Amanda says:

    @Lacy: A fellow reviewer friend gave me a rundown on the rest of the book and I’m definitely glad I chose to throw in the towel.

  4. chris says:

    i loved the book iloved drake and evangeline and drakes men madox,silas,zanders @jutice.cant wait for the next book dominated`

  5. Rachael says:

    This book was awful. I, too, did not finish it. I kept reading because the sex scenes were actually really hot (and non-rapey, when divorced from all context). But “Mastered” finally crossed the line when Evangeline’s mind started to wander during a scene, and Drake got angry at her, demanding that she constantly think about him and nothing else while he’s fucking her. I just couldn’t deal with that kind of infuriating cruelty.

  6. Mere says:

    I actually like the third book in this series the best. I hate books that end on a cliff hanger like Mastered did. Kept, the third book in the Enforcers series, really Really, REALLY did it for me. I like books with protective Alpha males (especially MMA fighters). I identified with the heroine, a violin prodigy (only in my dreams) who is all alone in the big city. She is searching for an affordable apartment (story of my life in the DC area) and catches the eye of Silas, one of Drake’s men. He manufactures a situation for her to live next door to him. Through baked goods and her beautiful music she breaks through to him and after a violent incident when Silas comes to her rescue sparks begin to fly.

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