Where did you get the book: Bought
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: Out now
Marco Donati is rich, ruthless–and more often than not–indiscriminate. Interested only in satisfying his sexual needs casually and frequently, he has no intention of changing a thing about his life. Natalie Lambert is alone, broke, and new to the city when a chance encounter leaves her under the power and control of Marco Donati. As the story unfolds, tensions mount and trust is tested between two people who can’t manage to stay away from each other.
*Blurb taken from Goodreads*
A few weeks ago I was in the mood to read a book with an alphahole hero, and most of Lynda Chance’s books is the way to go for crackalicious, uber dominating, protective men who falls hard for the heroine trope. I decided to pick up MARCO’S REDEMPTION which has the usual hallmarks. However, unlike her previous books, it was a huge let down and I think this was her weakest book to date I have read.
I have to let you all know that most of her heroes are alpha to a capital A, and they tend to be very domineering, controlling and arrogant, and Chance is a bit like Marmite; you either love it or hate it. But I do find that her books have the crack factor, because they’re so over-the-top in an old skool and entertaining way. And some of her heroines do stand up against the possessiveness and asshery of the hero. But in MARCO’S REDEMPTION, there was no real redeeming qualities for the hero at all, and this is due to the lack of the development and a weak plot. The book started off well when the heroine, Natalie Lambert, rear ends his expensive car and she ends up working for Marco as a housekeeper to work off her debt to him. But of course this was a sneaky way for Marco to get closer to Natalie who he finds attractive, and the tension starts to heat up between them really well.
After that, it all went wrong for me. I don’t usually mind the alphahole imperious hero but in this book, it goes into crazysauce territory with Marco’s possessiveness and thought-processes towards Natalie. He even tracks her down via a phone GPS app. Natalie does get her own back, but I didn’t get a good grasp of Marco’s character and it almost felt like a caricature of the whole tortured, rich hero. And this was the crux of the issue of the book for me.I liked Natalie’s character who was clever and actually deflected Marco’s crazy behaviour without becoming a doormat. However, the book really fell apart midway when Marco’s past comes back to haunt him. It was never really fleshed out and it fell into cliched plots, such as the mercurial ex lover who is only after Marco’s money, and a subplot which involves a swinging couple who Marco was linked with a few years back. It didn’t provide any tension, or impetus to the plot and it really felt like Chance lost steam in regard to plot in maintaining the tension and obstacles within Natalie and Marco’s relationship.
I missed the potential with the beginning of the plot because it held a lot of promise and it was a shame because I did like the premise of the book. But it had lackluster ending which was just flat due to the lack of tension in the plot, which kind of meandered, and it was quite abrupt as well. I was left very dissatisfied with the whole book.
There are definitely better books and novellas which Chance has written, although, I do find her hit and miss on the most part. But her books do offer some entertaining components, especially if you’re a fan of the overbearing but protective hero which is her trademark. But MARCO’S REDEMPTION was pretty much an underwhelming read for me with a hero who didn’t have any redeeming qualities, and a dud plot which had no passion.
I give MARCO’S REDEMPTION a D+
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