Jacob Proffitt's Reviews > The Billionaire’s Wake-up-call Girl

While this is second in a series, there isn't much cross-over at all. I mean, Henry and Vicky show up, but near the end and in a completely ancillary capacity. And while Theo was in the first book, it was, like, a single dinner scene and not really needed for this one. So you can totally read this one first if you like and not miss or spoil anything.

The cover for this thing is pretty bad, but the copy lets you know enough what you're getting that the overall marketing isn't terrible. I mean, Theo smiling and all loosey-goosey? Yeah, that's not a thing with him. Anyway, this is obviously a wish-fulfillment fantasy romance and Theo fits very well into that category as the no-nonsense sciencey guy who is very driven and evidence based and a bit tyrannical but not really mean or vindictive. I liked him well-enough as the emotionally-damaged guy who is finding his way to more humanity.

And I liked Lizzie as his entrée into broadening his scope to include the ridiculous, human, and emotional as worthy of consideration. Her background was a bit extreme, but I shrugged it in under the wish-fulfillment rubric; the story needed her desperation to let her fly under his radar in the real world so he could attach during their wake-up-call interactions. And I really liked those interactions. I liked how she piqued his curiosity by being a mystery he wanted to solve. And I liked how she pushed back on him and didn't let him get away with casual dismissal or overbearance.

And I even liked how they connected at first in their sex dominance play and how there was nothing submissive even in surrender. Which was a surprise because usually when an author "goes there", they tend to go the submissive route on the flip side and that wouldn't have let these two characters bond anywhere near so easily or closely. He needed the push-back and she needed someone who took her seriously enough to take the trouble to see her the way only he would bother with. Martin did an incredible job making that multi-layered and in a way that led to the kind of intimacy that built their relationship beyond its starting point.

The only real bone I have to pick with the story is the Sasha character. She was too successful in the marplot role for someone who was basically an incompetent schemer. This was particularly threadbare near the end where she shows up just long enough to throw that final wrench into their developing plans (using information that there's no way she could have known). So while I loved the mistake and forgiveness cycle that proceeded from there, its catalyst was unsatisfying.

Anyway, this was a solid 4½ stars that I'm rounding to five on the strength of the unique relationship dynamic that worked very well for the characters I liked so well. The ending had all the right feelz and I was very satisfied with how it turned out.

A note about Steamy: There are three explicit sex scenes (and a summary/gloss/almost-not-quite of another few) putting this at the high side of my middle steam tolerance. It was a vital part of their relationship building so they were completely necessary (or, at least, the first two were anyway). So kudos for how well they were constructed despite being on the unusual and/or adventurous side through the dominance aspects of it.