Title: Taking It All
Series: Surrender bk 3
Author: Maya Banks
Genre: Erotic Romance
Chessy and Tate have been married for several years. In the beginning, their relationship was everything she wanted. Passionate. All consuming. She offered her submission freely and Tate cherished her gift with a tenderness that made her feel safe. Content. Wanted. And loved beyond all measure. But as the years have gone by, Tate has become more immersed in making his business the success it has become, and Chessy has taken a back seat to his business obligations. Growing unhappier with the status of their once blissful marriage, Chessy knows that something has to give. Or they stand to lose it all
Tate loves his wife. Has always loved her. Providing for her has always been his number one priority. But lately she’s seemed unhappy, and he’s worried. Worried enough that he arranges for a night together that he hopes will reignite the fire that once burned like an inferno between them.
But a business call at the wrong time threatens everything. Chessy’s safety, his concentration, his wife’s faith in him as her husband, a man sworn to love and protect her above all else. Gutted with the realization that he’s going to lose her—has already lost her—he readies for the fight of his life. Whatever it takes, he’ll get her back. And prove to her that nothing is more important than her love. And that if she’ll allow him to prove himself one more time, he’ll take it all. Everything. But he’ll give far more back. Himself. His undying love.
Thoughts: Sometimes it’s time to admit that you need a break from an author, and I’m afraid that I’ve reached that point with Maya’s erotic books. I still love her KGI and Highlander books – in fact I prefer her Highlander books over all of her other books – but I think I’m done reading her erotics for awhile.
I’ve been looking forward to this story since the first book, as it was obvious there were cracks in Chessy and Tate’s marriage. Sometimes the best romance stories are the ones where a married couple rediscover what it was that drew them to each other in the beginning, and that is what I was hoping would happen with this story.
Unfortunately it fell very far from that. Be warned I’m probably going to give spoilers away in this review.
The books opens with Chessy sitting at a restaurant waiting for Tate to join her for their fifth wedding anniversary. Sound familiar? It should as it how Stay With Me, one of Banks first novels starts out. The similarities end there, sort of, n Stay With Me the heroes never show up and the heroine leaves on a vacation that was supposed to be a second honeymoon. In Taking It All Tate is the the restaurant bar with another woman, and Chessy sees it.
The next half of the book is them supposedly working on their marriage and their D/s relationship. They go to The House which is a BDSM club and Tate does the unthinkable and puts Chessy in danger. This is the breaking point for her and she finally leaves him for good or until he pulls his head out of his ass.
The last half of the book is the aftermath and how Tate changes and Chessy has to make some hard decisions.
Other than re-writing one of my favorite stories of hers enough to make it different there are so many things about this book that just didn’t work for me. For one Chessy should have left Tate in the beginning and then made him work at earning her love back.
Also I would have had loved to have more from Tate’s POV, there was so little from him I never really connected with his character and why he was being an asshole all the freaking time.
As for their whole D/s dynamics. I’ll just say I’ve read better, and some of that better has come from Maya. It just pissed me off and made me want to reach into the story and slap the hero and heroine.
As for when they get back together, it was all to contrived. I would have liked to seen more. More from Tate especially. From the amount of time we were in his POV this could have been a first person POV book.
While the writing wasn’t horrid, and the story did flow I was so disappointed in the characters and their road to HEA that I have to take a break from her ER books.
Grade C
