Floored

Another take-no-prisoners romance from Ainslie Paton, one of my few auto-buy contemporary romance authors. It's apparent from the start that neither the motorcycle club errand boy “Fetch” nor the buttoned-up female chauffeur “Driver” are what they appear at first glance. There's a lot of attraction but very little trust. After a fairly explosive start, the novel settles into a leisurely road romance as our hero and heroine gradually open up to each other while at first resisting, then giving in to, their urges in several extremely hot chapters. Then the stakes are raised and everything they gained together appears to be lost.

I'm being deliberately vague to avoid spoilers, but I can say that Paton did such a good job of building a credible relationship that develops over a few short days that I was almost sick to my stomach during the chapters in which the hero and heroine were angry with and distrustful of each other. There was a little too much heroine-humbling for my liking, although the hero does an impressive amount of groveling to make up for it. For the record, while “Fetch” does exhibit a certain amount of “I know what's best for you” attitude, he is nowhere near as controlling and manipulative as the hero in Paton's previous novel, Detained (which I still loved).

What else can I say? Great internal angst and external dialogue. Sex. Danger. A secondary character named Stud. And Paton throws in a sick abandoned dog! You will end up feeling bruised and battered by this novel, but ultimately redeemed.

ARC received from NetGalley in return for honest review.