I received this book for free from Entangled Publishing, Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Wilde at Heart (Ignite) (Wilde Security) by Tonya Burrows Series: Wilde Security #3
Series Rating:
Published by Entangled: Ignite on September 7 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 260
Format: eARC
Source: Entangled Publishing, Netgalley
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A thrilling category romance from Entangled's Ignite imprint...
He has everything under control.Except her .
Reece Wilde put everything in his life on the backburner to protect his brothers and their struggling company, Wilde Security. With a major contract on the line, Reece can't afford any mistakes...like getting caught in a red-hot, X-rated moment with wild child Shelby Bremer, who's more trouble than he can handle. Now he's being blackmailed. Shelby's mile-long impulsive streak gets her in more trouble than she'd like to admit. Between her sister's wedding, her coffee shop set on fire, and getting down and dirty with the groom's brother, things are definitely coming off the rails. With both their careers and their safety on the line, Reece is determined to keep them both safe...even if it means a Vegas-style shotgun wedding. But gambling on a wild card-and a wild soul-is risky...and sometimes, it can get a guy killed.
I have started and restarted this review several times. I can’t make up my mind on this one. I really liked parts of it and I really didn’t like other parts. Reece and Shelby were good together when they were together, but their refusal to talk to each other and tell each other what was actually happening, especially Shelby’s, got really frustrating. She was in a mess she didn’t know how to get out of, Reece and her sister, Eva, could help her get out of that mess, but she refused to talk to either of them. In fact, the way most of the characters in this book spoke to each other really pissed me off. I don’t have a sister, but if I did and she talked to me or treated me the way Eva treated Shelby, I certainly wouldn’t be part of her life. Eva seemed to have nothing but genuine contempt for Shelby all the way until she miraculously came around at the end, as did everyone else. I didn’t read the previous books in this series, including Cam and Eva’s, so this was my first introduction to her. It did not make me want to go back and pick up her book.
Reece’s brothers were no better. Brothers or no, the way they talked to him about Shelby was appalling. I would have a very difficult time forgiving them for what they had said about my spouse once everything was done and Reece and Shelby were settled together. They were so nasty. Every single person in this book, even Reece sometimes, considered Shelby a total screw-up and had no qualms expressing that to her face or behind her back. It was cringe-worthy. Every time she’d take one step in the right direction, something would happen and everyone around her would immediately blame her. Even if they didn’t think she had actually done whatever it was, it was still her fault for being a “bad-luck magnet”. She couldn’t get a break.
But I liked Shelby and Reece together. I liked the way they brought out the best in each other. Reece was trying to get a contract for his brother’s security firm from a notoriously chauvinistic pig, (because they’re always the ones holding the contracts), so even though he hated it, he asked Shelby to tone down her normal crazy-hair-color, tattooed, pierced self for his business functions. He’s not the first romance hero to have to do that, but he’s one of the few I’ve read who genuinely hated to do it because he liked the real her so much. And I liked Reece and Shelby individually, too. I really like the geeky hero trope, and Shelby was a lot of fun when she wasn’t collapsing under the weight of everyone’s disappointment.
I can’t wholeheartedly recommend this one, but I wouldn’t dissuade anyone from reading it, either. From what I’ve seen, even fans of this series are torn on this one, so I don’t think I’m alone in being unable to make up my mind. Since this is the first Tonya Burrows I’ve read, I can’t say if it’s like the rest of her books or not. But there’s nothing here that would make me unlikely to pick up another book by her. It could have been just this couple and these characters I had an issue with. This one can be read as a standalone, but I think you would probably get more out of it if you read the series in order. There were a few plot threads that clearly arch over the entire series.
About Tonya Burrows
Tonya Burrows wrote her first romance in 8th grade and hasn’t put down her pen since. Originally from a small town in Western New York, she suffers from a bad case of wanderlust and usually ends up moving someplace new every few years. Luckily, her two dogs and ginormous cat are excellent travel buddies.
When she’s not writing about hunky military heroes, Tonya can be found at a bookstore or the dog park. She also enjoys painting, watching movies, and her daily barre workouts. A geek at heart, she pledges her TV fandom to Supernatural and Dr. Who.
