Imam Qadri Qadri itibaren Sperry, IA, USA
** spoiler alert ** Spoilers Ahoy. C. The last in the series, this is Sara and Mac's story. Parts of it were really good but others seemed confused to me. It was almost like it didn't know what kind of story it was trying to be. It starts with Sara deciding that she and Mac belong together. Mac is 12 years her senior, she's his best friend's little sister and he likes raunchy no holds barred sex. Although she's not a virgin, he thinks she's too innocent - he loves her but he's not the right man. He turns her down and Sara runs off to St. Croix to get herself some experience so she won't be so innocent anymore. Mac follows and (I got a bit lost here) they end up married. That's right. Mac wants to push her away and he does it by marrying her. Hur? There were a few of these sorts of things in the book where I felt that the characters did things so they'd be in a certain position/place for the purpose of the plot, but not so much for any other discernable reason. Pretty soon, Mac and Sara are saying they're in love and despite his hands off rule, they're sharing a bed and he's confessed all his secrets to her. Then the story becomes a "fish out of water" tale (har har) where he leaves Sara in a little town 45 minutes away from Omaha to fend for herself while he's working. Leaving aside that being 45 minutes away from a city like Omaha is hardly in the boonies, it was another one of those sudden shifts in the story which left me struggling a little to catch up. Then, the story turns back on itself and it's about how no-one is seeing Sara for who she actually is as opposed to who they want her to be and everyone has to stop, look and listen to see the real her. I felt there were too many themes in the book to really explore any one satisfactorily and the jumping from one to another was confusing. Also, Sara was a brat at the beginning - after all, she announces to Mac that he loves her and she loves him and they should be together - it does very much fit the very stereotype she later tries to break away from saying it's not "her". Perhaps if I'd read this one first I may have liked it better - in the earlier books, I had the impression of Sara being protected yes, but nontheless capable, smart (she has a Masters degree and runs a Youth Centre) and able to stand on her own two feet. However in this book, I was presented with a Sara who only ran the Youth Centre because Sam and Jessica had "made the job up for her", a super-fussy eater, someone who never did anything on her own - a "Princess" by name and by nature. It didn't fit with my picture of her from earlier books. So, all that, you'd think, "well, why did you give a C?". Because for all the things which bugged me, I liked Mac and I liked the Bradfords and their group of friends. I like the voice of the author even though in this book the plot and the characterisations didn't work for me so well. And there were parts of the story which were really good in spite of my sometimes confusion. Plus the sex was pretty smokin'. So, by the end, the things which didn't work for me were evened out by the things which did and in the end, my overall reaction was a C.