new imagestep by stepWho said moving forward is easy Car thief turned race car driver, Michael Langdon has worked hard to build his image.
Now to take it to the next level and become a successful manufacturer, he needs to kick that image up a notch, Enter Madeleine Kane, a genius at adjusting public perception, With her in charge, he's guaranteed to look better while keeping his darkest secrets where they belongin the past,
Doesn't take long, however, for his ambition to change and the campaign to become personal, Because he wants Madeleineas beautiful as she is talented and smart, First, Michael must overcome her reservations about crossing professional boundaries and persuade her he's worth the riskwithout revealing those buried parts of himself, Good thing he's very persuasive, Rating.stars
Well this was one deep book, filled with two characters Madeleine and Michael who had deep emotional scars and issues, The hero is a former con who made it big in racing and now wants to start a car and needs investment and the heroine for that.
In order to get money he needs the heroine to spruce up his image, The heroine isn't sure she wants the job, she has spent the past seven years hiding, She used to be young and successful when one mistake she made changed all that and branded her a whore and the shame of it is, she has never forgiven herself and can't deal with the spotlight.
So, when the hero shows interest in her as a woman, her first instinct is to run, But things aren't so easy, you see the hero has his secrets too from his years spent in prison, I loved reading about two flawed characters, Both of them didn't magically get over their issues, The heroine kind of acted all obstinate and stupid till the end, I loved reading about Ben and Ana, whose book I am looking forward too, Michael Langdon did not have the most auspicious start in life, Growing up on Detroit's infamousMile, Michael used cars to escape the reality around him, After serving time for theft, he once again used cars to escape reality, and forget the horrors behind him, From car thief to racing legend didn't seem too far of a jump, but now he needs another image makeover: to mechanical innovator and corporate poster boy.
An old friend sends him the best publicist in the business, now all Michael has to do is convince her to take a chance on him.
. . and not let her get too close to the truth,
Madeline Kane is a King Maker, Once a highly respected member of the political scene, she let one moment of weakness get the better of her judgement, and it destroyed everything.
Now, seven years later, she has been called back in to service by her employer as a favor to an old friend, but can she work with such a high profile man without getting sucked back into the nightmares of the past
This story surprised me by how captivating it was.
Both characters suffer from serious PTSD from their experiences, but what really got me was the heart break that occurs when one of them manages to pull out of it and realizes that they can't "fix" the other one.
To love someone so much and not be able to help them hurts, but then to know that they won't even try to help themselves is just killer.
His dark secret was a shocker her dark secret was not so much a secret but a confession, Either way, both of these characters are deserving of pity, and neither want it, He doesn't want people to know about it, and she doesn't want people to even remember she exists,
My favorite part in this book was actually the subplot involving Ben and Anna, Madeline's boss and his assistant, Their issue helps to mellow Madeline out and put her life into perspective, but it also gives us a glimpse at the next book,
Overall, it's surprisingly and fun and sexy read, The subject matter should keep it from being sexy, but it really doesn't, In fact, it brings a larger intensity to it all, Warning on the language, though, He grew up onMile and spent time in prison, Expect cursing. They had both lost their freedom because they had done really stupid things,
It didn't seem right that they were both still paying for those mistakes, They had done their time in solitary, Shouldn't that have been enough
This is a fascinating, bold, audacious romance novel that I really enjoyed, Doyle sure stepped out of the realm of comfortable with this book,
Madeleine Kane is hired to remake the image of playboy cardesigner Michael Lang, He wants to be taken seriously so that he can get his cool, environmentallyfriendly supercar on the market, He needs to pair with a big auto manufacturer to get this done, His hardpartying, womanizing, harddrinking lifestyle is an impediment to his success,
Madeleine Kane is a kingmaker partnered with presidents on campaigns and known for her amazing abilities as an imagecreator and imagemanager, However, that's not the things she's known most for, Seven years ago, she was caught in flagrante delicto with the President of the United States,
Yes, Doyle loosely based this character on Monica Lewinsky, although Madeleine and Monica are very different people,
Ruined by her choices in a way few people can be ruined, Madeleine has barely gone out in these seven years, She certainly hasn't dated or had sex in seven years, Men treat her like either a loose woman who is wiling to have sex with anyone immediately for any reason, or like a disgusting creature they should stay far away from.
She also has huge social anxiety, since the paparazzi hounded her for months, and even now when she is recognized she is mocked and treated with disgust.
Surprisingly, Michael doesn't have these hangups about Madeleine's past, He respects her. He treats her like the expensive
expert, Yale graduate she is and doesn't treat her like shit, Even her own brother and father hate and despise her for having sex with the president, and her father died while calling her some choice names.
Perhaps a reason Michael can treat Madeleine like a normal human being is because Michael has a past of his own, He grew up onMile in Detroit, and stole cars, He was eventually caught and served three years in prison, When he got out, he was mentored by an auto mechanic and became a rich race car driver, After that he morphed into someone who designs cars for a living,
But the real huge thing about Michael is WARNING HUGE SPOILER So we can see that both Michael and Madeleine are extremely fuckedup sexually in different ways, And perhaps each has the unique perspective to see each other and be merciful to the other,
But he knew he didn't like the kid who planted the idea in her head that she was nothing more than a base to steal.
He thought it before and he was seeing it again: he wasn't the only one of them in this relationship who was messed up about sex.
It felt to him like Madeleine didn't know what it meant to be wanted for who she was alone, she didn't know what it meant to want that person back for the same reason.
He wondered if she'd ever been made love to or if she'd ever made love to someone without there being some agenda,
THE GOOD
This book has a lot of good,
Two flawed, fuckedup characters that honestly have some of the most unique and interesting and shocking backstories I've ever seen in romance, Very interesting, very bold.
Detailed writing. The book has a very nineties feel to it, even though it was written in, If you've ever read nineties contemporary romance by Harlequin, you'll know what I'm talking about, It's charming in its own way, I find Harlequin contemporary romances written in this time period the 's to be very different from those written in thes, This has that retro nineties feel, which is a compliment,
The characters approach each other with respect and try their best it doesn't always work to discuss things and be honest with each other.
There were failings. But overall, I liked how adult the two protagonists acted,
The book promotes kissing for the sake of kissing, and the characters have a conversation about how kissing doesn't always have to lead to sex, and how makeout sessions can be enjoyable on their own.
"You're damn right I'm mad, You're such a man. "
"What the hell is that supposed to mean"
"Why can't kissing just be for the sake of kissing Why does it have to go anywhere"
I don't feel like Doyle was saying That was a big issue, I'm glad Doyle addressed it,
Interesting look at PTSD and some of its effects,
Michael kind of reminds me of Bruce Wayne, carefully constructing a 'playboy, womanizing' image to cover up his TRUE self,
Man being called a 'tease' and dealing with the issue of 'being a tease' rather than a woman, 'Tease' is a concept I hate with a passion, anyway, It's so stupid. ANYWAY, the shoe is on the other foot for once, Which isn't GOOD, I mean, I'd rather nobody got accused of being a 'tease,' but it's interesting to see a man dealing with this for once.
The complexity of the characters and how they deal with their issues and their pasts,
THE BAD
She has sex with the president ONE TIME, And it was on that ONE AND ONLY time that the First Lady walked in on them, I found this a cop out, WHY are romance authors so resistant to writing a woman who isn't 'a good girl' Do they think an audience won't accept one
Every single time I get excited about having a genuinely promiscuous and/or morally questionable romance heroine, the author ALWAYS pulls back.
ALWAYS halfasses it. Why couldn't Madeleine be a smart, Yaleeducated, driven woman who had an ongoing affair with the president Why do they have to shovel in the bullshit that it was ONLY ONE TIME, A BIG MISTAKE blahdiblah
You can make her regret it.
Obviously, she regrets it. It ruined her life. She's literally afraid to go out in public, But the idea that she just, like, accidentally fell on the president's dick one night is quite frankly ludicrous and I'm not sure you can convince me of this happening.
It would be scads better if she just said, "Yeah, I was attracted to him, I don't know how I let things get so out of hand, blah blah blah" but trying to write a book where it is a onetime event is stretching it.
It's stretching it in order to be able to label Madeleine as a 'good girl' still, even after everything, To make the reader see her as a victim, But guess what She could be a person who immorally had an affair but is STILL a victim of some horrible things happening to her.
Yeah, that could happen. Be bold!
Michael being 'threatened' by Ben, Madeleine's boss, Thinking 'Ben could steal her at any moment, ' Oh, please. He's fucking DYING of cancer, he's not going to fucking steal your woman, It's ludicrous, I don't need this kind of testosterone poisoning, Thanks.
They could talk more with each other about sex and before sex, Since they are both so fucked up, I think it would conducive to the situation if they would talk things out, They do talk but not enough and not about the details that might matter IMO,
TLDR Riveting book, Quite interesting and bold moves on Doyle's part, How fascinating to write about a woman who had an extramarital affair with the president of the United States and the emotional, social, and mental traumatic fallout of that.
Also, if not even more shocking: a hero who was You could not ask for a more envelopepushing book, I'm honestly quite surprised it came from Harlequin Category Romance,
ROMANCE CATEGORIES
Contemporary Romance
Millionaire/Billionaire Romance Both Madeline and Michael are welloff, I think Michael may be a millionaire,
NonVirgin Heroine
He's a Criminal turned Convict turned Car Racer turned Automobile Creator.
She's a Kingmaker.
Takes place in: Detroit, Michigan / Washington D, C. / Philadelphia, Pennsylvania / Los Angeles, California The United States of America
NAMES IN THIS BOOK
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Get Your Copy One Final Step (Tyler Group, #1) Formulated By Stephanie Doyle Distributed In Hardbound
Stephanie Doyle