My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher for an honest review.
DARE TO RESIST is Laura Kaye’s engaging prequel to Entangled Brazen’s upcoming Wedding Dare series. It features the couple whose wedding will be the focal point of the new series and how a sequence of improbable events propels those two people into finally confronting their long-smoldering feelings for each other.
Both Kady and Colton are in the same line of work to provide security services to the US military, albeit with varying degrees of success. Kady has to constantly prove herself to everyone around her, including her own management, just because some people can’t comprehend that a woman can be as good at this stuff as a man. Colton may have the double advantage of being male and the head of his own company, but he knows Kady can more than match him on presentation and execution. So when they are both competing for the same contract, along with a third man whom neither of them respects, the battle is fierce and the outcome could be anyone’s guess. When severe inclement weather strands the three in a marginally acceptable motel on the edge of the desert, it soon becomes obvious that the last thing on either Kady or Colton’s mind is the big military contract which brought them there. For our hero and heroine have a sexual history from which neither has quite recovered, and their undeniable chemistry still continues to conflict with their mistaken assumptions about one another. But when their impromptu sleeping arrangement provides Colton with an unique opportunity to discover Kady’s true desires, at long last they are both freed to admit their feelings for each other and discover their true compatibility in both business and love.
What I loved the most about DARE TO RESIST was how Laura Kaye was able to convey so much essential backstory in a category-length romance. We get a real sense of the inner conflict within our hero and heroine, and how their individual assumptions about their shared past have kept them in an avoidance pattern that required something as dramatic as their weather-induced housing crisis to force its end. The events that ultimately lead to Colton and Kady’s HEA could have seemed like one deus ex machina too many in the hands of a less talented writer, but Laura Kaye was able to sell each one of them to me in turn without much resistance. I especially enjoyed the reason why Colton ended up sharing a single room with Kady instead of double bunking with the other man marooned with them, although some might find it a little too TMI. It’s Kaye’s ability to provide such moments of light humor intertwined with deep emotions and scorching sex scenes that made DARE TO RESIST such an delightful read for me, and it’s successfully set the stage for what looks like another fun Entangled Brazen book series to come.
