Review: Tangled – Emma Chase

Review: Tangled – Emma ChaseTangled
by Emma Chase
Series: Tangled #1
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: August 2, 2013
Genres: Romance
Pages: 254
Source: Purchased

My rating: One StarOne StarOne Star


Drew Evans is a winner. Handsome and arrogant, he makes multimillion dollar business deals and seduces New York’s most beautiful women with just a smile. He has loyal friends and an indulgent family. So why has he been shuttered in his apartment for seven days, miserable and depressed?

He’ll tell you he has the flu.

But we all know that’s not really true.

Katherine Brooks is brilliant, beautiful and ambitious. She refuses to let anything - or anyone - derail her path to success. When Kate is hired as the new associate at Drew’s father’s investment banking firm, every aspect of the dashing playboy’s life is thrown into a tailspin. The professional competition she brings is unnerving, his attraction to her is distracting, his failure to entice her into his bed is exasperating.

Then, just when Drew is on the cusp of having everything he wants, his overblown confidence threatens to ruin it all. Will he be able untangle his feelings of lust and tenderness, frustration and fulfillment? Will he rise to the most important challenge of his life?

Can Drew Evans win at love?

Tangled is not your mother’s romance novel. It is an outrageous, passionate, witty narrative about a man who knows a lot about women…just not as much as he thinks he knows. As he tells his story, Drew learns the one thing he never wanted in life, is the only thing he can’t live without.

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There’s a definite dearth of m/f romance novels solely from the hero’s perspective, so when I had to read a book featuring a rich hero or heroine, I chose this one out of curiosity, since it won the Goodreads choice award back in 2013.
“I was kidding. Why do you have to be so fucking serious all the time? You should learn how to take a joke.”
“I can take a joke,” she tells me, sounding insulted.
“Yeah? When?”
“When it’s not being delivered by a childish jackass who thinks he’s God’s gift to women.”
“I am not childish.”
God’s gift on the other hand? My record speaks for itself.”
Drew Evans starts out as, well, a complete jerk, whose life revolves around his work as an investment banker and his family though.  His Saturday nights, though, are dedicated to going out drinking with his friends and finding one (or more) willing women.  He’s happy with the way things are, until he meets a pretty brunette who turns him down.  Turns out, she’s the newest hire at his company, Kate, and he’s assigned to mentor her, which eventually turns into them competing for a lucrative new client.  Beginning-of-the-book Drew is a slime ball, the kind of guy who’s not deterred that the latest object of his affections is engaged.  It’s somewhat watered down by the fact that it’s coming from his perspective, in a very honest and conversational style that directly addresses the reader.  Besides sexually harassing Kate, he’s constantly trying to sabotage her work.  Honestly, while it’s funny, it’s also pretty awful, and even with the hint at the beginning that he was going to get his comeuppance, I was tempted to put it down.  What saved it, though, was Kate and how absolutely wonderful she was, including how unwilling she was to put up with his crap.  Eventually, after the big screwup, Drew does become a reformed man and does the most prolonged and ridiculous grovel I have ever read in a romance novel, from a three-piece marching band to Tiffany jewelry.  Watching him turn from a “guy” to a “man” was a pretty enjoyable and hilarious experience, and, frankly, the whole book is pretty funny, especially the banter between Drew and Kate.  I also liked the side characters, including Drew’s sister Alexandra and her daughter Mackenzie (and her swear jar).
You are driving me crazy!”
Her cheeks are flushed, her breathing’s fast, and she’s got murder in her eyes.
Beautiful.
I raise my brows hopefully. “Crazy? Like you want to rip my shirt open again?”
“No. Crazy like the itch of a yeast infection that just won’t go away.”
While I thought Drew’s groveling was perfectly proportional to how much of a jerk he was, parts of it were completely over the top to me and, frankly, it drug on for much too long.  Some of it just reinforced his jerk status, honestly, rather than the repentant relationship-minded lover he was going for.  Between that and some of his more jerky behavior (the workplace harassment), it lessened my enjoyment of the book.
Overall, though, it was a decent book, with some very memorable and hilarious moments.  It is the first in a series, and I think I will probably add the next to my TBR, mostly out of curiosity whether Drew can keep up his reformed playboy status.  If you’re looking for a book from the hero’s POV and don’t mind asshole heroes, then you will probably like this book!

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