Review: Steal My Heart

Steal My Heart by Lisa Eugene

My rating: Unrated



A germaphobe giving mouth to mouth on a dirty hobo is hilarious. Maggie Lawson is a nurse who works in the OR. I've worked in a hospital for a short year and I found myself becoming more phobic about germs. So I can completely understand Maggie's response. The dirty hobo is fortunately just a disguise for the wealthy former special forces, Gabe Masters.

This story is a romantic suspense with erotic elements. As a first book from Ms. Eugene, it does well with a cohesive plot. Ms. Eugene does a nice job of dropping hints for the reader to pick up on the "villains" in this story. By providing conflicting information, it creates doubt in the reader's mind. This technique is nicely used a couple of times.

The sex in this story is sweet between Maggie and Gabe. It's amusing because Ms. Eugene interjects Maggie's OCD at odd times. Joking about Maggie's obvious mental problems is done in a teasing manner which is kind of endearing. As a friend of several OCD type people, I get it.

The character building is what brings this story down for me. I personally didn't like Maggie. She's not the type of main character I like - female, male or otherwise. I found her to be annoying and irrational. I'm sure there are people like her. I just tend to avoid them. For example, if a woman can't fight or use a gun, why the HELL would she want to go to confront the person they think is trying to kill them? How is this possibly going to help the situation? Now she's a liability to Gage. There is one part where Gage shows her once how to load a gun into a magazine. Then she remembers it and loads it with a bit of fumbling. Now, loading a magazine is pretty easy. Still, I've seen people load them wrong even after they've been taught. And they also try to put the magazine in backwards. My bigger question is, why the hell was the magazine empty to begin with? This makes no sense since Gage is former special forces.

Gabe's character is strange to me. He's this wounded warrior with a silver spoon in his mouth. He's a little too perfect in his brains and brawn. While he's a dreamy stud any breathing girl would like to fuck, he just didn't do it for me. Again, personal preference. If I don't like the characters, it makes the book a hard read for me.

What I really liked about this story is the research Gabe stole. This device sounds absolutely awesome. The geek in me is delighted. When Ms. Eugene takes it a step further and shows the military application, my jaw dropped. Usually, I'm the one who immediately goes to how something good can be used for bad. I didn't think of the downside to this wonderful medical device. I liked this part quite a bit.

One minor thing that threw me. Ms. Eugene is a nurse. The scene with Maggie saving Gabe's life at the beginning confused me. Because it's not medically accurate and it's not what those with medical training would do. This little detail bothered me but most won't notice it or care. It's minor details which makes a book a little less polished for me. If this wasn't set in a contemporary setting, I would have let it go. Basically, if a person is still breathing, do NOT do mouth to mouth. There is no reason to do so; they are breathing on their own. Yes, there are several ways to check to see if a person is breathing without fancy machinery. For Maggie not to realize Gage was breathing just dumbfounded me. Lastly, based on the more current EMT training now, they are teaching people to just do CPR if the heart has stopped. Don't do the mouth to mouth. Still, this is just a minor detail which threw me.

The ending did not come as a surprise. The twists were good and what I predicted would happen. I'm glad Ms. Eugene brought it to the conclusion and resolution I was anticipating. It's a bit depressing but it worked.

This romantic suspense is for readers who like the happily ever afters and a quirky female lead.

*I received this book as a review copy in return for an honest review

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