seriously romantic: make me beg by rebecca brooks

mack and connor have been at cross-purposes for so long, that neither of them really knows what it is about the other that sets them off. they spend most of their time in make me beg not communicating effectively. at least, they don't communicate effectively unless they aren't wearing any clothing, in which case they know exactly what to do or say.

the thing is that mack and connor come from utterly different backgrounds and they willfully choose to believe the worst of each other at every turn. i've honestly never read a romance novel where the hero and heroine spent so much time angry and arguing with one another. and it's all so stupid because they really are on the same side. and if either of them could take a breath and express themselves calmly without the other one reacting like a bomb was dropped in their lap maybe things would be easier.

but then maybe the sex wouldn't be so good. who's to say? i mean, i think once they figure out that they can still have passion in their relationship without arguing every other word out of their mouths then it's all good. mack was such a prickly and difficult character, and while you get why she's built that way due to her background, her unwillingness to share her vulnerabilities with connor made things difficult. she was hard to like, she did her best to push him away, and when she finally got the distance she asked for, she spent her time pining for connor without doing anything real to fix the problem. this made her frustrating. because she was a character who should have been strong, who could have worn a proud badge of being a survivor, but who in the end, didn't really come off as strong or as someone who survived hardship, and that's a shame.

connor was easier to like, and part of me wonders if that's me being a bad feminist, because he was kind of a playboy. but like he wasn't committed to anyone. and there were so many things he did in the story that were such obvious proof of his strong feelings for mack. even when he was willfully misunderstanding her, he also couldn't stop worrying about her. he cared so much. and i think because he so clearly cared so much for her, even when he was screwing up it made it easier to forgive him.

**make me beg will publish on march 20, 2017. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/entangled publishing (brazen) in exchange for my honest review.