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A review by jackiehorne
Moonlighter by Sarina Bowen
3.0
Bowen uses this story of yet another member of the Brooklyn Brusiers' professional hockey team to spin off a new series, one that is more romantic suspense than sports romance. The hockey player in question here is Eric Bayer, 34, who is not in the least interested in joining his father and older brother Max at their super-secret high-tech security firm ("The Company"). But Max tricks him into accepting an off-season one-off job, guarding old family friend Alex Engels, current CEO of a New York cable company. Alex needs protection at an upcoming conference not only because of her high business profile, but also because her abusive ex will be in attendance—and said ex doesn't know that she's 3 months pregnant with his child. To fool said ex, Eric will pretend to be Alex's new boyfriend.
Alex and Eric end up burning up the sheets, but after the conference, Alex calls a halt to their sexual shenanigans, knowing that she has too much on her plate (a new product release; custody to negotiate; a baby to gestate) to have room for any other connections. Eric is disappointed, but goes on with his life—until Alex is threatened from an entirely different direction. Can two people whose lives have always been about work make room in their lives for love?
Bowen follows her formula here, even when inaugurating a new series: an self-confident-to-the-point-of-arrogant hot male protagonist, matched with an equally powerful female protagonist who still melts at smexy talk of said hot male protagonist. But the addition of damsel-in-distress/lady in peril stuff, along with the multiple tearful and fear-filled moments on the part of the powerful female, make this one feel less powerfully feminist than many of Bowen's other novels.
Also wasn't keen on the sexist assumptions both characters give voice to at various moments ("Most men would be running for the door right now"; "A spill on your dress won't be the thing they notice first. For better or for worse, those [male] eyes will be one whichever parts of you the dress doesn't cover"), although Bowen balances them with Alex's chewing out of the male conference planners for the lack of female presenters on the program, and a timely critique of the data-collecting/privacy invading with which many tech companies are currently engaged.
Alex and Eric end up burning up the sheets, but after the conference, Alex calls a halt to their sexual shenanigans, knowing that she has too much on her plate (a new product release; custody to negotiate; a baby to gestate) to have room for any other connections. Eric is disappointed, but goes on with his life—until Alex is threatened from an entirely different direction. Can two people whose lives have always been about work make room in their lives for love?
Bowen follows her formula here, even when inaugurating a new series: an self-confident-to-the-point-of-arrogant hot male protagonist, matched with an equally powerful female protagonist who still melts at smexy talk of said hot male protagonist. But the addition of damsel-in-distress/lady in peril stuff, along with the multiple tearful and fear-filled moments on the part of the powerful female, make this one feel less powerfully feminist than many of Bowen's other novels.
Also wasn't keen on the sexist assumptions both characters give voice to at various moments ("Most men would be running for the door right now"; "A spill on your dress won't be the thing they notice first. For better or for worse, those [male] eyes will be one whichever parts of you the dress doesn't cover"), although Bowen balances them with Alex's chewing out of the male conference planners for the lack of female presenters on the program, and a timely critique of the data-collecting/privacy invading with which many tech companies are currently engaged.