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His Ring Is Not Enough (2013)

by Maisey Yates(Favorite Author)

3.35 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0373131798 (ISBN13: 9780373131792)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Harlequin

series

Holt Sisters

review 1: Leah Holt has loved Ajax Kouros since she was a child. She used to follow after him as he worked in her father's offices of visited with them in her parent's home. But she is an adult know complete with her own business and he is getting read to marry her sister. The marriage will not only bring him a beautiful bride, but the family business as well. Unfortunately, Rachel has stood him up at the alter and skipped town with Ajax's business rival. Leah know that as the other heir to her father, if she marries Ajax he will still be eligible to take over the business. So, she steps in and offers to marry him. He will not only still get the business, but it will allow him to save face...to keep his manly pride. When I read the "hook" on the back of the book, I knew it was a ... morestory line that I would enjoy. However, once I started the book, I didn't want to put it down. The characters are great. I found myself rooting for both of the main characters through the pain and the hot sex both. Its a good, enjoyable read!
review 2: Another great read by Maisey Yates, who does it again by creating a broken, dark, tortured, alpha, yet lovable hero with a innocent, insecure yet feisty heroine that compliments into his life, providing him much need love that he deserves even when he thought he didn't. And this isn't the first time that Maisey has created lovable characters just like that and she has done it with all her books, sucking me as well as a reader into the story while rooting for the pair to get together and have a happily ever after. That's why I love Maisey Yates books in the first place not only with the compelling storylines, but also the compelling complex characters as well. Maisey also manages to up the bar each time when writing these book by making her heroes more tortured with dark pasts yet making the reader root for them despite all the horrible things and even making them more likable as well as seeing where their strengths come from and make up this alpha male.And this story was no exception with the character of Ajax Kouros, who grew up in horrible circumstances with an equally evil, horrible father who was raising him when he had no business to. Basically Ajax grew up in a brothel where women were prostitutes and drugs were a plenty with his father being the ring leader of it all and was raising Ajax in hopes of him taking over. So Ajax basically grew up believing that whatever he wanted all he had to take whether it was the drugs or the woman seeing the example set by the people around him, where only their own selfish needs were paramount and not anything including the girls. And Ajax was very much in that lifestyle and would have basically grown up to be a scum bag like his dad if not for a certain incident having occurred that flipped a switch in him and showed him how wrong this lifestyle was and how much of a monster that he could become if he followed on this path and he wanted no part of it. So he along with a girl who he saved (found out she was kidnapped by his dad), he escaped his father's compound and vowed to make a better life for himself than the one he had witnessed. And he did just that and made a life for himself with the help of Leah's (heroine)father who helped show the ropes to business and make a name for himself and make money. But while he was setting his life straight, he decided to change himself and make sure he had utter control over himself and never letting himself go for even a little second. He planned everything in his life to ensure that he knew what was coming and nothing could throw him off kilter and release what he called the beast which he attributed to his former self out for his own selfish needs and his just taking and hurting people. Because that was what he feared if he let go for even a second he would hurt someone so he kept his control locked. But even still despite doing good and not hurting anyone he still felt very dirty and feared his beast and just had a lot of guilt surrounding his past, and anyone reading this could tell how truly tortured he was over it. He punished himself daily, refusing to let in emotion even the good ones like love and even threw them aside like he didn't want them or more to the point he didn't deserve them because of the past. Which was so not true, and just seeing how tortured he truly was and just needed to accept himself and accept the love the heroine was given him, but it was a journey.The heroine, Leah had had feelings for him forever and thought she was in love with him as a young teenage girl, and was devastated when he chose her perfect, beautiful sister to have a relationship with and claimed to love. Then poor Leah, who had always had this insecurity issue especially in regards to her and her sister, feeling everyone favored her sister over her and didn't want her. So, she was hurt when Ajax picked Rachel instead of her and she just shut down and distanced herself from him and kept to her shell and just focus on her business.But their world's collided when Rachel left Ajax at the altar for another man, who happened to be Ajax's enemy, and would lose the family business, which he would gain control when he married Rachel, who he claimed to love. With her business tied up in the family business, Leah offered herself in her sister place so they would both get what they wanted and keep the business safe and secure. Ajax reluctantly agreed especially since he planned to marry Rachel and saw his life with her going according to his plan perfectly that he planned for years, but he accepted Leah's offer at marriage.Then their rocky marriage began with Ajax not sure how to deal with Leah in the marriage while Leah feared that Ajax would compare her to her sister and wouldn't want her like she wanted him. So, they had bumps in the road to say the least, but come to get to know each other over that time with each showing their skeletons to each other along the way while dealing with the press and negative conation of her being the backup bride who he didn't really want.Ajax was reluctant to tell her about his past and wanted full control in their physical relationship by putting all types of rules on it so he got what he wanted while she couldn't show him what she wanted because he never allowed her to. The love scenes were brilliantly done as well as passionate with each encounter that they had together, but I think more to the point was the love scenes showed the development of their relationship and how their walls would come down and feelings would seep into it where the sex wasn't just sex it was more. Though it took them a little while to figure it all out and with his rules and such and him letting go that was a battle too, but the love scenes were so hot and passionate yet loving too. They were just great scenes in the books and I loved each one especially in relation to how it reflected on their relationship and its growth, though it wasn't all sun and roses, it was an uphill climb especially on his part and him having to deal with his issues he had with sex and loosing control of himself with him seeing that as a bad thing and that he would hurt her if he did and it scared him to be like that with her and how profound it could be with someone, and what it truly means to be with someone instead of the messed up way he was introduced to sex where it was nothing but a commodity and nothing more. And Maisey showed this so well and I was really in his head while he was trying to deal with everything that was going on in his physical relationship with Leah while dealing with the feelings he had for her. He had never wanted a woman like he wanted Leah, ever in his life, plus this was desires of a man not a teenage boy when he last had sex. In fact he hadn't had sex for 17 years because of what he went through in his past and he didn't want to use anyone. So, he was celibate all that time and never wanted anyone before so he never had to give into temptation or be with anyone intimately. And it was very believable and not like eye roll worthy when he said he never been with anyone for 17 years, and something that wouldn't make sense or be even believable. But the way Maisey did it as well as us as readers getting to know Ajax it was very believable and easy to understand his reason why of him not being with a woman in so long. He had major issues that he had to get through not only with himself, but with his past as well and Leah helped him through that and showed him what true intimacy should be instead of what he had in his head even despite her being a virgin, but that made no difference because he was practically a virgin as well, having never being with a woman as an adult, which was kind of endearing and a sweet moment that these two character were having their first together. It was beautiful and so well portrayed in the book and all the love scenes along the way, showing this was the way it should of been all along especially between two loving and consenting adults. And showed him how beautiful physical loving could be and not something warped like it was in his head, though it took him awhile to get there and finally let go with her, but he did, and it showed him what physical intimacy could be with Leah.Of coarse they both dealt with their issues along the way with Leah and her insecurities and her hiding herself while he dealt with his passions and desires for her and finding it was okay to let go with her and not be in complete control of himself all the time because he could trust Leah and find comfort and love in her arms. And it did take them awhile for both of them to get their and truly let their guard down for one another, but eventually they did, realizing that they in fact had something special together and would be fools to give up because of their fears. And I loved that, and how they both healed one another and getting what they both deserved because they both were very lovable people.I'll say it again, but I really love Maisey books because they immerse the reader into the love story of the complex characters on the page, just like this one did, who have very real issues going on with them, and Maisey finding a way to present them (and very successfully) to show how tortured these characters are and how they have to work to get through them so they can accept and give love to their significant other of coarse the significant other is usually the catalyst for them dealing with the issues and getting through them with love being the biggest healing force behind them, which is what love should be about. The characters aren't perfect and aren't prince charming's or princesses with perfect lives, they are very flawed with real issues to deal with, but it makes them that more real and that more interesting and makes the love story stronger and that much more believable which is what I love about her books. With each new book she ups the ante every time and sets the bar so high that readers can't help but to fall in love along with the characters in this story while we follow along on their journey together. And she comes up with some doozy of how screwed up and tortured the characters are and what they dealt with in their past, which is usually really screwed up that you think she can't come up with a more screwed up, tortured character and then the next character comes along and you find that character more screwed up than the previous one, which is amazing. But also she does in a way that despite some of the things or some of the things they did, you relate to them and like them despite all that and root for them like I said above because they are special people who deserve love and probably deserve the most especially after what they been through. And it just blows my mind how she does it and creates these characters that are so dark yet very lovable and rootable and that's with every character she creates especially the males and showing that they do have deep emotions and are redeemable and need love in their lives. Also just showing the complexity of the male characters and all the layers that they have creating this very much 3 dimensional image that comes to mind with their wants, needs, fears, and past shown so we get the full picture of the character and making them very real, at least in my mind, and sometimes romance novels don't do that creating these types of characters that have that type if complexity to them and make the male characters kind of unbelievable as well as the fact that they fall in love with her heroine so quickly without rise or reason, but not with Maisey's heroes. And us as readers don't want to turn away from her heroes, but embrace them. The hot, tortured alpha male that anyone would come to love while reading her books, and I love how she does it and not only that the passion between the characters is usually really hot as well which adds to the appeal plus she has some very different and creative yet no less hot love scenes while creating all that sexual tension between them, which is very much a bonus. And besides I love a good tortured hero that comes out into the light with the love of his life. I hope she does it for years to come because I can't wait to see what she creates next and what she comes up with next and possibly blowing my mind because I look forward to reading them in the future.I guess the whole point of my big explanation was that I really enjoyed this book and the love story between Ajax and Leah. I really loved Ajax if you couldn't tell and really felt for him and hurt for him and what he went through in his life and all the issues he had to deal with. He was such a considerate guy especially when he was determined not to hurt Leah by loosing control of himself, even though he had no need to and I as well as Leah knew that he would never physically hurt her and he should have unleashed his passion without restraint because he wanted her and no other woman would have done and he could be himself with her. He very much deserved Leah's love and her his. I look forward to reading the story of Rachel and Alex, who were introduced in this book because there are lots of questions there and I want to find the answers to them. And soon. less

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