Review: Rapturous by Marie Force

MS Force didn’t disappoint with Hayden and Addie story. Hayden was much more complex than the arrogant, harden man we met during Flynn and Natalie’s books.

Hayden is a Hollywood superstar director, fresh off an Oscar win.  Addie is his best friend’s PA and the woman he loves but thinks he can’t have.  Hayden’s view of himself, despite being the Hollywood hotshot that he is, isn’t very good.  He thinks he can’t protect anyone and isn’t good enough to be with anyone like Addie.  Throw in his sexual kink and he takes himself out of the running for Addie, despite her throwing herself at him.  Every time he pushes her away, he thinks it’s for her own good.  But what he ends up doing is hurting her repeatedly, something that he also swore he wouldn’t do.

Addie has been in love with Hayden for ten years, but it’s not until Hayden gives her a small opening on Oscar night that she decides to push him into exploring the chemistry they have between them, which is explosive.  What Addie also discovers is a man who is haunted by how he grew up and refusing to “taint” what he sees as good despite how much he wears his feelings for her on his sleeve and discovering she could be everything he desires.

Hayden was his own worse enemy.  Given what he went through as a child and still did, to a lesser extent, I could understand.  But it was hard to see him push Addie away over and over again, especially after you knew how good they were with each other.  Hayden was looking for acceptance, but he refused to fight when whatever the level of acceptance he was looking for wasn’t given.  It was heartbreaking, considering he wasn’t that way professionally.  Addie helped him realize he wasn’t at all like his parents and he could have everything that he wanted without repeating the past.

Another stellar entry into this series.