You Own Me by Shiloh Walker
Contemporary Romance
Released: August 4, 2014
Self Published

Reviewed by Mandi

I’m always in the mood for a convict romance. I’ve watched my fair share of lock-up on MSNBC… I can’t help myself. So when I heard the newest Shiloh Walker book featured a hero recently out of prison, I said let’s go. Unfortunately, I found this one to be middle of the road. I didn’t dislike it, but it’s not my favorite.

This is a best friends to lovers theme with a prison visit in between. Decker did something one night that sends him to prison for seven years. The day he goes, his friend Lizzie is devastated (the reason he goes to prison is related to her. That’s all I’ll say).  In present day, Decker has been out of prison for three years, and for just a little over that amount of time, Lizzie has been dating a slick banker named Noel. No one really likes Noel, including Lizzie but they’re together. Noel really bothered me. He is not likable at all…it was hard to believe Lizzie was with him for an entire three years. Noel tells Lizze one night that he wants to start an open relationship and see other people. This hurts Lizzie badly. As she can’t sleep after this, she turns on her computer to see that Noel had been on a fetish online dating site. Feeling a bit risky and impulsive, Lizze signs up for a profile too. All of this throughly frustrates Decker, who is in Lizzie’s life enough to know Noel treats her poorly. He wants to kill Noel for treating Lizzie like crap and  he feels very protective of Lizzie now that she is trying online dating.  So then Decker signs up for the online dating site and secretly starts messaging Lizzie.

I’m not sure how long this book is, but it felt novella length. I easily read it in one sitting. I had a hard time with how everything plays out. I guess it was all pretty predictable. Noel is a creep, and you know Lizzie isn’t going to stay with him. Decker is head over heels in love with Lizzie and has just never felt worthy of asking her out. Instead of just communicating his feelings for her, he joins the online dating site too. I didn’t like how that played out. Can’t we all just communicate? Wouldn’t that be the less creeper route to go, instead of secretly messaging her from the dating site?

Lizzie loses some self-confidence while dating Noel, who urges her to lose weight and dress differently. Decker makes her feel better and embraces her for who she is – which I liked. Decker has been out of prison for three years, but we don’t really see a lot of the ramifications of his convict status. I wanted to dive into that a little more. I figured out early on why he went to prison and I’m not sure how I feel about it. Maybe if this had been longer with more focus on Decker and Lizzie, instead of Noel in the picture, it would have worked a little better for me.

Rating: C

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