Engaging by Sarah Curtis
Series: Allure, #2
Romance Contemporary
Ebook
May 27, 2015
Self Published

Reviewed by Tori

Favorite Quote: “Do you miss me or the sex?”

Cassie Wagner met and fell in love with Gage Hunter, lead singer for the band Engage, while in college. Their whirlwind romance ended abruptly when Gage decided to break up with her before he went on tour. After a few months, he realized his mistake and came back for her only to discover she had left college and disappeared. Now five years later, Gage runs into Cassie at a party but before he can talk to her, she disappears again. Gage has never forgotten Cassie and is determined to gain her forgiveness and pick up where they left off but Cassie isn’t the star struck girl she was back then and she has some forgiveness to ask for.

As Cassie and Gage work to heal the breach between them, an outside force brings danger into Cassie’s life and Gage’s protective instincts go into overdrive. Gage needs this second chance but he won’t get it unless he can stop the growing violence that is stalking Cassie.

Engaging is the second book in Sarah Curtis’s Allure series. I read book one, Alluring, earlier this year and thoroughly enjoyed it. You can read my review Alluring HERE. Engaging is about second chances. As with book one, the romance is pretty straight forward in its reveal with a slightly off-center suspense subplot that is used to push our couple towards their HEA. Curtis flips between the past and present to tell Gage and Claire’s story, making sure we understand just where everything went wrong and how they might be able to fix it. Well written with a clear concise storyline, well developed plotlines, and personable characters; I found this one didn’t capture me as much as the first one.

I had issues with the heroine. I never really connected with her. I’m all for making someone work to regain your trust, and mind you me, Gage broke Cassie’s trust, but I’m not onboard with acting the fool out of spite in order to get exact revenge for past deeds. She makes some incredibly ignorant decisions from the moment Gage leaves her. When Gage re enters her life, in her need to punish Gage for his past decisions, she continues to make bad decisions that pretty much had me throwing up my hands in disgust. One decision in particular is unforgivable in my opinion. There are only two reasons to make the decision she made and neither of them were present.

I liked the hero, Gage, much better. Besides being sexy, smart, and alpha; he readily admits to his mistakes. He knew he was stupid for breaking it off with Claire before going on tour. He admits his fear got the better of him and when he sees her again, he does everything possible to make it up to her and prove to her he still loves her. I admit I questioned Gage’s inability to find Claire after he left her. It had only been two months. He’s a rock star and has the money and connections that the average person doesn’t. He could have found her if he really wanted to. But overall, Gage does everything he can to rebuild the trust he lost and that includes being extremely patient with Claire’s antics.

The reconnection is slow going as Claire fights it every step of the way. The chemistry is sizzling. Physically they have no issues at all. It’s emotionally where they have a long uphill battle. I personally felt Claire dragged it out for too long, inventing problems where there were none.

The stalker subplot is well written though it doesn’t blend well with the main storyline. It plays off Claire’s job and addresses a serious problem in the world today. Though Curtis uses it as a glaring plot device to push Claire forward in her life, she never belittles the issues nor uses the violence involved gratuitously. Be forewarned: some may find this aspect of the story disturbing as dog fighting is a violent crime that often does not have a happy ending.

The ending comes at us hard and fast, leaving little time to process. Curtis slams us into our happy place as the subplot and romance wrap up tightly leaving readers with no doubt Claire and Gage have found their happily ever after. While this one wasn’t a favorite, I really dislike one of the tropes used in here immensely, I still enjoyed Curtis’s voice and look forward to book three in this series.

RATING: C

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