Under Locke

I could promise myself not to read slow burn romance from any author, and then few minutes later, I'll be tucked with a novel by Mariana Zapata.

However, reading books by her can prove to be quite a dilemma because I do enjoy books that are quite lengthy except they are fantasy novels.

How then does she keep her fan club interested?
Honestly, several times, I've attempted to tie it to her style of writing.
Other times, I've often attributed it to her characters. I mean, if readers fall in love with your characters, it is so much easier to keep them invested in your books.

For me nonetheless, it is the anticipation that comes with the suspense filled build-up she creates for her characters.
And it is also the fact that I would rather have a love that slowly burns, than one that burns fast, and later fizzles out.

What then is special about "Under Locke", that kept me interested?
I mean, the paperback is about 542 pages.
"Under Locke" doesn't have your typical "knight-in-shining-armor" plot, or your typical gentlemanly main character, which is what kept me interested in the first place.

Dex Locke is brash, impatient , doesn't know how to tell time, an ex-felon, a womaniser, a biker, and everything that screamed "stay away from me, I am a bad influence".

Iris Taylor on the other is the total and complete opposite.

Iris Taylor needs a job badly after months of unemployment.
She bites the proverbial bullet, and moves to Austin to live with her half brother, who is also a biker.
Her brother, hooks her up with a job at a tattoo parlor supposedly run by one of his club members, Dex.

Iris doesn't like the job. Not only because she didn't want to be associated with the place, but because her good-for-nothing father had once been a member of the Widowmaker's, the same bikers club.

With no job prospect, and no better choice in sight, Iris begins to work for Dex.
Dex is arguably not the best boss to work for, and not the most perfect human being either.

Iris and Dex working together, would eventually be the catalyst to their slow burn romantic connection.

As earlier said, I really like a few things about this novel, asides for my obvious bias for the author.

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First thing I loved was the characterization.
Iris' character was my favorite. My heart might have refused to stay still the few times I came across Dex as a character, but Iris was my favorite.

Despite her naivety, she had a healthy sense of humor, and is definitely a character that does what she needs to do to get out of any fix.

I also like Dex, bless my soul.
I am partial to bad boy main characters because of the spice they add to the plot, but like most bad boys, Dex's brash exterior, was just an armor plate shielding his soft interior from any further damages.

Don't get me wrong, Dex is a proper bad boy, especially with the hard past he's been dealt with, but he's still softer than your Television screen stereotypical bikers.

This book is a complete stand alone novel, that would leave you flipping it's pages without considering how lengthy they are.

The wordings and characters flow by seamlessly and you wouldn't even notice the page numbers as you read on.

I totally recommend.