Romantic Critic's Reviews > Reckless

Stella Rhys is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors, but her latest installment was underwhelming. I couldn’t connect with the characters or their love story as deeply as I could with her other works. The premise of the story (assistant/boss relationship) didn’t really work and I found myself cringing more than I was squealing over the romance’s beginnings, usually my favourite parts.

Hoping to reignite the spark in their relationship after a seriously long dry spell, AJ Tan goes all out for her fiancé’s birthday celebrations. The plan? She’ll surprise him in his hotel room (after pretending that a work commitment will take her away in another city) and they’ll (hopefully) make use of her generous stash of condoms and new lingerie. However, when her partner of almost six years eventually shows up – in the room booked with her dime, no less – he isn’t alone. Horrified to discover that all the hotels in the surrounding area are fully booked for the duration of her stay, she has no choice but to ask her boss, Adam Maxwell, to bunk in his room. With Adam having had to bury his long-held attraction to his assistant of five years, AJ’s newly minted singledom and their living arrangements are the perfect storm for mounting sexual tension. But warring with her attraction are its potential repercussions to her professional reputation, something that she hasn’t worked countless all-nighters to destroy.

Reckless was decent, but it didn’t live up to my expectations, which were set pretty high considering how much I loved Now or Never. AJ and Adam didn’t really shine individually or together – or at least not as memorably as Stella’s other leads. The sex scenes weren’t as hot, outside of that very steamy scene in the shower, and felt repetitive after a while (not a sentiment I usually share about her sex scenes). Adam in particular, didn’t have the charm of an Iain Thorn and the couple’s (relatively) lacking sexual chemistry meant that it couldn’t really compensate for his assholeness, à la Drew Maddox. I wished Adam’s secret was revealed earlier because it provided that emotional depth I was missing. (When he was nine, he went to New Jersey to live with his father and stepmother, leaving his destitute biological mother and half-brother in LA. Despite his best efforts, his brother refused to speak to him, as he viewed Adam’s departure and newly acquired wealth as betrayals to the family.) It explained everything, including why Jeannie had raised Holland/reacted to Adam the way she did and why Adam was the way he was (for example, why he held Holland at arm’s length, which I had previously, and erroneously, filed away as yet another example of a careless disregard for others).

Likewise, it took me some time to warm up to AJ. In college, her professor had rescinded her internship and devalued her work in front of their entire class when she refused to sleep with him. As someone who was shamed for her relationship with an authoritative figure and who was determined that her actions be the sole driver behind any success, I was cringing at AJ’s and Adam’s increasingly public sexcapades, especially when she initiated them. As she stated, knowledge of their relationship would only harm her career. It was frustrating that she would risk throwing away five years of hard work, her dreams, for sex (at least close the door if you're going to do it in the office!). However, I did like how this conflict played out, when their colleagues inevitably found out about their relationship so soon after her promotion. Adam followed her to the East Coast and chose to work with a smaller firm – instead of Iain’s company – so that AJ could have space to grow her career. I particularly liked that she found this out through happenstance and after two months of standing on her own feet. He didn’t lord his gesture over her head and the ball was in her court to go to him.

While AJ’s ex-fiancé was deplorable, it bothered me that Adam dubbed Casper’s sexual preferences (i.e. not wanting to take control in the bedroom) “Cassie”. It was “only” mentioned twice, but it was two times too many. It was toxic masculinity at best, and transphobic at worst. I also don’t understand why, in Stella’s novels, the heroines’ exes are always douchebags. I guess it’s to contrast them against, and by extension, lift the hero, but it always makes me side-eye the heroine. You are the company you keep, and their dogged attempts to fight for that kind of relationship (until it reaches an irredeemable turning point) makes me question their self-respect.

This review may seem negative, but I actually did enjoy the novel, especially compared to other romances. It was only against my benchmark for the author’s works that I thought Reckless missed the mark. As always, I like Stella’s prose and how I can never seem to put her books down once I begin. There were also some noteworthy moments, such as Adam’s speech when he attributed his successes/happiness to AJ and his notions on feeling whole vs. complete. Stella’s novels may be formulaic, but I like that her conflicts always feel genuine, as her characters’ misunderstandings (and motivations for keeping their secrets hush-hush until the very end) are, for lack of a better word, understandable. Nonetheless, my somewhat shallow connection to Reckless’ oft-noted “perfect” protagonists and their romance failed to garner the novel a "must-reread" status, unlike her last three installments.