3 out of 4 stars
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Against All Odds by Donia Ray is a romance-thriller novel. A handsome, wealthy boss marries his secretary. Neither of them marry for love but mainly to avoid other problems and difficulties. How long will this marriage last?
Joshua Galloway runs the family business. His family is pressuring him to marry the beautiful Angelica Merrett. Joshua distrusts her and also has feelings for someone who works in his office. Maya works as a secretary at Joshua’s family business. She has had some difficulties in her past that she has kept secret. These events have put her life in danger. She accepts Joshua’s marriage proposal for all the wrong reasons.
This is a beautifully written romance with a mystery twist. The author does a magnificent job of building a loving relationship between Joshua and Maya. There is actual courting and caring that leads to love. I really appreciated how the author drew the two main characters together without dwelling on sexual scenes. Joshua shows himself to be a true gentleman.
The story develops beyond the romance theme. Maya has a secret past that is revealed piece by piece. The events of her past affect her work, her family, and her marriage. There is also a suspense theme developed around Angelica and her motives for pursuing Joshua. The author does an excellent job of weaving these different themes together and wrapping them up at the end.
The third person point of view worked really well for this story. It helped to point out the motives of each one for accepting the marriage and what secrets they were each bringing into the relationship. The dialogue was also interesting and was often used to reveal important elements of the plot.
I did not like the way new characters were introduced in clusters. We meet Joshua’s family on p. 17, and suddenly there are seven new characters. This happens again on p. 64 when we meet Maya’s family. This time there are nine new people injected into the story. This just seemed overwhelming.
The other difficulties with this book are the poor sentence structure and misuse of English idioms. One example is found on p. 155: “You look like you’ve got the whole planet on your shoulders.” It is still understandable, but detracts from the mood of the story.
I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. The story was excellent and I would give it a four if possible. The balance between romance and suspense kept my interest until the end. Unfortunately, the grammar errors affect the readability of this novel. I recommend this book to people who enjoy romance and suspense.
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Against All Odds
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