Alexa and Cain were young and madly in love when a disagreement drive them apart, with hurt fresh in his mind Cain disappeared leaving Alexa pregnant. Three months later Cain returns to see Alexa marrying his own brother and vows never to return again, but after a tragic accident takes the lives of his father and brother he returns once more to the family fold. As Alexa and Cain start to work together they find their hearts are mending and once more they are realising their love is meant to be

Reading the synopsis for Losing Control you'd be mistaken for thinking it's an over done trope and highly unoriginal. It just shows sometimes you have to read a book to see just how good it is, and this a good read. The plot while seems unoriginal is far from it. There is so many depths and layers to it, that it's a rather captivating read.

I read this ARC for an honest review
All thoughts and opinions are mine

This was very different to the usual M&B book
More angst and pain, however, it does have a satisfying HEA

This second chance/reunion romance delivers the most heartbreaking angst I’ve ever read from the Dare line. This story is so different from anything else Rachael has written for this line before. It still has the high drama, heat and emotional pull she has become so well known for, but at its core, this is a much darker and twisted romance. Not shying away from tough subject matter she deems important for the story she is creating, and in Alexa and Cain’s case, this means a past that really rips the heart out of you! Cain returns home to Dublin, having long left his past, his family and Alexa behind after a turn of events that leaves their relationship in tatters. Before you know it you are well and truly snared, turning pages faster than your fingers can move.

Cain and Alexa’s chemistry is so alive on the page, their scenes together feel real and they felt integral to each other. What surprises me the most was how convinced I was that these two did belong together. With reunion romance, you always seem to run the risk of making it unbelievable. If it didn’t work out 5, 10, 20 years ago… why would it work now? Why is now the time? Rachael just turns that on its head and delivers very true to life feelings and made me feel like an intruder on moments so personal and poignant. I definitely find I lean more towards the emotional elements in a book regardless of what line it is for, but this book does deliver the heat and the fire the line promises, and the energy that burns between these two makes for some wonderfully written romance.

The writing is as flawless as ever. The pacing is fast with this one, which gave me thriller vibes at times. Combined with scenic descriptions of Dublin and you could almost feel you were there. This is definitely bolder than any of her previous books, and I think that shows how much Rachael has grown as an author. She’s cultivated a style and voice that is uniquely hers and delivers hard-hitting romance time after time.

1.5 - "How about some honesty..?" Stars.

Mills & Boon describe the books in their Dare imprint as –

Sensual love stories featuring smart, sassy heroines you'd want as a best friend, and compelling intense heroes who are worthy of them.

This book had none of those selling points for me, and seeing, as my issues in relation to the characters and story are one big spoiler, I have hidden it below.

[ The blurb for this book is as follows -

A family feud forced me to walk away from the woman of my dreams, Alexa—but I didn’t expect her to betray me by falling into my brother’s arms.

To expand on that, Alexa is pregnant with Cain’s baby when he ups and leaves, so three months later she marries his brother Liam so she’s not an unwed mother… Only the baby is stillborn, and they stay married until his death seven years later… Cain never having been told that fact in the interim. Now he is back to take over his dead fathers company, and step into his dead brothers shoes. Literally.

"Tell me, Lexi, did he make you feel like this..?"

I found this whole story left me feeling like I needed a shower, I can sum up Alexa in a couple of words, a big fucking liar. Cain just left me feeling a bit grubby, because for a good 85% of the book all he was interested in is making sure he was better than his dead brother whether it being in business, or bedding his widow. It’s not until the truth of their baby comes out that Cain finds out that Alexa and Liam’s wedding wasn’t consummated, but his almost obsessive need to best his bead brother just hit a wrong chord across the whole book for me. The end and the epilogue where just the icing on a completely ill developed romance between two pretty unlikeable characters.

I’ve read romance before where one of the leads falls for the sibling of their dead partner, but none of them left me feeling as uncomfortable as this one did. This book wasn’t long enough to include such a heavy trope as stillborn birth either, and all in all the whole thing struck a wrong note with me. The Dare books are supposed to offer romantic escapism on the steamier side and this one left me ice cold and not sexy hot. (hide spoiler)]

The writing was sound, and I will happily read more books from this author, unfortunately you can't please all the people all the time, and on this occasion Losing Control hit all the wrong notes for me.

Emotions run high in this story of business, deep personal loss, misunderstandings and love.

With a happy ever after ending in this romantic story of love, commitment and happiness.

Oh wow - this was something very different to what I was expecting. A dark, painful and difficult read at times.
Cain and Alexa were in love 7 years earlier and after a fight, he’d walked out - only to return 3 months later to discover her happily marrying his brother.

They meet for the first time at the funeral of his father and brother who have been killed in an accident.

She’d married Liam after Cain left her - unbeknownst to him - pregnant - and then lost their daughter when she was 8 months pregnant. Her marriage was unconsummated as they were just friends.

The story was well-written and I was glued to the page, but I found certain plot elements utterly puzzling and difficulties to believe.

. Why Alexa would marry her lover’s brother just 3 months after the fight, remained a mystery to me. Yes, I read her explanation but it did not ring true. There’s no shame in being an unmarried mother and why would you tie yourself in that way when there was the chance your lover would return? 3 months is hardly long enough to give up all hope. The thought that she was clearly prepared to allow Liam to bring up Cain’s child and never tell Cain he was the Dad - really stuck in my throat. I disliked her for that.
Of course - after losing the baby - she still never intended to tell him and I thought that was dreadful.

Alexia’s resentment that Cain was now being included in running the company rather than her was illogical and stupid. He was the son - it was a family firm.

Cain was never as fully drawn as Alexa and I never really understood why he ran off or why it too 3 months for him to return and not make any attempt to contact Alexa. I totally understood his attitude towards Alexa and his shock and pain when she finally told him about Rosie.

I enjoyed this book but found that the plot elements were really contrived and that spoiled the story for me.

However I can’t deny it’s really well written, and very emotional and satisfying.