Review: Takeover by Anna Zabo

Michael Sebastian thought Curacao would be the perfect place to have a little fun in the sun—and between the sheets. So far, no one has struck his interest, until Sam Anderson walks into the bar. With one look at his tense body and expensive suit, Michael knows that this is a man in need of release. And Michael is more than willing to lend a hand.

Shattered by the most intense sex he’s ever had, Sam has to face the facts—one night with a handsome, dominating stranger is all he gets before returning to the closet he’s been suffocating in for years. But when Sam starts his new job as the CEO of a failing technology company, he discovers that Michael is one of his new employees.

While Michael is desperate for another night with Sam, he knows he shouldn’t get involved with his boss, let alone another man who can’t accept who he is. But as they’re forced to work together to save the company, the desire sparking between them becomes impossible to ignore… 

In a word-wordy.

This is my first experience with this author and overall I enjoyed it. Was it memorable? Probably not, though I would read something else by this author. Like that anthology that's forthcoming.

I like the premise of a one night stand that turns into something. Michael and Sam meet in a bar in Curaçao, have an intense experience, maybe wish it could be more but know it's only one night. Let me tell you that one night was a helluva way to start off this book!

Naturally, their paths cross again. 

Both Michael and Sam are surprised when Sam turns out to be Michael's new CEO and try to forge a platonic relationship but Pandora's box has been opened. This may be here nor there, but there was an awful lot of cock talk and not a lot of cock action which made them seem like two horny teens rather than two adults. I'd almost want to call this a slow burn were it not for their occasional sexcapades. There are many hurdles to overcome the first being Sam's sort of in the closet and Michael's last relationship crashed and burned because his lover was in the closet and Michael has vowed not to go there again. 

I had issues with Sam's rationale for not correcting his colleagues on his sexuality. I get being prudent rather than Liberaceing out in the boardroom, but it's a contemporary book, set in the US. The same country that allows same sex marriage in 36 states and Sam's convinced that he'll be ruined in the business industry if he came out? I have trouble believing that and what's more it was agonized over to broken record levels.

The inverse power dynamics is the second hurdle. Sam is a sexual submissive/masochist in the bedroom but in the boardroom he's CEO, a well respected CEO at that. Not that I have exacting standards when it comes to romance novels, but this dynamic is actually quite common in RL and I couldn't work out why it was such a sticking point for Sam. It's not as though he and Michael would be posting sex vids on pornhub or anything. Get over it. No one cares. Personally, I liked how needy Sam was and how he craved what Michael could give him. 

The third hurdle was they couldn't get out of their own way. Remember that scene in Cold Mountain? The rain scene with Renée Zellweger? "They made the weather then stand in the rain and say, 'shit, it's raining'!" They do that. It annoys me when people do that. Tons of words to accompany the rain making too. But, the upside was being shown them becoming friends, getting to know each other, building a relationship and how hot for each other they were even if it read a bit adolescent at times. 

The corporate maneuvering could've been toned down. There's only so much I need to know about mergers, acquisitions and routing technology in my romance novels and the end game on this front was anticlimactic anyway. 

So, it has good points and not so good points, but overall I enjoyed it.

A review copy was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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