Maid for Love

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Title: Maid for Love
Author: Marie Force
Publication date: 04/28/2011
Publisher: HTJB, Inc
Kindle Unlimited: No
Cliffhanger: No
Rating: 1 out of 5

Blurb (from Amazon.com):
Maddie Chester is determined to leave her hometown of Gansett Island, a place that has brought her only bad memories and ugly rumors. Then she's knocked off her bike on the way to her housekeeping job at McCarthy's Resort Hotel by Gansett's "favorite son," Mac McCarthy. He's back in town to help his father with preparations to sell the family resort and has no intention of staying long. When Mac accidentally sends Maddie flying over the handlebars, badly injuring her, he moves in to nurse her back to health and help care for her young son. He soon realizes his plans for a hit-and-run visit to the island are in serious jeopardy, and he just may be "maid" for love.

My review
They didn’t make me the Queen of the Unpopular Opinion crew for nothing, folks. You can call me Khaleesi of the Unpopular Opinion crew if you prefer. No bowing or curtseying or anything is necessary.

In case you didn’t gather from that lead in, I didn’t care for this book. And judging by the author’s sales rank and thousands of 5-star reviews, I’m guessing many of you won’t agree with me on this one.

First, I’ll start with the positives:

1. This book is free.
2. The writing mechanics are solid. No annoying typos or grammar mistakes to pull you out of the story.  

And...that is all.

Now, for my negatives (*takes a deep breath*):

1. Insta-love. I have no problem with insta-love when it’s in a paranormal romance. Shifters can get away with that whole “fated mate” thing. But in regular old contemporary romance? I’m not nearly as accepting of insta-love. And by “not nearly”, I mean not at all. Mac and Maddie “fell in love” over the course of 48 hours. Well, it took Maddie 48 hours to completely succumb to Mac’s charms. He fell in love with her in less than 24 hours. By day 3, there were marriage proposals and talk of skipping condoms so that they could expand their family. After less than a week together.  
2. Maddie initially refused help from Mac, but Mac wouldn’t hear of it. Instead of taking her to the hospital and then offering to pay for damages and leave her alone LIKE A NORMAL PERSON WOULD, he offers to fill in for her at work and move in with her to take care of her infant son. This is not normal behavior, folks. And he was SUPER insistent about it. Maddie refused his help over and over again, but he wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. She eventually caved and let this complete stranger take care of her baby. If some stranger tried to move in with me and got anywhere NEAR my baby, I’d call the cops on his ass and introduce him to my baseball bat (maybe not even in that order). If Mac had been fat and ugly, this would’ve been an episode of Criminal Minds instead of a “sweet Cinderella romance”. Ugh.    
3. The blurb said Maddie was “badly injured” during the accident. Um...she wasn’t even hurt bad enough to go to the hospital. She had cuts on her knee, hand and elbow. I’m sure she was sore, but no mom alive can’t take care of her baby because of a few dings and bruises. It’s part of the official mom job description. We don’t get sick days.
4. Mac’s mom and sister were elitist snobs in the beginning of the book. Their change from elitist snobs into warm, supportive characters was totally unbelieveable. They should’ve done some serious groveling to get Maddie to forgive them for their behavior, in my opinion.
5. Mac didn’t really ever ask Maddie what she wanted. He just swooped in with his superhero cape flapping in the breeze and set about righting everything he felt was wrong with her life. Even at the end when she told him she didn’t want there to be any secrets between them, he said he’d always keep shit from her if it was shit that would make her sad or worry. And because Maddie’s a complete doormat, she accepted that. Again I say, ugh.
6. Slut shaming. Honestly, I don’t really care if Maddie nailed the entire football team in high school. It was HIGH SCHOOL. No one should be holding that against her ten years later. And the fact that she let a couple of dumbasses “ruin” her made me dislike her as a character. The fact that she couldn’t hold her head high and be proud of the great mom she’d become was annoying and made her seem weak.
7. The constant talk of how Maddie’s boobs ruined her life REALLY got old. How about you accept and be proud of the healthy body you were given, huh? Boobs didn’t ruin her life. Maddie ruined her own life by letting small town gossip and a poor body image wreck her self-esteem. Let’s leave the poor innocent boobs out of this, shall we?
8. If your life in the small town was so miserable, why not leave? Hotel maid jobs are available all over the world.   

So, long-story-short: if I were you, I’d skip this one. Unless you aren’t part of my Unpopular Opinion Crew. If you aren’t...well, go ahead and download it. You’ll probably love it.

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
This book reads like a checklist for how to perpetuate the romance stigma. Critics probably hold this one up as Exhibit A when bashing the romance genre as a whole.  

Other reading suggestions
For a great read about a hero who takes care of the heroine without stifling who she is or wants she wants out of life, try Linda Kage’s Priceless.

---