Review: Hero by Samantha Young

Hero
(Hero #1)
by Samantha Young
Publisher: NAL
Publication date: Feb. 3, 2015
Genre: Romance
Rating:

Alexa Holland’s father was her hero—until her shocking discovery that she and her mother weren’t his only family. Ever since, Alexa has worked to turn her life in a different direction and forge her own identity outside of his terrible secrets. But when she meets a man who’s as damaged by her father’s mistakes as she is, Alexa must help him.

Caine Carraway wants nothing to do with Alexa’s efforts at redemption, but it’s not so easy to push her away. Determined to make her hate him, he brings her to the edge of her patience and waits for her to walk away. But his actions only draw them together and, despite the odds, they begin an intense and explosive affair.

Only Caine knows he can never be the white knight that Alexa has always longed for. And when they’re on the precipice of danger, he finds he’ll do anything to protect either one of them from being hurt again…

This is the third time I’ve read this book in an attempt to review it. It’s not that this is a bad story, it’s just a bit all over the place and repetitive. You see, Alexa’s father is not the man she grew up thinking he was. She thought he was always away on business but really he was off with his legitimate family. When he was kicked out, divorced, and disowned by his family, he came crawling back to Alexa’s mom for good. It was until years later that Alexa found out just the kind of man her father was. Not only was she an illegitimate daughter, but apparently her father allowed one of his other mistress’s OD and instead of calling 911, he panicked and left her there to die. She’s been tormented by her latest discovery and is horrified when she shows up to work as a photographers assistant, only to realize the man they are photographing is none other than Caine Carraway. Not only is he extremely powerful and rich, he’s also the son who lost everything when his mother OD’d in a hotel room, alone.

Right off the bat you know this is going to be a good story. You know Caine is going to be resentful and that he’s going to make Alexa jump through hoops. However, it was a bit annoying that he does this throughout the entire story. I mean, the big secret of who she is is revealed within the first chapter. So, it’s not like half the book is Alexa hiding who she is from him. So, when she gets fired from her job and Caine decides to pay her to be his personal assistant, you know he’s going to put her through the wringer. Their banter was great and I loved seeing Alexa’s snarkiness pull some emotion out of Caine, but it was frustrating with the way he’d let her in and then push her away. There came a time where I wished Alexa would just walk away because she was beginning to seem like a bit of a doormat.

Not only was Alexa’s relationship with Caine a little strained but apparently Alexa’s father is part of a very wealthy and powerful family. Only her grandfather knows who she is and keeps in contact with her… but only in secret. No one else knows that he makes contact with her and he wants to keep it that way. So, the few times they bump into each other while at galas and various events, her grandfather acts like he’s never met her before. Again, Alexa just tries to let it roll of her shoulders and makes excuses for him. And again, this happens all the way up until the end of the book.

I guess that while I enjoyed the story, I didn’t care for the way Alexa allowed herself to be treated. You get the sense that no one has ever chosen her. Her mother kind of turned her back on Alexa when her father came back into the picture, Caine refuses to commit to her and pushes her away when she gets too close, and her own grandfather won’t acknowledge her for fear of upsetting the rest of their family and creating a scandal. Maybe if the people in her life weren’t so crappy, or if Caine wasn’t such a douche to her, or maybe if Alexa put her foot down and demanded some respect, I would have enjoyed the story more. However, While I really liked the story as a whole, I found myself getting irritated and bored that it just kept circling back around to the same issues over and over again.

Favorite quote…

“…sometimes you’ve got to let yourself be vulnerable even when it’s the scariest thing in the world.”