Review: Tangled by Emma Chase

Title: Tangled (Tangled 1)
Author: Emma Chase
Date of publication: 20 May 2013
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Author's links:
Website / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads

My rating: 4 stars

Goodreads Blurb

Drew Evans is a winner. Handsome and arrogant, he makes multimillion dollar business deals and seduces New York’s most beautiful women with just a smile. He has loyal friends and an indulgent family. So why has he been shuttered in his apartment for seven days, miserable and depressed? 
He’ll tell you he has the flu.

But we all know that’s not really true.

Katherine Brooks is brilliant, beautiful and ambitious. She refuses to let anything - or anyone - derail her path to success. When Kate is hired as the new associate at Drew’s father’s investment banking firm, every aspect of the dashing playboy’s life is thrown into a tailspin. The professional competition she brings is unnerving, his attraction to her is distracting, his failure to entice her into his bed is exasperating. 

Then, just when Drew is on the cusp of having everything he wants, his overblown confidence threatens to ruin it all. Will he be able untangle his feelings of lust and tenderness, frustration and fulfillment? Will he rise to the most important challenge of his life? 

Can Drew Evans win at love? 

Tangled is not your mother’s romance novel. It is an outrageous, passionate, witty narrative about a man who knows a lot about women…just not as much as he thinks he knows. As he tells his story, Drew learns the one thing he never wanted in life, is the only thing he can’t live without.

My Review

This book generated a lot of hype over the past month on Goodreads and being a romance (with a touch of humour) told from a guy's POV was enough for to pick up right away. 

It was a fun read, going for 4.5/5 stars but I found the last third of the book was a bit disappointing, hence the 4 star rating. 

As a reader of romance I am always curious for the male perspective on all things romantic and it is rather rare to come across a book with an authentic male voice, furthermore, a debut work written by a female writer. I think congratulations are in order for Ms Chase for this achievement. 

I enjoyed Drew's voice a lot, even though he came across misogynistic at times, and often he was a bit too gross for my taste. His musings were accompanied with just the right amount of humour which saved him from being considered a complete jerk. 

I liked Kate, as well, even though we see her and her actions solely through the eyes of Drew, and he is rather biased :)

The interactions between Drew and Kate were fun and always kept me on the edge. Their banter and the tricks they played on each other were greatly entertaining.

The supporting charatcers were also great, Drew's family, especially his sister "The Bitch" and niece, as well as his male colleagues and friends complemented perfectly the story. 

The story was going really well, nothing was overdone until the final 1/3 of the book. The plot twist leading the their break-up was rather lame, a simple case of making the wrong assumption because of lack of communication, a device used far too often in romance and one of my particular pet peeves.

After the break-up, suddenly we see a completely different Drew. He went all out on trying to win Kate back but I found his new self unconvincing. The change in his character felt forced and it did not suit him. I missed the arrogant, self-centred, over-confident Drew from the beginning of the book.

The happy ending was beautiful, though. 

In the end all I can say is that if you are looking for a fun romantic read where guys share honestly their thoughts and feelings about love and relationships, this is the book for you!

I just saw on Goodreads that there will be a sequel to Tangled. There isn't much information about it yet, but I hope it will be as good as this one and definitely plan on reading it.