Title: No White Knight
Author: Angel Payne & Victoria Blue
Publisher/Year: Waterhouse Press 10/16/18
Length: 235 Pages
Series: Secrets of Stone #8
Overview
The quest…
I’m Maclain Stone, and Taylor Mathews is my obsession, my reason to be a better human. Is that even possible? For her, I’ll try. Years of living in the fast lane—literally and figuratively—are catching up with me, as I fight to shift gears and win the right to commit to this incredible woman who has tumbled into my life.
The fight…
I’m ready for change, but is she? So far, she’s rejected every offer I’ve made and shut every door in my face. If she can’t admit her feelings to herself, how can she commit to me?
The fall…
She’s so close to showing me everything she is. I can feel her need in the fire of her touch, taste it in the connection of our kisses, and glimpse her surrender in the intensity of our passion. Yet I want more. But I can’t be her white knight until she admits she needs saving.
My Thoughts
I think that we’ve finally gotten to the last main supporting character (if that’s a thing) with Taylor’s story. We have known her to be the firecracker of the girls group, the one who’s strong and feisty because she’s hiding from something. We met her match in the last installment in Dr Stone, Mac – when he was saving Fletcher’s life. Seeing how these two dance around reality in this eighth book to the series is intense on so many different levels.
What i’ll start with here is that Taylor is fifty shades of messed up and she’s lucky enough to have found a man who’s strong, powerful, stable and who wants to be there for her, yet that’s something that she’s not willing to allow. She keeps him and all other people at arms length because it’s safe, but she doesn’t need safe.
There’s a new level of intimacy in this installment that we haven’t seen before and it makes this couple’s dynamic so unique to the others. Where we know that Margaux and Michel liked to have a dominant aspect to things, we really see that come to a head here with Mac because that’s his jam. It’s light BDSM but it’s still there and shockingly, it’s exactly the flavor that Taylor needs.
The carnival ride that we’re on here is like the Gravatron – the one that spins around and around pulling you to the outside as a means to control you but as soon as it stops, you have no idea which way is up. That’s what we have here. Every time Mac starts to break through Taylor’s walls, they get thrown around and go right back up making any forward progress almost impossible. When he tells her exactly how he feels about her, she runs, brushes it off and minimizes things as her defense mechanism. He realizes that he’s not enough until she determines that she’s enough for herself and after a series of unfortunate events, that’s where they come to rest.
I”m left wondering what will have to happen to make this relationship work. Taylor is terrified of relationships because of how she was raised, yet that’s not an excuse anymore as she’s established herself as strong and powerful. Mac on the other hand though can only fight so hard for something that’s impossible and we see what that means. the last page – we see something come to life that means the story’s trajectory will change and we don’t yet know what it means for this pair. So….that means i MUST find the next book which i think may be the last in the series. Enjoy!