Ultra Meital Reviews: Floodgates by Mary Calmes

Though this one started out great, on the way it somehow stopped working for me. I loved the beginning, yet as the story progressed I drifted farther from our MC (and sole POV) - Tracy Brandt. I DID really enjoy all the side characters and Tracy's connection with his family was extremely sweet, each brother is so very different and yet when they are together they are a real team with their father spreading his love to all of them. Tracy's friends were fun, we got quite a lot of them in the beginning but later on the story focused on the danger Tracy was in and he was extracted from his daily life to draw out the villain.

This started with a very certain vibe concerning why Tracy was targeted, it was a sort of "the obvious" and yet it wasn't it was something else entirely but it wasn't surprising where it went. Maybe that's part of the problem, the way the story went from one angle to another I'm not sure why we even needed the first theory anyway..

There is a lot going on in Tracy's romantic life and yet it's mostly "old news" to him. His ex cheated on him and so they are "on a break" for almost 5 months. For Tracy it spells THE END, because once the trust is gone.. but his ex doesn't want to let him go, even if it wasn't the only time he cheated.. Tracy had enough emotional rollercoaster and not only because he is dealing with real life trauma and drama with his life being in danger. So when Cordell "Cord" Nolan, his brother's old partner (in the police) and his best friend comes to the rescue he starts seeing Cord in a different way. There was always attraction between them but the undercurrent was all wrong for Tracy. Tracy wants forever, and all Cord wants is a good time. Cord has changed from back when they first met, but Tracy needs to SEE it to believe it and now with how worried Cord is acting, it's getting easier to see beyond the guy he used to be 5 years ago.

They both wanted one another and Tracy sure needed the protection and warmth Cord was offering so willingly. So once Cord confesses his feelings towards Tracy it's a sap-fest. It was a little bit too much for me really. I wanted them together, I wanted the cheating ex to eat the mess he made, but I wished we got a real romantic story here, they were just too damn cheesy right from Cord's confession. The focus was mostly on the "dramatic" part (not the romantic one) but since it too moved too quickly from one angle to another, and then the villain was this crazy person holding a "grudge" for YEARS, I don't know, didn't like how it turned out. I also wished we got to know a little bit of Dima (Tracy's boss), I wanted to see more of him to understand who he really is and how he and Tracy "work", why and how he trusts him when no one around him does. I wanted to go on more than Tracy's belief on him, especially when he meets his friends and later on with the "shady" way he behaves yet we didn't get to see any of it. That's really a shame.

For me this one was all over the place, the suspense part was mostly on the focus with the kind of villain I have little patience for and the romantic side, maybe because we had little time of it, was way too sappy for me to handle.. In the beginning it felt "typical Mary" in the best possible way! I enjoyed everyone (okay, except Tracy's ex..), loved the interaction between everyone but somehow later on me and this book just failed to "click".