Dare Macintosh is in Mexico to rescue his best friend's sister from Mexican kidnappers. While he's there, he notices another woman who is clearly American. He can tell that she was treated differently from the other women. She was clearly starved, drugged and abused. He decides to rescue this woman as well. When Molly wakes up, she is confronted by the appearance of Dare. She's safe and away from her kidnappers. Now here comes the hard part; as long as the person behind the kidnapping is free, she is not safe. Molly decides to hire Dare to protect her and to find out who is behind her kidnapping.I will admit that I had difficulty warming up to Molly. I read the novella, Ready, Set, Jett which is a prequel to this series. In this novella, Molly's sister, Natalie, is worried because she hadn't heard from Molly and that's not like her. Molly and Natalie are really close due to their strained relationship with their father. So fast forward to When You Dare and for the first half of the book, Molly does not once mention that she needs to contact her sister or that her sister could be worried about her. I know that Dare and Molly are taking precautions with her safety because they don't know who to trust but the fact that Natalie didn't cross her mind the moment she was rescued bothered me. Also Molly was just a little too calm once she was rescued. She kept trying to be strong and didn't want to breakdown. I kept thinking a normal person would do that exact thing! There's nothing wrong with that. It constantly annoyed me when she would feel emotion about what was done to her and then basically force herself to not cry. Throughout the book, I found myself thinking, stop being so damn strong! It's okay!Molly is a writer. She is a person who likes control and order. Dare is also a person who likes to be in control. These control freaks together does not make the relationship interesting. Dare and Molly would butt heads when Molly would insist on being kept in the loop or having a say in what decisions Dare makes but not enough to make the conflict interesting. Molly would insist, Dare would say "no", Molly would either argue back or pout, Dare would cave, end of conflict. I wanted more fighting, more passion. Two tightly wounded people make a boring couple. The model on the cover is sexy and hot but that hotness did not come across in this book. I didn't find Dare swoon worthy. I thought he was kinda dull and other than being a professional mercenary, there was nothing interesting about him. I did not know who Dare was. We got a peek into his past but it was not enough for me to feel connected or invested in his character. We know he loves his dogs and his BFF Chris and that he's a neat freak and can cook. Maybe if he was super anal about the neatness that lent to some light-hearted moments, Dare would have come across more as a person than a robot. Chris stole the spotlight from Dare. The last romantic suspense I read, the hero was dark and full of emotion. He had cracks in his armor and we saw his raw emotions. Maybe that was what I was expecting from Dare which is totally my fault. But I am the type of reader who needs her hero to not be so in control all the time. I need chinks in the armor in order for the hero to be interesting to me.What kept me invested in this story was the mystery of Molly's kidnappers. This part of the story I was wholeheartedly invested in. Who would want to kidnap a writer? What was their motive? The person and their motive behind it was kind of outrageous and not believable. I kept thinking, that's kind of extreme and unnecessary.When You Dare was an okay read for me. I couldn't get behind Dare and Molly's relationship and there were too many things about Molly that bothered me. The one thing that I couldn't let go is the complete disregard for her sister, Natalie. There's one scene where Natalie and Jett finally come face-to-face with Dare and Molly. They have their reunion and Molly tells Natalie what happened to her. After catching up, Jett leaves to get pizza and Dare and Molly get into an argument about something. Dare pulls Molly into her bedroom and they start making out, while Natalie is in the living room twiddling her thumbs. Mind you, Dare and Molly had just finished having sex when Jett and Natalie shows up. I was flabbergasted. Talk about inappropriate! Natalie has been worried sick about her sister and Molly basically is trying to get her freak on. Who is more important? A man you've known for a week or your sister? Sometimes I questioned that. That bothered me so much and I couldn't get past it. I thought there were many times that Molly was outright selfish without in deference to anyone else's feelings. By the end of the book, I had very little sympathy for Molly and what she went through. Even though I had problems with the characters, When You Dare kept me engaged and entertained. The mystery surrounding Molly's kidnapping kept me guessing. I look forward to reading future books in this series.
