Taming Rowan by Suzanne Barrett

Taming Rowan

By Suzanne Barrett

Book Blurb:

Karin Williams' devastatingly handsome project officer has a boulder-sized chip on his shoulder. Rowan Marsden expected a male engineer and he's not giving Karin an inch. Working conditions are...tense. Even...worse, she must share on-site accommodations with the sexy Brit who she fears will break her heart. What's a girl to do?

If Rowan had his way, he'd never work with a woman. Yet as Karin demonstrates her expertise on the job, he cannot deny his growing respect for her--or his desire. He wants the passion she offers, but not the commitment. Until a horrendous accident at the project site threatens Karin's life, and proves that even a wounded man is destined to love....

Taming Rowan is a romance book but it was really well researched regarding structural engineering and telemetry. Ok I admit I haven’t a clue what that means but being that my real life job is project management, I can tell you that the details and business formulas used in the book closely relate to real life. It is always a pleasure to read stories where the reader feels confident that the writer researched their information.

Karin is an engineer and in a primarily male dominated field and I was impressed. She seemed to be a mathematical genius and understood team dynamics. Unfortunately with Karin using the left side of her brain so much for logic and details her right side seemed to be severely lacking.  Clearly Karin was extremely immature in a social dating situation and I feel Rowan took advantage of her weakness.

Karin after all these years was still a virgin. Lots of women get so focused on school and their profession that they miss out on the dating part of living. But after having sex with Rowan only a second time, she was already demanding marriage and couldn’t figure out what the holdup would be.

Rowan was a male character that I disliked immensely and after reading the entire book, my view never changed. Starting right off with his male chauvinistic views on working with women right down to the head games and mixed messages he kept sending off to Karin. Every time Rowan would talk down to Karin (which is pretty much every single conversation) the result would be Karin thinking comments like “if he thinks he can play games with me, he can think again” or “I can play the game his way, if I had to" but then she does nothing to follow through.  

Karin came off as a very weak female and I truly lost respect for her. It was always Karin who had the bad dream, Karin who slipped on the rocks, Karin who got lost, Karin who got hurt etc. She was like the dumb girl in the movie that trips when someone is chasing her. Even her professional mannerism started to falter when she promised an alcoholic co-worker (who treats her badly) that she’d cover for him by not telling the project manager that he is an alcoholic and she’d check his work for him.  

The book cover is beautiful and I kept thinking that was exactly what Karin looked like. I love when a character and the book cover model represent well. The setting in England was lovely and I did appreciate the English dialect seemed as accurate as possible. I loved that the accents weren’t ridiculous and appeared very natural. The secondary characters in Taming Rowan were very enjoyable and their conversations and actions were very interesting. The writing itself was well planned and organized. My only problem with Taming Rowan was that I just didn’t care for either of the protagonists and unfortunately that is the biggest part of the story. 

Story Teasers: England, darts, male woodsy scent, Marmalade