Cabin 1: Steele Shadows Security, Book 1

Turns out this book is written in the first person... or people, as we get to take trips into the brains of every main character. Not my favorite thing, but if it's well written I can move on. However, the language is absolutely disgusting. Starts out with attempted rape and then plows on through the sexual proclivities of the super-macho, Rambo "Steele Brothers". Yes, they even use the line "Nobody messes with the Steele brothers". By chapter two we've heard this dude's opinions on the barmaid's attributes, then we move on to the genitalia of the fellas, after which we are treated to a barroom brawl worthy of a John Wayne oater movie. I've read and enjoyed many of Amanda McKinney's books, but this is just awful. I'm not going to finish it. If only I could return it for a refund...

My review can be considered spoilerish, because it contains info from first few pages, but it’s such a turn off for me I feel like I should mention this here. So if any little bit of spoiler bothers you, skip ahead. You’ve been warned!So, the book opened with the heroine running away from her attackers, and within the first couple of paragraphs, it’s clear she has been kidnapped, brutally beaten up, raped, and managed to get away from her attackers after killing one of them. Ok, that sounds promising. And then she stumbles into the hero’s property, after several tense exchanges to establish who is who, she is taken in by the hero. And...... get this: some lusty thoughts ensue in the heroine’s mind because the hero is just sooooo good looking and sexy. Seriously?! For real?! She has just been raped, beaten up black and blue with one eye swollen shut, she still has blood spatter all over her body and face from killing her rapist with a knife, and the first thing that enters her mind after seeing the hero (who’s a total stranger, mind you) is f****ing him?Yeah, that’s when I pretty much lost all interest in the story and any future books from this author. Good thing this was free or I would’ve asked for a refund. Freaking unbelievable!

Cabin 1 is an odd mixture of themes and genres. Reading this story was the equivalent to eating a cookie made of red peppers and spinach. The point is that in the premise of the cookie you expect sweet, sinful, delectable bites but instead you have vegetables. The cover and the story description offers one thing but the pages inside the cover do not deliver, at all.It is as if the author pulled random ideas from a hat and decided to combine them all together without actually trying to connect them. You have the tough theme of rape and violence and while there does not need to be an overly long drawn out discussion, a little humanity to the topic might have been nice.The characters feel as if they have all dropped out of a cartoon. They are flat, boring, and not relatable. The men are over the top manly without the reader being drawn in. All that seems to define them is their drinking, outdoors activities, sleeping with women, and drinking. And while those things aren’t bad in themselves per say, there are literally no other qualities to the heroes in this tale.Perhaps the worst of it is that author drops the reader into the middle of the story without writing a beginning or an end. This was a snippet ripped out of an incomplete idea. It would be like if a movie started in the last ten minutes without the watcher being privy to what happened in all the time leading up. It’s a very oddly compiled story indeed.

By the awful reviews this book has gotten I expected some pretty terrible reading but I wanted to see what the anger was about and figured I’d read the first section and toss it. It was free after all. What was there to lose but a few hours I was stuck in a car anyway. But that’s not what happened.Okay…first of all, (and we’re talking the first chapter or so, no spoilers) did the people griping even read this book? Niki Avery is attacked just before the book starts. Two men run her off the road and attempt to rape her. Neither succeed and she fights valiantly which does end in the death of one of the attackers. Why are people so upset about this? HE’S the BAD GUY. The reviews made it sound like she gets attacked and then runs into Gage and says “take me big boy”. This does not happen.“Gage is a womanizer and he is awful about women.”I’m paraphrasing from reviews, but yes, Gage’s intro does show you his half drunk sexualization of women. But it’s part of his story. Which is (again no spoilers) he is struggling with his father’s death and using women and booze to do it. He’s numb. People handle things differently and he wasn’t handling it well. Not all people handle death gracefully. It is just showing that he’s an imperfect human. But he in no way treats women badly. In fact the woman he’s thinking dirty thoughts about is trying to get him in bed too so again…what is the problem? He also steps in when someone makes unwanted advances. Sooooo he has dirty thoughts about women. Name a guy that doesn’t. (Name a woman that hasn’t had dirty thoughts about someone…come on guys.) Yeah it makes him out to be a dog but he admits that he is a womanizer. It’s a family joke. The women around town know it. It’s all part of his backstory. Should a guy be that way? No. Are there men that do it? Yes. But the truth is, when the woman is out in a bad situation, he steps in. The whole purpose is to show that he’s, as the book says, “not tragically, but willfully single.” No one has been able to break through his wall of grief and standoffish behavior. So him getting attached to Niki makes it the romance book people are expecting. Rough and wild man falls for a fiery and feisty heroine who refused to just give up and die. No they don’t immediately jump in bed when they meet but this is a romance book, not real life, so it does happen quickly. If it didn’t the book would last 800 pages. Yes she was attacked, but not violated. And she’s appropriately freaked and disturbed. But her mindset is that no one is going to rule her life but her and she refuses to let those idiots win. Gage’s protective nature blooms with her and amazingly their offbeat relationship works.Now onto the storyline itself, it’s a fast paced read and the characters all have a depth that I’m sure will evolve over other books. Trying to figure out whodunit was fun and there was little down time when the action picked up. I enjoyed the book. It was well developed and written. Just remember it’s only fiction. It’s not an in-depth documentary on overcoming an attack. It’s a “woman is in grave danger and the security specialist who is guarding her falls in love.” Only the woman defends herself as much as he does. Not all women are wimpy damsels. I liked that about this book.Ironically the only thing I didn’t like about this book is that the older brother Phoenix was nicknamed Feen.

**Potential Plot spoilers**Potential trigger warning relating to sexual assault - did I miss the warning in the blurb or was it not there?The assault is described and is not pretty reading, it's borderline graphic and could upset some readers.The female lead is strong and well written, the plotline is equally well thought out and executed perfectly.The male lead, Gage, is a misogynistic pig who miraculously sheds the sexist viewpoint when he meets Nikki. Yeah, okay.This is the guy who talks to womens boobs and thinks women are especially weird once a month but are otherwise ok for sexy times.These are just a couple of examples of his character because I mean, seriously, what bloke rescues a sexual assault victim and thinks it's okay to make the move on her to get her into bed within hours of the assault, and in what world is she ready to have sex with someone she just met the next day?It was too bizarre, too alpha personality with no brain.The premise of the book is good, just jarring with the poorly drawn male characters. I assure you even special forces do have brains and are trained to understand the psychology of how traumatic events affect civilians.I don't think I would tolerate a man like Gage as an acquaintance let alone as a friend.There are some grammatical and editorial errors, the one that made me grind my teeth was the 'couldn't bare it' mistake that's just so basic an error.There are a couple of sex scenes lightly written and some swearing.The backstory, barely touched on, looks promising and is the reason I will continue with the series.I can't call it a romance, it's possibly the least romantic book I've read, but there is a HEA and it's engaging enough to keep you turning the pages

I will not be buying any of this series again, I was pleased when I had finished it, no real depth to the story and unbelievable plot that anyone can infiltrate a secure compound so easily was stupid and the secure cabin was in a direct line of sight of a rifle, really?

Excellent book was very good enjoyed this one. Wow again for this one was full of action intrigue and emotion with the big tough guys. Must read the next one I recommend to everyone to get into this series its fabulous and amusing at the interaction between brothers. Thanks

A great book well written and a good cast of characters really enjoyed reading this hooked from the start not who I thought it was really great read

Each book of Amanda’s I read gets better and better. I want a man like Gage! His brothers sound amazing too so I can’t wait to read their stories. Niki and Gage make a great couple and the story kept my attention that I found it hard to put it down to sleep! Fantastic read and I’m so glad there is more to come in this series!