Things take a turn for the worst Tessa when her Honda Civic is repossessed and along with it, the magical scroll which allows her to communicate with her clients. Determined to get it back, Tessa make a deal with company which repossessed her car, to allow her to pick into limbo and get her scroll back. Tessa quickly finds out that though her plan is a good one it comes with a many more complications than she can possibly imagine, chief amongst them the navy seal Rob Shin.
I chose to read this book because I am a huge fan of Shawnelle Madison, but that being said, this book did not work for me at all. I simply could not invest in the characters or Tessa's mission to get the scroll back. The world was not developed well and had I not had a background through reading the previous books in her Coveted Series, it would have felt completely slapped together without much thought.
Repossessed is very much as straight up romance novel in that the plot essentially would not exist without the building attraction between Rob and Tessa whereas; the same is not true for the coveted series. Tessa seemed to shamble from issue to issue with Rob being there to pull her butt out of the fire. She function much like a typical damsel in distress with nothing much to recommend her.
Tessa knows she needs her car back and her plan to expedite the situation by trying to slip into limbo makes sense but what does not make sense is that she never bothers to fill out the proper paperwork to go through the normal procedure. Who does that? This is especially true because it takes her a month to get into limbo and actually find her car? She knows that her aunt is sabotaging her business but she never once mentions this to her family. Why? Yes, there is pride in wanting to make it on your own but if you are being sabotaged and not fighting back, that is conceding and not being independent.
As with every romance novel, there must come a part in the story where the lovers are driven a part and in the case it was absolutely ludicrous. Rob is actually on medical leave and is using his time to earn extra money to support his family. For some ridiculous reason, he decides not to tell his family and not to tell Tess. Tess of course views this as him lying to her and this forms the basis of the typical misunderstanding which the lovers must overcome.
One of things I have always like about Madison's books is that they always have inclusion of marginalized people. In terms of sexuality there are no GLBT characters in this book. Madison does include a Korean love interest for Tessa. This particularly jumped out at me because Asian people are particularly erased from the media. Shin's magic was completely culturally based moving him beyond the typical White man described as Asian that often sufficient to count as inclusion in the media.
I had a particular affinity for Harabeuji the spirit which lived in Rob's bag. He largely functioned as comic relief and his penchant for good purses while disdaining knock of Coach bags had me laugh. We got to know some of his backstory and this helped add a relevant cultural background for Rob. Harabeuji was absolutely the best part of the story and I wish that he was featured more.
I cannot say that I enjoyed this book and this saddens me as I really enjoyed the Coveted series. I fought the urge to skim through because I couldn't invest in the characters and I never really felt like Repossessed was going anywhere. The entire thing felt absolutely pointless to me. I will acknowledge that I am not a fan of romance per say so please factor that in, in your decision on how to view my review.
Editor's Note: A copy of this book was received from Netgalley
