Review of "Wrecked By You" by Kate Sweden

Score: 94/100 (9.4 out of 10)

Great love stories involve two people with holes, two people you wouldn't think would get along, two people with unclaimed or unresolved baggage.

The best love stories involve two people finding ways to make each other better. They're not parasitic, abusive, or needy, they're complementary and reciprocal.

That, perhaps more than anything else, really elevates this romance novel from just another romance novel to a must-read.

Wrecked by You is a spicy contemporary romance novel by Kate Sweden that centers on the chaotic professional relationship between Sales Director Rayann Wilder and the intensely controlled security consultant, Max Harrington.

Rayann Wilder is the “brilliant chaos” sister in a family of six who inherited their father’s luxury travel company, Wilder Horizons. She is a creative, impulsive sales director who makes magic for high end clients but constantly feels like the messy one compared to her hyper competent sisters, especially the stern COO, Summer. When Rayann books a destination wedding in a Scottish castle for two formerly feuding clans (think Capulets & Montagues from Romeo & Juliet), Summer decides the trip is too high risk to trust to Rayann alone and assigns head of security Max Harrington to go with her. Max is a former Navy SEAL, now a spreadsheet loving risk manager, and Rayann’s long time work nemesis. Right off the bat, you can can tell how diametrically opposed and opposites these two are. Also notable is how their rivalry and differences parallels that of the families they're supposed to be planning the wedding around.

Anyway, on the way to Scotland their enemies-to-lovers dynamic kicks into gear. Rayann is late to the gate, spills coffee on herself, and mortifyingly spills a bright pink vibrator out of her bag right in front of Max. He is unruffled, quietly amused, and of course they end up seated side by side on the long haul flight.

In Scotland they juggle feuding families, unpredictable weather, clan drama, and a castle that seems determined to stage disasters. Max wants zero surprises. Rayann believes surprises are the point. Their constant sniping, forced proximity, and shared responsibility for making the event a success gradually turn into mutual respect and simmering attraction.

What we really appreciated is how each of the characters comes in clutch at different times. It's not like one is always right and one is always wrong. For example, there are moments when Rayann’s spontaneity and people skills are exactly what defuses a tense situation or keeps guests happy, and other moments when Max’s worst-case-scenario planning and security mindset are the only things keeping everything from falling apart. Emotionally, too, they keep trading places as the strong one and the one who needs saving, which really sells this as a partnership rather than a one-sided rescue.

The fire is perhaps the best example of this (not to spoil too much). It allows for the two characters to use their different skills and strengths. It especially shows how Rayann is so much more than someone with people skills and that her chaos isn't always a bad thing. In fact, it allows her to react to the unexpected. Complementing this is Max, who knows the routine on what to do in emergency circumstances like this.

You see that rhythm again and again: Rayann improvising and soothing people, and Max anticipating risk and keeping everyone safe. You gradually feel both of them slowly realizing they are stronger as a team than they ever were as adversaries.

The bond they start to share starts to seem earned rather than forced, which is key to an effective romance.

There are a few cliche moments here and there including Max's tragic and traumatic backstory in the military, but—somehow—that never robs those moments and scenes of their emotional weight and impact.

We also liked a few of quotes and passages in this book. One of our favorites is:

"'When I finally have you, Rayann... it won’t be because I lost control.' A sharp inhale. A muscle ticked in his jaw. His hands flexed, tension pulling at every muscle. 'It’ll be because I let myself.'"

Can't you just feel the tension and emotional weight of that moment? Not just the visceral descriptions of Max's physiological experiences but the words themselves. They say a lot about Max as a character and how he's changing from someone trying to control everything to someone who is allowing himself to feel and be free again.

Oh, and by the way, this book can be really funny at times. One of our favorite running jokes is when Rayann starts speaking Italian, but gets fixated on weird phrases instead of learning to speak fluently. So she ends up saying all sorts of hilarious things when they're translated into English. They're things like "this is a goat situation" and "Make love to me like I’m the last mozzarella on Earth."

Check it out on Amazon!