Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: Complex Dimensions
SERIES: Rowan House #4
AUTHOR: Brenda Murphy
PUBLISHER: NineStar Press
LENGTH: 231 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 23, 2019
BLURB:
Sick of living in her parent’s basement and encountering her ex-girlfriend on a regular basis, former graduate student Veronica Fletcher signs on to manage the stable for Rowan House, Skye’s most exclusive resort for women. After arriving at Rowan house Veronica’s vow to remain celibate is tested when she meets Millie Reid.
Sexy, sweet, and funny, Millie is the woman of Veronica’s dreams. Or is she? When Millie’s past threatens their future together, Veronica is faced with a choice she doesn’t want to make. The butterfly effect has never been more personal.
REVIEW:
Brenda Murphy’s “Rowan House” series has been hit-and-miss for me, and this book edges a little closer to the “miss” category. It brings us back to the lush setting and diverse cast of characters we’ve grown to love, but the chemistry between the two leads just never seems to jump off the page.
Instead of spotlighting current members of the elite club, this book focuses on Veronica, and American ex-con looking forward to starting over after a stint in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. She takes a position as the stable manager for Rowan House, the ultra-exclusive BDSM club on the gorgeous Isle of Skye in Scotland. Veronica’s pretty tough, and she’s able to navigate catty housemates and formidable bosses, but she’s not prepared for her instant attraction to Millie, the quiet, redheaded butch chauffer.
I really like Veronica as a main character because she shows a different kind of vulnerability than the other women in previous books. She’s not part of the BDSM staff, so she has a different role within the house, leaving her dominant nature as a smaller part of her personality. She becomes sort of a confidant and older sister figure to some of the other girls, and she takes her job and position seriously. I also like her relationship with her parents, who have remained close and supportive after she went to prison. Life on the outside is drastically different in general, but a luxurious BDSM house is a new experience entirely, and Veronica navigates it with care and intelligence.
I was less enamored with Millie as a love interest. She’s not a very fully-developed character, beyond her troubling alcoholism and sad history. The blurb says that she’s sweet, funny, and sexy, but I don’t recall her being much of any of those things. She constantly rebuffs Veronica and snaps at her, even when Veronica tries her best, and there are constant miscommunication and misunderstandings because the two women don’t seem to trust each other as much as they say they do. The sex scenes and power plays between them are well-written enough, but there’s a blandness to them not present in previous books. They just don’t have the chemistry to keep readers interested in page after page of repetitive love scenes.
I’m a little disappointed in this one, but I really loved the previous book in the series, Knotted Legacy, because it focused on characters we already knew. The next book, Double Six, will also focus on familiar characters, so I am definitely looking forward to it!
RATING: 
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