Under Locke

Under Locke
Mariana Zapata

• Publisher:  Mariana Zapata
• Year Released: 2014
• Date Read: December 5, 2018 – December 6, 2018
• Genres: Romance, New Adult, Adult, Contemporary
• Grade: B-/ 3.8 Stars

“Unfortunately, you don’t get to choose family, Sonny had told me this once. But you do get to choose everyone else.”

-Mariana Zapata

After losing her job, Iris had one choice, move in with one of her siblings. Her sibling of choice, her half brother that is part of the same motorcycle club as their shitty dad, which leads her to getting close to the people her mother didn’t want her to know. After running out of the money she had left from her previous job, her brother gets her a job with one of his friends and members of the club who runs a tattoo shop. Iris was happy to have a job again, except she quickly learns that her new boss, Dex, is a jerk. She can either quit and leach off her brother, or she can try to learn to deal with Dex, but she learns quickly that patience is a virtue, and she is starting to lack it.

After reading reading The Wall of Winnipeg and Me I came to this book, and it became clear as I was reading it that this was one of her first books. This is not an insult to her in anyway, it isn’t bad for a book in the beginning of an author’s career. It just lacked some of the things The Wall of Winnipeg and Me had. It wasn’t as smooth. I can’t point out why, but there was definitely a difference in reading Winnipeg and this one. I’m even reading one of her newest ones at the moment and she has clearly grown in her writing since Under Locke. I will say also it became clear Zapata’s books have a similarity to them, again, not an insult. The books were not the same, just that some minor things where, such as the slow burn romance, the relationships with family, the relationship between boss and employer, and the enemy to romance. Also the length of Zapata’s novels deserve an applause. Most romance or contemporary books are around three hundred pages,  Zapata’s are way above that. They are long and give you time to really get to know the characters. Thank you for this Zapata.

Pros

• Never once was I bored or wanted to put the book down. In most books, there are scenes, that while necessary, are not entertaining to read. Never once did I want to stop reading this book. I actually stayed up till eight in the morning and had to force myself to stop reading and got to bed. Usually by that time I can feel myself getting tired, but I felt wide awake and wanting to finish the book. I needed to finish the book. I save reading till later at night, but during that day I wanted nothing more then to just not do anything all day and finish that book.
• I liked the biker club and tattoo shop part of it. I’m someone who has always been interested in books or movies about clubs because of the whole bonding and friendship part of it. Also a lot of people assume that biker gangs are full of awful people when that’s not the case anymore. Most bikers actually give to charities and such so it was nice to see that their gang wasn’t full of drug users, drunks, and assholes. Did they fight and talk shit to each other, yes, but they didn’t act like thugs. Also I loved that Iris worked in the tattoo shop and a lot of the book was centered about her time in the shop. I’ve always loved tattoos for the artwork and love hearing and imagining the tattoos the characters have. Like Dex’s Uriel tattoo.
• Iris and her brother Sonny. Even though they were half siblings who share a dad they don’t care for, and didn’t see each other a lot as kids, they loved and cared for each other. Sonny protected Iris whether it was from other people’s choices or someone’s words. They had a really nice relationship to read.
• Dex and Iris. I liked their relationship when it turned into the friendship part. There was many funny or sweet moments between them. They for the most part did well together. Dex was an asshole and Iris kept challenging him. It worked.

Cons

• Dex’s possessive attitude. I know this is a turn on for some people. Having they guy say that every part of the girl is there’s, EVERY part, but for me it was a little over the top. I get it when characters or people in real life say that their girlfriend is there’s, because yeah, unless you are in an open relationship they are there’s. They don’t usually mean it as you can’t leave me or I own you, just that they are with them and theirs unless they say else wise. Dex was a little too possessive, which I guess matched his character, but it was still a turn off to me. Dex says in one part, “…and i’m gonna take everythin’ you want to give to me and everythin you don’t.”… that doesn’t sound sweet to me, that sounds over the top and kinda creepy. I liked Dex a lot. I really liked his character, but when he started to get possessive it started to make me not like him as much.
• Sometimes it got repetitive with it’s wording. For example every kiss scene was this, ”We kissed and kissed and kissed.” That sentence was worded like that practically every time.
• Just little things. Like the character not knowing what a fake ID is even though she’s in her twenties. The characters saying pop for soda even though they live in Texas. I don’t understand what “My inner nosey hooker…” means. It was just little things that made me just sit there and stare at the book wandering what they were saying and why.

“You couldn’t control or anticipate a person who didn’t ca
“There it was. That fierce loyalty. He didn’t have a clue how that was the most attractive thing about him. It trumped his face, his ink, his body, everything. Dex Locke was true. He was grounded.” 
― Mariana Zapata,

After reading these two books and reading right now one of her newest books, I can say that Zapata is probably my favorite romance author. I don’t really read adult romance novels. They aren’t my cup of tea. I’m not into how they usually turn into erotica or are cheesy. Zapata doesn’t really do that, or at least I haven’t read any books of hers yet that she has done it. Under Locke did have a lot more sex scenes then Winnipeg’s like one sex scene, but it wasn’t to the point where it was half sex half story. It wasn’t even until closer to the end so I will allow it for not turning into an eroitc novel. I mainly read fantasy novels with contemporary novels as a break, but right now I only want to read Mariana Zapata’s novels. They are well done and I love every second of reading them. It is very rare I find contemporary novels or romance novels that I fall in love with. Under Locke wasn’t as smooth or good as The Wall of Winnipeg and Me but I still loved it. It was great with a good storyline and characters. Her characters seem real and well crafted. Zapata has earned herself a new fan who will be waiting for any new novel she puts out.