Review: Pushing Her Boundaries by Julia Rachel Barrett

Description:
Maggie is done with men. Flying to Minneapolis, she’s seated beside the type of man she always falls for. A sexy, arrogant alpha jerk.

Mace Williams irritates the woman next to him. She's so damn sexy, he doesn't care. When their seatmate suffers a cardiac arrest, Maggie and Mace team up to save his life, but it's too late.

In Minneapolis, Maggie heads to a restaurant with her sister, only to find Mace waiting. Worse, she learns he'll soon be her brother-in-law.

Stuck in her sister’s apartment with Mace, Maggie offers him one night of sex, anything goes. No obligations, no recriminations. Mace agrees...he wants more than Maggie's body, he wants her heart.

Thrown into a disastrous canoe trip, they must work together to survive. Maggie must face her demons and trust Mace with her life. Mace is determined to save her, regardless of what the future brings.

Review:
When Julia told me she wrote a book inspired by her canoe trip from hell I said hell yes I want to read that one. I always admire how much real life Julia can convey through her writing and a real life story with a romantic story build around it? What's not to like about that.

Maggie is a strong woman. She's not easily scared and has a specific inner calmness I admire. She was burned in the past and to say it with her own words: It's more like who didn't burn her. Her life wasn't easy but she made the best out of it and tries not to wallow in self-pity. She knows what she wants and mostly she got it right. She has a temper and a bit of a potty mouth but I always love this in a character. I admired her openess (even though she isn't as open as she thinks, at least emotionally) and way of thinking everything through.

Mace seems to be an asshole at first- though I liked him from the start. I knew that one was made for Maggie. I loved his directness and his dirty talking made him seem like on of those good bad guys. *winks* He's intelligent, smart, protective but not overbearing and not some hot shot über-macho who wouldn't survive the wraith of the female population in real life. I loved that he can admit that Maggie knows something better. It really shows his strength that he can see when someone else is right and has no problem in admitting that out loud.

These two really set the pages on fire- their chemistry is scorching and the way the normally so strong Maggie was able to "submit" to Mace was wonderfully pictured.The story itself was as awesome as I thought it would be- funny, witty and with a good touch of freakish craziness like you see so often in real life *wink* I love how touching and down to earth Julia writes- you can actually see yourself talking to her characters, the only thing I missed was a proper ending- I felt a bit cheated on the HEA.

Pushing Her Boundaries was an entertaining and fun read with a real touch to it. I loved the characters enjoyed the setting and I will always be grateful that I won't ever go canoeing again (different story but same conclusion). A great read you don't want to miss.

To learn more about Julia and her books please visit her website here. She has a great blog there too. You don't want to miss that (e.g. crazy canoe trip reports).

Other reviews @goodreads, but the book @BookStrand

Attention: I got this book for free from the author and I like to call Julia my friend so make out of that what you want!