ARC Review of Don't Rush Me by Jackie May

 Don't Rush Me by Jackie May
Book One of the Nora Jacobs series
Publication Date - 25 January 2018
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 Most humans have no idea that a dark and deadly underworld, filled with magic and monsters, exists. They wander through life blissfully ignorant of the supernatural world around them. Nora Jacobs is different. Nora knows exactly what kinds of hellish creatures haunt the streets of Detroit.
Thanks to a unique set of psychic abilities, Nora has managed to steer clear of the underworld most of her life. But all that changes the night the most powerful vampire in the city discovers her gifts and decides to use her as a tool to find one of his missing clan members.
As if that’s not bad enough, Nora believes she’s cursed. All her life, people, especially men, have been drawn to her—some to the point of obsession and violence. Underworlders, it seems, are not immune to this curse, and now she’s caught the attention of some of the most dangerous monsters in the city.
Neck deep in an investigation only she can solve, Nora quickly makes as many new allies as she does enemies. Her biggest problem is staying alive long enough to decide which is which.
*This is a slow burn reverse harem romance.

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I received a copy of Don't Rush Me by Jackie May from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of the book. The following review consists of my opinions and mine alone.

Nora Jacobs is not your ordinary human. She has a certain allure to her that makes her more and more irresistible to men which has given her more than her fair share of troubles and she has a serious case of psychometry, psychic powers centring around her touch. When her spidey sense starts tingling on the bus ride home on her birthday, she assigns it to the sketchy gangbangers at the back of the bus. When she nears her home, it is revealed that the gangsters were not the source of danger she needed to worry about. Her landlord’s sketchy son has decided that her birthday is the perfect day to kidnap her. Nora convinces her captor that she’s all for a good party to celebrate her birthday and asks to go to the exclusive club, Underworld, determined to use her knowledge of the supernatural denizens of the Underworld to save her. After divesting herself of her would-be rapist, Nora exits the club post-haste, surprising her new bouncer friend in her escape. From there, she is captured yet again and taken to a vampire's residence. Her birthday night sparks the entire book's adventures, solving kidnappings, rescuing paranormals in distress, befriending men of different species and remembering things best forgotten.

I kept reading past the Henry debacle because I really wanted to see Nora come into her own and maybe kick Henry's ass later on. I loved Terrance and Oliver and I'd love to hang out with Ren sometime. But the other men are kind of asshats in one way or another. One I wanted to immolate and just be done with, if you read this, you probably know who. This wasn't my first reverse harem book, but this book is really a pretty bad representative of polyamory with half the love interests depicted as some sort of user or abuser or other.

If the plethora of scenes mentioning or describing sexual abuse were to be lessened, I'd thoroughly enjoy this book. I know the scenes build towards Nora's entire character, but it's also very triggering to those of us readers who've experienced such events.

In the end, I did enjoy Don't Rush Me and I was rather disappointed I couldn't immediately read the second book, but I doubt I'll recommend it to friends or readers. I do hope the series grows past this first book's less than stellar beginnings though and I'm still rooting for Nora to win out in the end. All in all, I think I'll give Don't Rush Me 3 stars. I liked it, but there were some things that just kept me from loving it.

Until next time, dear readers, have a happily ever after!