Marine Lieutenant Talia Barnett arrives “home” for Thanksgiving for leave during an active duty tour. She is met at the airport by friends, siblings Angie and Liam Brodie, who have treated her like family for years. Given her mother's emotional instability, their staunch support is a lifeline to her, but she believes she must tackle her mother's issues on her own. To do more would risk embarrassment, entangle her friends and their parents in the mess she sees as only hers to clean up, and would cause her to rely on others, particularly Liam. Relying on Liam, whom she secretly loves, would only result in heartache; after all, how could this supremely gorgeous, entirely sexy, and wonderfully strong man love in the long run such a totally hot mess?

Let Me In is being sold as a BDSM story, but it's really not. But that's not why it only earns a "C" from me, although the mislabeling didn't help. It's not that Liam isn't a perfectly hunky, dominant hero, what with being a successful private contractor (hopefully not Blackwater--now known as Academi!) with a special services background. It's more that Talia is a walking stereotype for the Closed Off Character. Essentially mama keeps getting kicked out of her house for being a hoarder and Talia fails again and again in dealing with it. This makes little sense given that she is a Marine. So your mother is messed up. For someone whose vocation requires life and death decisions in dangerous situations, I expected a more can-do attitude from her. Deal with it and move on, Talia!

That's what Liam does when he forcibly intrudes into her life. He sees past her defenses, loves her, and simply fixes things. That he loves her seems to have Co-Dependent written all over it, though, and therein lies my main issue with the book. I can see a man like Liam falling in love with a Marine, and I can see a Marine who is submissive; it fits the whole psychology, after all. But I can't see a man like Liam falling in love with a woman who can't walk and chew gum at the same time, and that's how Talia comes across.

Which is too bad...Liam's delicious.

(The publisher provided this book via Netgalley.)