Trouble in Tampa by Nicole Williams Book Review

Genre: New Adult, Sociology
Author: Nicole Williams
Series: Great Exploitations #3
Date Published: December 11, 2013
Publisher: Self-published
Edition: eBook
ISBN13: 2940148894353

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When it comes to trouble, Eve’s used to showing plenty of it to her Targets, but when she’s assigned a new Errand, the roles become reversed. Rob Tucker is the kind of man who raises every red flag in a woman. He reminds Eve that some Clients aren’t just looking for freedom from their husbands—they’re trying to save their lives. She’s worked domestic violence Errands before, but this one’s . . . different.

When a seemingly quick and simple job turns into the complete opposite, Eve finds herself juggling two of the most difficult Errands of her career.
How far will she go to see both through to completion?

Review:
I've read the first two books of this 5-installation series not so long ago and yet, I've forgotten things. Things like some details of Eve's life before she turned to Miss G to become an Eve. Things about Henry Callahan.

Okay, I do remember some bits from the last book like Eve seeing Henry for the first time in five years somewhere at the beach. So this book started where Scandal in Seattle left off. This time, Eve decided to join into Henry Callahan's Company as R&D Program Manager. Getting to employment means a lot of paperwork for a Fortune 100 Company so Eve agreed to meet Henry at some joint restaurant.

This book was very emotional. Henry and Eve parted ways painfully in the past. Now at a table, memories sprang up for the two that Eve could not rein her personal self. As Eve the spurned fiancée, she would love to accuse Henry of all the heartaches but as an Eve the professional whaever-you-call-women-in-her-career, she has too keep her cool and focus on wrapping up this biggest Errand she was ever assigned to, a Target Ten.

Eve's and Henry's exchange was not only heart-warming but witty and snarky. I would love more conversation like that in the series.

But because Henry's Company involves work dealings abroad, not only must Henry go out of the country but Eve must juggle between two Targets. While Henry is out of the picture for a week, Eve has to deal with a measly Target Seven at the moment: Mr. Rob Tucker, a wife beater.

As it turns out, this Target is unlike any target I could imagine for the story. I'm glad that Nicole Williams considered writing about a monster. This is what Tucker said to the female bartender.

And it’s not your job to think. A girl’s thoughts are never rational or worth verbalizing. So why don’t you smile pretty, nod, and serve me my drinks like your gender was created to do?

Wait, what? Is this how sexist the world Nicole Williams has lived her life that she was able to write something like this? Then thanks God I live in southeast Asia, I don't get to live a life where men undermines the abilities of women.

I did mention the book was emotional to begin with. But after that meetup with Henry Callahan in the restaurant, this emotional thing has turned sour. While the first 20% of the book involves sadness, the rest induces anger.

Every conversation with this Tucker makes my blood boil. If I got a rifle with me, I would have blown his head. There's no need for me to make him change his mind about women because his perspective in life has already been made up. While I don't mind about how people see the world, I'd mind if they physically hurt others in the process.

Author was so well-versed in putting up a dialogue regarding to sexism that I don't think I'd be able to articulate enough:

You’re thinking you want to keep up this strong-girl act because that’s what Sufferance, bra-burning, and decades of ‘supposed’ gender equality has conditioned you to think. But that’s not how you really feel. None of you women really feel that way because deep down inside of you, in those little strands of DNA, you were all created to serve, and be second, and give obedience like your lives depend on it. And because so many of you bitches have gotten away with ‘equality’ for years, that genetic code is begging to be punished for your disobedience. The core of what makes you what you are won’t be appeased until you’re back in your proper place.

Again, I'd thank whatever Supernatural Being there is that even if I live in a poor country, I don't get to "fight for equality". Simply there's no need to assert for gender equality where I live. I live in a culture where it is believed prehistorically to be matriarchal simply because women were known to be strong and men acknowledged women's strength before foreigners discovered the islands and tried hard to change that perspective. Old habits die hard. If your an Alpha, then you're an Alpha regardless of sex assigned to you genetically. In short, sexism never existed in my country before the foreign Occupation. The only rare cases where sexism is evident is when the people involved are Chinese. Or when male strength is required in a job (which I think is never sexist).

Perhaps if I go out more, I might witness more of this BS of a man.