YMMV / The Mister

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Given how frequently Maxim thinks about sex, how often he has sex, his claims that sex is his favorite hobby and his struggle to form a connection with Alessia that isn't purely sexual, it's been speculated by some readers that he's a sex addict. Heck, Maxim even has Sex for Solace with his brother's widow just days after Kit's death and can't bring himself to stop even though part of him thinks it's wrong, which is a classic sign of addiction. Then there's his revelation he lost his virginity to Caroline when he was 15, it didn't go very well, it nearly resulted in him being expelled from school and culminated in his father forcing him to a brothel (while he was under the age of consent), all of which brings up new issues to consider.
• Americans Hate Tingle: A lot of Albanian people have expressed distaste for this book - with even an Albanian ambassador publicly denouncing it - due to it painting Albania and its people in an extremely negative light, featuring many inaccuracies about the country (for starters, none of the Albanian characters even have Albanian names), and presenting the Albanian protagonist as an ignorant and nigh-helpless womanchild.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Alessia comes off as having surprisingly little trauma despite growing up with a violent, domineering father who forced her into a betrothal to an equally repulsive man, and being a victim of sex trafficking who was fortunate enough to escape before she was sexually violated (the kidnapping alone was bad enough). She expresses a bit of angst over the other women being trafficked alongside her - with whom she was on a first name basis - but beyond mentioning on a few occasions that she hoped they escaped she rarely thinks about it. This also doesn't impact her romance with Maxim much; despite her background priming her to have issues with trust and intimacy, she quickly overcomes any qualms and is happy to jump into bed with Maxim just weeks after meeting him.
  • The novel's climax is sapped of a lot of its urgency and tension due to Maxim's rather nonchalant approach to Alessia being kidnapped and forced to return to Albania by her crazy ex, who intends to force her into marriage. He never seems truly concerned that he might not reach her in time, that he may never see her again at all or that horrible things might be happening to her; he takes his sweet time coming to her rescue and thinks stopping off to drink with his buddy and shop for engagement rings on the way is a good idea.
• Audience-Alienating Premise: While the novel sold well enough, it dropped off The New York Times Bestseller List much faster than the Fifty Shades of Grey series and got even worse critical reviews. Part of this may be to do with the fact the heroine is an undocumented immigrant from Albania who is revealed to be a victim of attempted forced marriage and sex trafficking, which are very serious topics, only in this case they're used more as an excuse to put her in the hero's path; not helping is that the hero himself is her vastly more rich and powerful employer. The trivial way such subjects were dealt with and the extreme power imbalance between the Official Couple understandably made many readers uncomfortable.
• Cliché Storm: The Mister gets this even worse than Fifty Shades of Grey; while that story was also cliched by romance novel standards, it at least stood out a bit due to its heavy focus on BDSM (albeit badly depicted). The Mister doesn't have this gimmick so we're stuck with an outdated, paint-by-numbers romance book about a playboy aristocrat who finally finds love with the unworldly and hard-done-by heroine, whom he must rescue from numerous bad situations she gets into, up to and including the villain kidnapping her and trying to pull an And Now You Must Marry Me.
• Narm: The climax, which involves Anatoli (Alessia's evil ex) holding everyone at gunpoint; Alessia dramatically puts herself between Maxim and Anatoli, Alessia's dad grabs a shotgun when Anatoli threatens his daughter, and everyone starts to panic when Anatoli aims his gun at Alessia's dad and pulls the trigger. Any drama is thoroughly diminished given that Alessia knows and announces to everyone that she previously removed the bullets, so the scene quickly descends into unintentional comedy with everyone freaking out and apparently forgetting the gun is unloaded every time Anatoli aims at someone.
• Spiritual Adaptation: The novel bears some surprising similarities to Poldark, to the point where some have speculated that The Mister is yet another work of E. L. James' that started out as a Hotter and Sexier AU fanfiction with the Serial Numbers Filed Off.
• Squick:
  • Alessia is a twenty-three-year-old woman, but behaves and is treated as if she's still twelve. This infantilization only heightens the power imbalance she has with Maxim. And makes Maxim come off as predatory because he's attracted to Alessia because of her naivete and innocence. It gets even worse when it's revealed Alessia was kidnapped and nearly forced into sexual slavery.
  • In one specific instance, Maxim buys a nightlight for Alessia upon learning she's developed a fear of the dark after being kidnapped. This might've been a genuinely touching gesture... only he specifically asks for a children's nightlight for her for some reason, even though she's 23 years old. And at the same time, he buys condoms just in case he gets an opportunity to have sex with her.
  • Maxim rather casually mentions that when he was fifteen, his father took him to a brothel to "learn how to fuck". Besides a father interfering in his son's sex life like that just generally crossing a line, Maxim was only fifteen and the age of consent in the UK is sixteen. So his father was apparently fine facilitating his son's statutory rape in a brothel. Maybe it's not too suprising Maxim has so many issues, especially when it comes to relationships...
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: A few readers thought the story would've been better if it had focused more on the sex trafficking plotline, perhaps even framing the story more as a thriller in which Maxim uses his resources and influence to help Alessia find the other women and take down the traffickers, with their budding romance being more of a subplot (which would go a long way towards making Maxim more sympathetic). As it stands, the trafficking plotline in the actual book gets treated more like an afterthought and is barely explored in any depth, and there's no attempt made to find the other women. Considering what a grim topic it is, a lot of readers felt it seemed out-of-place (if not downright tasteless) for it to just be used as set-dressing for what's intended as an escapist romance story.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: While he's not as obnoxious as Christian Grey, Maxim Trevelyan is introduced remorselessly having sex with his dead brother's wife just two days after the funeral. He doesn't really improve from there, coming across as a hedonistic and irresponsible Upper-Class Twit who has never done any real work. He does help Alessia hide from the sex traffickers who are after her, but this is undermined by his narration revealing he has the ulterior motive of getting into bed with her; he also constantly thinks about her in sexual terms even after learning of her past (to the point it feels like he's objectifying her rather than simply finding her attractive) and shows his affection for her by constantly buying her expensive things - thus making her feel indebted to him - which is an astoundingly ignorant way to treat a trafficking victim. While this could be justified as him lacking education around this subject and being overly sheltered due to his privileged life, he makes little effort to rectify this. He also doesn't seem nearly as concerned as one might expect about the woman he loves being kidnapped, wastes a lot of time on trivial stuff while he's meant to be rescuing her and seems to severely underestimate her plight.

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