D.N.F. at 58% 
 I tried...I hate to set a book aside after starting...I tried to keep going hoping the enigma of Drake would keep me turning the pages but the story line fell incredibly flat for me. I'm shocked that this is a book from Maya Banks, as I have loved numerous works from her and often recommend her to fellow romance lovers for her masterful writing. However, Mastered was a disappointing read, to say the least. 
 The female protagonist of the story, Evangeline, had no substance beyond the fact that she was a small town girl living in a big city to support her disabled parents (Father was injured on the job and could no longer work and mother had health issues that kept her from working, but the how's and why's were never expanded on.) and that she saw her self as unattractive, which she lamented on with just about every page. Despite her zero self confidence; Drake- mysterious club owner, various business owner, and dominant - and his crew of hot alpha badass (another over-used description in the story) enforcers fall at her naive and innocent little feet. And by fall at her feet, I mean if this was a cartoon you would see little hearts start to float about their heads during that first meeting. I couldn't see their reactions to her though, she cringed and whimpered through most of her interactions with these men and came off as a complete push-over when it came to her friends and then Drake. 
 Drake, as I said, was a bit of an enigma. We know he had a rough start in life and fought and scraped his way to the top but his character was impersonal. He expects his every command to be followed without question or delay and has no problem thinking of himself as a God in his own little world. He see's Evangeline and wants her, and with only a few sentences exchanged between them he expects her to drop everything in her life to live with him, having every aspect of her life taken care of by him. Now, I have read a few books where this type of quick-meeting, dom/sub relationship works, but Mastered's story-line was too far fetched for me to get on board with. 
 If you don't have a problem with seemingly weak leading ladies, insta-lust/love, and the patience to stick out the straight-to-sex to get to the meat of the story (if there is any, since I only made it half-way through) then from my past experiences with this author, I'd say give it a try. I definitely see myself in the minority for this book not jiving for me.