Monday, June 25, 2012

Book Review: Bared to You

Book Description

Publication Date: May 24, 2012
"If I were to recommend any book today to readers who enjoyed 50 Shades...this would be the first one I would offer....scorching love scenes."--Dear Author
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Gideon Cross came into my life like lightning in the darkness...
He was beautiful and brilliant, jagged and white-hot. I was drawn to him as I'd never been to anything or anyone in my life. I craved his touch like a drug, even knowing it would weaken me. I was flawed and damaged, and he opened those cracks in me so easily...
Gideon knew. He had demons of his own. And we would become the mirrors that reflected each other's most private worlds...and desires.
The bonds of his love transformed me, even as I prayed that the torment of our pasts didn't tear us apart... (from amazon)

Review
I got an e-mail a few weeks ago which read something along the lines of “If you enjoyed 50 Shades of Grey, you should read Bared to You.” Sadly, it had not been released yet, but I eagerly counted the days. I read some early reviews of it and they were overwhelmingly positive, which increased my anticipation even more! Finally, I had the book on my Kindle Fire (release day) and sat down to read, completely ignoring the assignment for my summer class that was due in less than a week and devoured the book. I couldn’t put it down and finished it the day I started it. It grabs ahold of you like a baby with a piece of candy and refuses to let you go.
Gideon and Eva were both damaged characters. I enjoyed that they weren’t perfect but not so damaged I couldn’t relate to them, even though they both had some moments you wanted to smack them upside the head. 
The book was well-written, interesting story, Eva and Gideon had chemistry that almost made you forget to breathe and steamy sex scenes. Eva’s model best friend was a great character, as was her boss and his boyfriend. My one main gripe about the book was really about Eva’s financial responsibility. Her stepdad was rich, her biological dad was a police officer. At the beginning of the book, she says something about not being able to pay for her student loans so she let her real dad take care of them (we’ll forget also for a moment we find out later she has a nest egg she refuses to touch that started at 5 million and has been growing under the watchful care of her step dad but she can’t use the interest or the investment returns and her middle class dad has to pay for it?) Then later she buys a very expensive ring? Not acceptable to me. I get that it’s fiction and she has many people in her life that are wealthy, but that just seemed wrong. OK, I’ll stop griping about that now Smile .
I didn’t even finish reading the book before I recommended it to my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Mother-in-law LOVED it, haven’t heard from sister-in-law. If you enjoyed 50 shades (and even if you didn’t like 50 Shades but you like steamy books every now and again), you should give this a read. Not for younger readers (I won’t let my teenage daughter read it yet).
Sensuality: several descriptive sex scenes
Rating: 4 stars

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Book Review: Forgotten Father

 

Book Description

Publication Date: November 19, 2011

When Delanie Carlyle wakes in the hospital after a car accident, she discovers she cannot remember the past month of her life…and to her dismay, she’s newly pregnant. With no husband or lover in her life, she must take care of her child alone and then an elderly friend dies and she must deal with the complications presented by a large, unexpected inheritance.
Eighteen months later, Mitchell Riese meets again the woman who has stolen half his inheritance. Delanie knew who Mitchell was when she fell into conversation with the dark, handsome tycoon at a cocktail party celebrating the re-opening of his grandfather’s historic resort. She has supervised the restoration of the massive turn-of-the-century hotel and, in the process, has earned the fond affection of the irascible, elderly Donovan Riese.
Mischievously, Delanie parries Mitchell’s attempts to learn her name. But somewhere between the casual conversation and the sparkling champagne, she falls instantaneously, head-overin love with Donovan Riese’s sexy grandson. After a night of glorious passion, she wakes and slips away from his bed, still awash in the glow of finally having found her soul mate.
At breakfast later that morning, Delanie waits with teasing expectancy when Donovan introduces her to his grandson, Mitchell. When the man she thought was her hero viciously attacks her for supposedly taking advantage of his grandfather, Delanie runs away, only to crash her car in her distress and wake up...having forgotten with whom she made a baby. (from amazon)


Review

 

I enjoy reading independent authors because discovering a really good new author is such a great surprise. When I read independent authors, sometimes I find grammatical mistakes, spelling errors, word choice problems. All of those are very fixable and if I really like the story, the characters, the chemistry, I’ll shoot the author an e-mail and tell him/her about it so they can fix it. I won’t do that with this book.

 

Forgotten Father by Carol Rose has an interesting premise, but I disliked this book intensely, mostly because the hero is a misogynistic asshole. I read the book on my iPhone and there were so many times I wanted to throw my phone up against the wall when I read Mitchell talk about how all women are money-grubbing whores. The author had the good sense to not actually use that word in the text, but it’s strongly suggested on more than one occasion. I’m getting mad again just writing about it. He had no redeeming qualities whatsoever and did not deserve the heroine at all.

 

Delanie wasn’t the best heroine either. She was just OK. I recognize the author was attempting to make her a multi-faceted character, but she came off as a bit like a person who has multiple personality disorder might be portrayed. It seemed incongruous that she was a smooth-talking situation smoother and then not be able to verbally defend herself. The resolution was too-pat and too fast. I realize people can have aha! moments and change, but given the depth of Mitchell’s hatred of women, it was not well-done at all.  

I should also add that one of my least favorite storylines is The Misunderstanding.If you really like that type of story, you might like the book, but characters who don’t communicate well and continually misinterpret each other’s actions irritates me at best and angers me at worst. If you couldn’t tell, this one angered me Smile. I do not recommend this book and I’m not sure I’d read another of her books, at least for a while, hopefully I’ll forget this book soon.

Sensuality: a few sex scenes, not terribly graphic, decently written

Rating: 1 star