Review: Intensity that flops
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 17, 2013
This is an intense story of two people who have every reason in the world for not being together, but they will defy better judgement.Eve is a young, spicy, aggressive, and sometimes violent young woman from Brazil who is trying to make her way in America. Rene is an extremely successful, rich, and domineering man whose usual cold resolve for human connection keeps him at a distance from most people.When Eve is charged with interviewing Rene for a story (we don't know the reason behind the interview), the combative chemistry between the two explodes into a shit-show leaving both parties confused, humiliated, and unusually attracted. So begins the game of cat and mouse.Eve disappears with no record whatsoever, and not even Rene can find her until weeks pass and his cousin has spotted her location. Hands-off is an understatement for what Eve is. She's the cool drink teasing the alcoholic, the piece of cake tempting the dieter, she's the Helen of Troy with a twist of Latina spice (more like misguided aggression), and she belongs to Bash Rose. Bash is one of the most dangerous and ambitious businessmen from South America in the area, and he's Rene's number new enemy.Unfortunately, Eve being spoken for means nothing to Rene. He pursues her with everything he is. His obsession becomes borderline crazy; his rash decision to make her his threatens his own life, and his battle to weaken his prey is anything but easy. Their volatile relationship springs out of no where mixed with heat waves that tease and leaving you with a cold slap when done. But half way through the book they find some meeting ground and are able to express clearly, without fighting, that they want one another despite all the odds. So when Rene makes a grand gesture of putting Eve and her roommates up in one of his condos Eve is forced to confront her true feelings and make an effort.But it might just be too late for Eve and Rene. What can she do when she's literally put herself out there for Rene and all to see, only to have him walk right pass. Could things be more complicated then they look? Did he ever really want Eve? And most of all, why did Rene go through such lengths to get Eve only to appear to have dropped her.The best thing:The story has somewhat of a mysterious plot that has potential to build to something great. While we do not know much about the feud between Rene and Bash or the entire 'South America', we do know that many people want to take him out and delete the competition. This leaves a lot to the imagination and room to explore.I also can appreciate the cliffhanger in regards to Rene and Eve. I can't wait to see what his angle is there.The worst thing:I dig the story but not the execution.The absolute worst, most irritating thing about this book was how it read. Immediately I felt like I was stuck inside of a teenager's schizophrenic diary. The book started in the middle of a thought, whose thoughts? I had no idea because we don't find that out until pages later. This happens throughout the story, and I just couldn't keep up. I felt confused for the first two chapters and felt like I was an idiot that couldn't read, until I realized it was just the writing style that I don't prefer.The characters were the second issue I had. I couldn't connect with any of the characters, and thought they lacked depth no matter how much emphasis was put on them being intense. In fact, they were all intense, all the time, about everything. It would have been nice to have a balance because I felt like they were manic all the time. Their hot-again the cold-again interaction left me with whiplash.Overall: 3 out of 5 starsWhile these things bothered me I will say that I did like where the story was headed and think it definitely has potential.