Review: Doesn't live up to the hype.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 24, 2014
Review for Taint by S.L. JenningsEver get so super excited for something  you’re bouncing up and down and can’t freaking wait another second? So very excited that disappointment completely engulfs you when you realize unlike the “cool” kids you aren’t getting an advanced copy of something… you have to buy your own just like the rest of the lowly non-blogger types? (PS I love you readers I am just trying to make a point here.) Well, this is me with Taint. I wanted to be on the tour SO flipping bad. I wanted to get to brag with the “cool” kids that I read it before it could be bought… I wasn’t cool enough. Which is fine, I bought my copy because again I was SO flipping excited to read Taint. The hype around this book was crazy good. Every blog from the biggest coolest of the kids to the little lowly just started outs had this book plastered on their feeds. (Whoever did the PR on this book needs a big huge round of applause. Bravo, really.)  You are all, okay, okay get to the point wh**e-face. Here is the point. D I S A P P O I N T M E N T.And now I’m glad I didn’t get the advanced copy of the book because let’s be honest here, the pressure to conform to a good rating based on the fact that is was a free book is huge.  I don’t conform, in fact most times I tell the tour people I can’t review it because FML I don’t want to be the blogger that authors hate because I started bashing peoples hard work. I recognize that the author busted her buns and poured a ton of effort and time into this book and I appreciate that effort, but in the end I’m still left sitting here wondering what I just read and WHERE the book that was so widely hyped up is… did I buy the wrong book? Nope, it says it’s Taint.I’m sure you can gather from all of that, I’m not giving Taint an overly glowing review. The idea behind the book is fairly original — I think that’s where most of the hype for it came from. Who doesn’t want to read about a super sexy alpha man awakening a sex kitten from a prudish, uptight chic? I jumped right on that band-wagon and was ready to ride off into the sunset with a couple extra pairs of panties and a certain special magic wand. Hi-Ho Silver!Then I met this alpha man sex teacher… Justice Drake. Talk about a d**che-nozzle. And these women that he is giving the sexual healing to… are married to wealthy men who can’t keep it in their pants. So, it’s the woman's fault. She isn’t dirty enough in the sack to keep her husband happy so off she goes to Oasis to learn how to be a skank. She’s not going as a big screw YOU to the jerk so that she can better herself then kick her cheating jerk of a husband to the curb, no she is going there so she can find out how she is inferior and what to do to make her husband want her. (SMH)Right there, the idea behind the book LOST me. I continued reading though because surely there is something here that can redeem this… I mean it just started.Oh Mr. Drake… he was a serious jerk. I mean, had I been in his class with ten random girls from my neighborhood… we would have strung him by his dangle dos and beaten him. Not in the good form of beat either.There is one character that completely stole the show for me — Allison Carr (Ally) she might be one of the upper class, but she is real. No botox, plastic surgery, bleaching, dying, or any other types of cosmetic improvements. Nope, she’s just her… curvy, red headed, freckle faced, with a laugh that is adorable… snorts and all. And with all of this Drake still finds a way to be a jerk to her.Meanwhile, inside his head, he is all about Ally. He luuuuuurvvvvessss her. (Eye roll here) We go from him being a man-wh**e to him being a big ole softy ready to beg her to dump the husband and run away with him. I mean he is rich too so that should be enough. Oh and he can screw like a stallion and her husband can’t. Sounds like a win-win.I’m going to go ahead and stop while I’m ahead here. The more I write the less I like the book and the stars keep fizzling out… Two stars for the storyline, frankly because the main character is a one-dimensional jerk and it’s only from HIS POV. He starts as a jerk and ends as a whipped puppy. I give it four stars for the smut, because Drake is a stallion after all. So overall, it’s a 3 star read. I’m sure my opinions are going to be the minority, but I refuse to lower myself to highly rating a much anticipated book because it’s expected instead of being honest. I appreciate that S.L. Jennings came up with an original idea, but the execution left something to be desired.Review from Mommy’s a Book Whore.