Review: Rocky start, but ended up being a good read (3.5 stars)
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 1, 2011
A very enjoyable novella. I was not sure what to expect - I feel like this story line could have been taken in so many different directions - but I liked what McKenna did with it. CURIO did not read as sleazy, and it easily could have slipped into that. The heat factor was definitely there though - no need to worry on that score!One thing that I found quite annoying was Caroly's view of Didier for the first half or so. Her constant harping on his beauty, how perfect he was, how she was only ever attracted to gorgeous men, etc. made me quite frankly uncomfortable. Didier was such a piece of meat to her. Since the story is told in first-person from Caroly's perspective, I also had no sense of him whatsoever, and he seemed like a blank slate.I like where McKenna took it and how it ended and I did feel, in the last part of the book, that there was more of a connection between them than just sex and that Caroly no longer viewed him as she did at the beginning. Still bothered me though. Maybe that's part of the point she's making - that we see him that way too and then through her eyes we start to see the person, in which case McKenna did a very good job. If that's the case, then I guess for me, Caroly remained the objectifier and Didier the thing being objectified just a little too long.CURIO was a good read and I did like it - the main characters became much more interesting than they at first appeared to be - but the rocky start turned me off and was hard to overlook. In the end, my favorite Cara McKenna novella still remainsWilling Victim.