Review: Maliciously duped
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 01 24, 2014
Julia Kent, top seller, great reviews -- so I fell for it and bought the series. After reading book one (Maliciously Obedient), I have to say I am completely underwhelmed. Mike/Matt, the ripped multi-millionaire with a giant cock, meets Lydia two years ago and thought she was attractive and intelligent, but didn't go out of his way to pursue her. He is too busy running a big company and trying to make his first billion. He is approached by a reality tv show and decides to boost profits by doing the show (yeah right!). This brings him back into Lydia's life.We are then treated to the consciousness raising experience of Mike/Matt discovering what a cheap SOB he has been, walking on the backs of his poor employees to get where he is. He, however bad he feels, does nothing to improve their situation. They can live with scratchy toilet paper and cremate. He is more worried about the wood he seems to have 24/7 thinking about Lydia. She seems to be afflicted the same way - minus the wood. This happens almost immediately when they haven't even said more than a few words to each other. Give me a break! If there was that much chemistry, wouldn't they have done something in the last 2 years?Then, there are the unbelievable, awkward and poorly written sexual encounters, where Mike/Matt seems to steal Lydia's only pair of underwear. Both seem to go commando after that, always finding each other sans underwear. Lydia is inexplicably attracted to Mike/Matt's friend Jeremy. Then she has a totally off the wall dream that doesn't even seem to fit in with who she is. I am having a hard time feeling the chemistry with any of them. And with all the hair and eye color changes Mike/Matt has to endure for the reality show, how on earth could he EVER forget there were cameras on him? Totally unbelievable!There is a little bit of relationship building which is nice, but the author seems to repeat herself quite a bit and we get the same info over and over like we would forget. Another thing that gets me is the constant pop culture references like we're all supposed to know things about various movie and tv characters that I've heard of, but never followed. I know the names Kardashian and Honey Boo Boo, but I don't have a clue what they look like, or what their stories are about. So all these references fall flat. I READ, I don't watch tv.Overall, the story feels forced, and not really believable. Things don't really pick up until we're at the 95%, which leaves 5% to get people interested enough to read book 2. Reading about what happens in book 2, it doesn't seem any more believable than what took place in book one, but I have the whole series, so I might just as well see what happens. What I can't believe is how this author became such a "bestseller." So far, I am not impressed.