Review: A Twist on 50 Shades?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 22, 2013
It wasn't immediately clear to me that this book might have started as "50 Shades of Grey" fan-fiction, but after reading a couple of chapters it became glaringly obvious that the story here is largely inspired by E.L. James' characters--and possibly her whole book.That in mind--you will see similarities, but there are surprising differences that will pop up as the book goes on. Leaving little treasures throughout the book is one thing this author does really well.The book is a tale of lies and seduction featuring Nickolas and Iliana as protagonists. Nickolas is a powerful self-made businessman with a troubled past and Iliana is portrayed as a sweet waitress with common sense by the boat loads.The story starts with Nickolas basically stalking Iliana at her place of work, until they inevitably meet and fall into a twisted tornado of lust / love. I say that because while the book tries to convince you that they are in love, Nickolas does some pretty horrendous things to Iliana...some which I don't think can be forgiven if you know what I mean.There were parts of the story that were told brilliantly--literally making the reader addicted to turning the pages. Then there were other parts that were just not as impressive, but the overall story was good.I took serious issue with the fact that Iliana kind of let this man do horrible things to her not once but two times! I'm talking about the illegal kind of bad. She makes a weak attempt at leaving him once, but this was way after the damage had been done.I do give the author props for giving us the dirty details of Nickolas' past that have contributed to him being the monster he has become. I just wonder if it was really enough to justify the ending. Overall it was a good story