Review: A Complicated Yet Enjoyable Read With A Bit of Angst and Steam!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 16, 2014
* Written for Craves the Angst Book Reviews *3 Sexy, Solid Stars!The Review:I enjoyed this read but only after I dispelled logic. There were parts of this book that were steamy, sexy, fun, educational and angsty. And then there were parts that were unrealistic and kind of fell flat for me. So though I enjoyed it quite a bit, I have mixed feelings. Here's why...Story...Emily has been rejected twice by the one man she's loved for as long as she can remember! Tagging along behind her older brother and his best friend Paul since they were kids and having vacationed together and spent time doing backyard barbeques since their families were all close friends, Emily finds her childhood infatuation has turned to honest feelings of love. But Paul never returned those feelings, thinking of Emily as the little girl he once saved from drowning and has adopted as his little sister.They are all grown up now and it's been three years since Paul was home, having left in the wake of anger, family betrayal and lies. Taking off for parts unknown, Emily hasn't spoken with Paul except through the occasional email.Deciding she needs to find a way to expel Paul from her system, Emily drastically changes her appearance in the hopes of making herself more sultry and all in an attempt to fool the man of her affection for a one night stand. What she didn't expect was Paul having a seductive domineering side or that one night had the potential to turn into a serious thing.Liked...I loved the story part of this read. I'm a sucker for "childhood friends who find love in the end" kind of themes so that part I really enjoyed. The writing was well done and I also really enjoyed the angsty emotions and jealousy issues that came up later in the story and there were some fun moments between the characters as their playfulness shown through.I also enjoyed the heroine for the most part but I hated she changed her appearance for the sole purpose of gaining unrequited love. She couldn't seem to move on from the fact the man she loved, didn't see her as anything other than a younger sister and she drastically changes herself to gain his attention. However, in the end, I was able to accept this because the changes she made to herself, in turn, made her a more confidant, headstrong woman and made her feel better about herself.I also really liked the alpha-male hotness of Paul in the beginning as he and Candy/Emily had their steamy one night stand. They had some amazing chemistry.And the later BDSM club scene between Emily and André were smokin' hot and educational! André was yummy, intense and fun and was a wonderful, confidant, mature Dom who just wowed me from the moment he stepped into the scene. I'd love to know more about him!Disliked...The story dragged in several places. After the initial meeting of the main characters, the story slowed with several info-dumps. Too much backstory, too much explaining and too much inner monologuing had me scanning over paragraphs to get to the meat of the scene.A huge dislike for me was, how in the world did Paul not know it was Emily? He grew up with this girl. He spent lots of time with her family. Yes, three years have passed and in a pivotal time of growth and development but he's supposed to be this confident Dom, trained to recognize body language, emotional responses, unspoken cues yet he was fooled by hair and eye color and breast implants? I might could see where he didn't recognize her at first as she'd changed dramatically in the three years since he's seen her. But after their incredible night of sex and him falling in love with her through email, when he visited home again and ran into her, he couldn't tell it was her? Even with hair and eye color changed back to her norm, he should have been able to see her face, her body that he got to know pretty intimately on their one night together, her dialogue and speech, her voice. All these things would have been evident to a trained Dom, right?The book tells us that André notices all these things because of his intense training to be a better Dom, which Paul says he's had as well. But even if Paul was blinded by love and his mind was subconsciously keeping the two women he "trusted above all others" separate, why didn't his best friend, Jai, who was also a trained Dom, see these striking similarities? It made no sense. So it was hard to wrap my mind around that.Paul wasn't my favorite character. I didn't really start to like him until the end. He was overindulgent in his assumptions when it came to Candy and their "future" from just one night. I realize that subconsciously, he knew or at least felt that connection because it was Emily but even so, the word love came up way too soon in my opinion for a self-proclaimed bachelor never intending on commitment to one woman. And then when he found out the truth, even with his world imploding with all the other things, I still thought he went a little overboard in the immaturity department and I loved that André called him out on it... and then put him on his ass. Literally!The Wrap Up:This book had some great moments in it and some sexy scenes, and I enjoyed the story but some of it just didn't work for me. Overall, it was a good, quick read that I liked. This was my first read by this author but I don't think it'll be my last.NOTE: I was gifted this copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.