Review: Too much poetic waxing and a self-centered heroine
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 02 20, 2013
Thump-thump-thump ... the sound my heart makes when I'm excited. The sound of a headboard hitting the wall. The sound of one of Grace's impending orgasms. Right now, that is the sound of my head hitting my desk. I'm warning you now, the rest of this post may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.I bought this book because the author was promoting it on Facebook and the blurb caught my attention. A romance with a handsome Greek hero? I couldn't resist. I was only a few pages in when my eyebrows disappeared into my hairline. The main characters have barely introduced themselves to one another and are engaged in some small talk, when his perceptiveness picks up on her mood shift to the table of cackling college-aged females who are ogling him and whispering in hushed tones. Without further preamble, Mikalo just gets right to the point and tells her that she needn't worry about those girls capturing his attention because they're too skinny and he prefers a woman with some meat on her bones for ... well, you get the idea what that was alluding to. Who talks about something so intimate and personal after a few minutes of meeting someone?Ronan has trust issues, especially after her loveless marriage that had all kinds of problems. However she is awful quick to let her guard down around a stranger, climb into bed with him and then get jealous whenever a woman is anywhere near him - all of that within the span of a week. She is also self-absorbed that she doesn't seem to realize her best friend has problems of her own, but she runs to Deni to seek advice. More often than not, it came across that Ronan was just looking for her bet friend to agree with her.This pair definitely had an abundance of sexual chemistry, but I didn't buy into the love aspect of their budding relationship. The entire time there's the possibility of Mikalo leaving New York to go back to Greece. While Ronan has no qualms about wanting him to stay, she doesn't spare a thought about moving to Greece. I know it sounds unrealistic, but I'm throwing it out there because frankly this entire story was unrealistic, so what difference does it make? Mikalo and Ronan, as well as the entire cast of other characters are all well off, financially, career wise or just socially, yet they're the unhappiest bunch of people all gathered in one book. Mikalo's supermodel friend is being abused by her new husband, Deni is a bored, rich socialite with a husband who travels a lot, everyone at Ronan's firm is basically and adulterer or adulteress who break the no fraternization at the workplace rule.Towards the end of the book, Mikalo tries to teach/test her trust. Tied and blindfolded to the bed, Ronan is graced with the presence of four other men. All friends of his but she doesn't know that. They never had a discussion as to whether or not that would be something she'd be interested in trying, they are still just a week into their relationship, and not once was protection mentioned. All of this was just too soon for me to feel anything except disbelief behind their actions.Let's move on to the writing in general. The dialogues were often cheesy, but perhaps that is how the author wanted to portray the foreigner. For the first sexual encounter, the author used unnecessary alliterations and metaphors. Unnecessary because it was just too much. With the exception of two sex scenes, each one dragged on so long that I became increasingly bored. Not just because the author was waxing poetic, but Grace's perception became repetitious to the point of being annoying. Each impending orgasm was a thump-thump-thump until the waves crested, crashed or hit. I feel sea sick just thinking about waves now.After reading the blurb for book #2, it seems there is more eyeroll-inducing drama ahead for the couple, but I'm not interested in reading more of this series.