Wednesday, August 16

Was it really that bad...

Back in June Dear Author reviewed Annmarie McKenna's Blackmailed. They gave it an overall review of C, a B for the sex scenes and a D for the rest of the story. After reading the review I figured, thanks but no thanks, then I saw Keishon's comment...

Oh, my goodness, I tried reading this earlier today. I found that I just couldn’t finish this one and will skip reviewing this one. Truly awful, awful, awful.

So, of course, I had to read this one for myself. "Can it really be that bad" kept running through my head. Finally, I sat down and read it last night.

Well, it's that bad and it isn't.

The premise of the story is completely out there. Evil and crazy millionaire, Andrew Wyatt, wants his daughter, Brianna, to provide him with an heir from an even richer million, billion, gazillionaire, Cole Masters. If she doesn't do this he will put her blind and partially deaf brother, Scottie, into an "institution". 1. It's the 21st century, Bri is an adult and obviously can find a way out of this situation if she thought about it. 2. Why would Cole go along with this. 3. "Scottie" makes me think of Faith's baby brother in Linda Howard's After the Night--the poor child clinging to her leg as they're being thrown off Rouillard land. Sorry, I'm having a flashback to a favorite book.

I've often said many of the erotic romances I've read, come across as Harlequin Presents with really hot sex. This plot is even over the top for HP. What saves this book from being a wallbanger is the sex, it's hot. A m/f/m relationship, and I put it this way because Bri refers to herself as the "jelly in this sandwich." Ah, if Cole is one piece of bread then who is the other piece, of course it's his bestest friend in the whole wide world Tyler Cannon.

SPOILER ALERT...

In four days both men fall madly and completely in love/lust and since they're best friends they're both going to marry her. Well, obviously only one can legally do this so the other will only be emotionally married to her. And in fact all three will be sharing what will have to be one big marriage bed--a quote from Tyler "...I get the left side of the bed." Okaaaay, whatever floats your boat. But, in the epilogue, Bri is pregnant. Babies are wonderful, but babies grow up to be 5 year olds that will tell anyone all their family secrets and I can imagine a cute little kid standing up in front of her class explaining "I've got 2 Daddies and 1 Mommy and all three sleep in the same really big bed." I'd like to see how they explain that one at their parent/teacher conference. Okay, I'm turning off my prude mode.

Skim the story and read this one for the sex.

6 comments:

Sam said...

Oh dear! LOL - yes, real life can ruin the best fiction tale.
Over the top really doesn't bother me but I Have to be able to Like the heroine & hero(s) to like a book. If I enjoy the characters, pretty much anything can happen and I'll be happy. LOL.

Tara Marie said...

Sam...real life can ruin the best fiction tale. That's what I was thinking. Yesterday my son announced to one of our neighbors that "Mommy's too old to have any more kids." I'm afraid what else he might have said and she was too nice to tell me--LOL.

The characters weren't bad, so you might like this one.

Anonymous said...

The funny thing, TM, is that the sex in this book is smoking hot so it does kind of save the story which I am increasingly aware isn't true for all books. I see that we are sloooowly converting you over to the dark, ebook side.

Tara Marie said...

Jane, I rarely find sex can save a book, in this case it does. But isn't that the point, in this case sex was the story the rest of the plot was rather superfluous.

Anonymous said...

I see what you are saying - that the plot was merely a vehicle for the sex v. the other way around. But very few erotic/erotica romances work that well for me in that form. I mean, I've read alot of bad erotic romance (and i know that you have too) where the sex just isn't working for me enough that I want to "read for the sex" which is ultimately what I did in this book.

I read a couple recently that I felt were pornographic, where after I got done reading I felt icky reading it and I started hitting the next button on my IPAQ as fast as I could. So I wonder why this one worked for me? I don't necessarily think it was the overtones of love because the other erotic romances had that too.

Tara Marie said...

Jane ...that the plot was merely a vehicle for the sex v. the other way around. But very few erotic/erotica romances work that well for me in that form.

Exactly, unfortunately most of the erotic romance I read falls into this category and most of the time the sex is boring or as you put it bordering on pornographic. And, to be honest, I'm not that interested in ER, I read it mix things up a little.