Marita M. (cala-4-lily) - , reviewed on 10/1/2015 + 3 more book reviews

A friend and I challenged each other to read these books and whoever read the most wins. That is the ONLY reason I suffered through this abomination (as well as the first and third books). As many have criticized before, the 'romance' isn't even a healthy relationship let alone a 'romance.'

However, as a book supposedly called 'erotic' and 'romance' it is anything but. As I said above, the relationship was not romantic to me in any way. He was over-controlling, abusive, possessive, obsessive and given a pass because of his abusive childhood. Ana, the girl (yes, very much a girl, not a woman at all) seemed on edge and fearful of him more often than not yet still found herself attracted to him which made zero sense. She also had no experience prior, not just sexual but dating or even flirting it seems, which again seemed totally unrealistic for a 22 year old about to graduate college. I could understand her still being a virgin, but, perhaps if she was in a Christian college or about to be a nun, to not even have masturbated?! That absolutely was the most ridiculous thing.

Now, as for the 'erotic' part, oh my god the sex scenes were boring as hell! Basically the same scene over and over and over... and this for a book about bondage? Yeah, no. I have not read many erotica books but this, to me, is not erotic. The author used a boilerplate for each scene and honestly, I question if the author ever actually had sex since this stuff is boring. Not only that, but to constantly say "he touched me... down there" uh, what? It sounds more like a child giving testimony at a molestation hearing.

Which, yes, constantly is not hyperbole. The repetition is maddening. Same descriptions, same dialogue, with barely any variations was incredible. For example, the blushing. Not occasionally but every other line she is blushing. Rarely she would shake it up and say she flushed or turned scarlet. The author needs a thesaurus. She also needs to learn description. Granted, you can go too far with the "purple prose" but overall, everything is bland and repetitive. Did I mention she was repetitive? Yes, she is quite repetitive. Hopefully repetition does not annoy you.

The book(s)are poorly written, annoying and quite boring. There is no romance, there is no erotica and it truly is bad fanfic. I expected the books to be bad when I started reading but they were even worse than my low expectations. Truly a black mark for 'traditional' publishing if this is what they decide makes good fiction, erotica and romance. The first, and last, time I ever hate read again. I'm not even sure these will be posted for trade as I'm contemplating using them for fire-starters. As a librarian, book burning is never a good thing, but these books make me think perhaps some do deserve such a fate.

The only good thing to come from reading these awful books -- I won the bet and now get a day at the spa!

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