Expected publication: May 6th 2014 by Simon & Schuster UK
Buy The Book:
AMAZON / BARNES & NOBLE / KOBO
Author's Page:
Genre:
Contemporary Romance/ Erotica
Summary on Goodreads:
He makes the rules…
Mafiya enforcer Aleksei “The Siberian” Sevastyan’s loyalty to his boss knows no bounds, until he meets the boss’s long-lost daughter, a curvy, feisty redhead who haunts his mind and heats his blood like no other. Ordered to protect her, Aleksei will do anything to possess her as well—on his own wicked terms.
Rules are made to be broken…
Grad student Natalie Porter had barely recovered from her first sight of the dark and breathtaking Sevastyan before the professional enforcer whisks her away to Russia, thrusting her into a world of extreme wealth and wanton pleasures. Every day under his protection leads her deeper under his masterful spell.
Are you ready to play?
Yet all is not as it seems. To remove Natalie from an enemy’s reach, Sevastyan spirits her into hiding. From an opulent palace in Russia to the decadent playgrounds of the mega-wealthy in Paris, the two lovers will discover that even their darkest—and most forbidden—fantasies can come true…
RATING:
***REVIEW***
****Arc provided via Netgalley in exchange for honest review***
****Arc provided via Netgalley in exchange for honest review***
Kresley Cole is one of my favorite authors when it comes to the paranormal genre with her Immortals After Dark series and that's why I was super excited to read this book. It started out promising, I liked the idea, it had potential, but unfortunately soon enough I could see that this won't be one of my favorite reads by her and here's why:
The things I actually liked about this book:
1. Russia & Russian bad boys speaking sexy Russian language
The majority of the story takes plot in Russia with main male hero being Russian which I really liked, plus I got to learn some Russian, one of the languages I love and have to learn in the near future.
2. Humor
When it comes to humor, you could recognize Cole's style from a mile- strong, witty, uncensored and fun characters making fools of themselves and being cute while at it.
3. Strong female character
As usual, the main female character was a fairly strong woman who isn't afraid to take charge when she sets her mind on something. In this case, when it comes to the relationship, we can say that she was more of a "predator" than the guy and I liked it.
As usual, the main female character was a fairly strong woman who isn't afraid to take charge when she sets her mind on something. In this case, when it comes to the relationship, we can say that she was more of a "predator" than the guy and I liked it.
3. Sex scenes
What to say about those? Well, as I mentioned many times before, I'm not exactly a fan of BDSM relationships, especially of more extreme version of Dom/ Sub. The relationship here was more of a lighter BDSM version, sometimes even crossing that line, but I must admit that some scenes were pretty hot. I blame it on the dirty Russian talking :D.
What to say about those? Well, as I mentioned many times before, I'm not exactly a fan of BDSM relationships, especially of more extreme version of Dom/ Sub. The relationship here was more of a lighter BDSM version, sometimes even crossing that line, but I must admit that some scenes were pretty hot. I blame it on the dirty Russian talking :D.
The things I didn't exactly like about this book:
1. The plot & the writing
I can't believe I'm saying this, but at some parts of the book I questioned if this is written by K. Cole, because it felt more that it was written by a writer beginner- too many cliches & some cheesy content. In my opinion the sole idea of the plot is good, but unfortunately it wasn't well developed. The story ended up pretty predictable. I don't know, I guess with authors like K. Cole I have pretty big expectations and this time those expectations were not met.
2. Caveman alert!
Hot, dirty, mysterious Russian turns annoying & over-possessive Tarzan with the main line: "Me bad, you mine!" His so called mystery and "issues" started to really annoy me towards the ending to the point that I wanted her to dump his ass and even his finally coming clean couldn't change my mind.
3. Female character with questionable life choices
I'm not going to go deep into this, because there would be spoilers. You'll just have to read it for yourself. Let's just say that some things she did or said made me think: Girl, are you for real o.O?
4, Sex scenes, overbearing Dom/ Sub relationship
No matter of the fact that this is erotica and how hot some of those scenes were, I actually wish that there were less of them and more of the actual story and also the Dom/ Sub relationship was at times overbearing, but maybe it's just me, because I'm not exactly a fan of it.
I saw that someone labeled this as paranormal romance with vampires on Goodreads. Sorry, but have we read the same book? This is realistic fiction and there are no things related to the paranormal genre, certainly no vamps in it. The readers that will probably enjoy this much more than I did are fans of books like Fifty Shades Of Grey or fans of BDSM romance with Dom/ Sub relationship in general. As far as the quality is concerned this is better than those books, but I overgrew those type of stories long time ago. All in all, I will continue reading everything Cole writes, I'm not even opposed to read the next book of this series in hope that things might improve, but it also won't be on top of my list.
XOXO
I actually enjoyed this one. Though that's not saying a lot because it's my first K Cole experience. I hope the next ones will be better for you. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you :). I love her Immortal After Dark series and I've read all 11 books so far, that's why my expectations were big. Glad that you enjoyed this one more than I did. I know a lot of readers will. In end all comes to personal preferences.
DeleteThanks for stopping by :) .
Oh man. I have so been waiting for this one to finally come out in print. Bummer it didn't work for you. I wasn't a 50 fan at all. I love BDSM reads though just not that type of BDSM book. I'll prob give this one a read still but won't be rushing into it I don't think. Ah well.
ReplyDeleteYeah, better read it and decide for yourself. If you love BDSM reads you might enjoy it. This is better than 50 Shades IMO.
DeleteI almost grabbed this on NG ... but I might still read it.
ReplyDelete"she was more of a "predator" than the guy" - love that! And now I'm super curious about her questionable life choices.
You should read it, the book has great ratings on GR and Amazon, so maybe you'll like it too. I don't know, I expected more of the plot. These Bdsm romances seem all the same to me.
DeleteYup, very questionble life choices, you'll see what I meant ;)
lmao... caveman alert. I like that. It doesn't sound like it lives up to her normal writing though
ReplyDeleteYup, her Immortals After Dark books are way much better than this in my opinion, but then again many people liked so you might too.
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