Title: Bared to You
Series: Crossfire, Book 1
Author: Sylvia Day
First published: April 3rd 2012, Berkley Books
Edition: ebook, 280 pages
Genre: Erotica, Romance
Age group: Adult
Rating: ★
Eva Tramell moves to New York from San Diego, following a job offer at an advertising agency. The move is also an opportunity for her to get closer to her mother and best friend Cary Taylor, with whom she shares an apartment.
The first day at work, while being a professional success for Eva, is also remarkable for her in a personal way, as she stumbles upon the sexiest man she had ever seen. An image of a hot and built man in an expensive suit with black hair and piercing blue eyes isn’t one she can get out of her mind.
But aside from impressing Eva with his appearance, Gideon Cross is also a man of action, used to get whatever he wants. Now his aim is Eva, he desires to have her, but Eva is scared off by his arrogance. Never had she met a man to say to her such bold things, yet arising a sudden overwhelming feeling in her.
Eva is not new to one-night stands or friends-with-benefit situations, but something in Gideon puts her on guard. They have to get to know each other first, before they go any further. That’s Eva’s condition, and Gideon, not one to back down, accepts it.
And there is a lot to know about Gideon. Aside from being a billionaire and owning seemingly half of Manhattan, he is also dangerous and possessive. The things he finds out about Eva, using his secret sources, give Eva the creeps. Yet, the desire is too strong to resist, and soon these two find each other engaged in the most hottest sexual relationship of their lives.
The connection between them deepens alongside with the most hidden secrets being revealed. And now it’s a constant learning for them to open up and accept each other. But both Eva and Gideon are set not to let their dark pasts rule their future together, especially when they deal with the feeling they never felt before. Love.
Sylvia Day is an acknowledged best-selling author of romance books, but this one is my first reading of her works. Bared To You is hugely promoted as a better version of Fifty Shades of Grey, excelling in the amount of very enthusiastic reviews.
I love books about romance, it’s pretty much obvious, judging by the books I reviewed on this blog. But I favor the stories that have a captivating plot and necessary character development. Fifty Shades of Grey, despite being not so greatly written, has a very unique theme, probably the reason the book became such a hit. A Dominant/Submissive relationship was never one to go well with the public or been described with such detail, but the combination of an innocent heroine and an experienced man was probably the key to success.
Speaking of Bared To You,there’s not much similarities to Fifty Shades of Grey, aside from the hero being a possessive and manipulative billionaire. And in this case I can’t point out anything I could like about this story. Yet the list of dislikes is pretty long. The factor that disturbed me the most was the plot of the story or the lack of it thereof. It pretty much seemed to me as a seemingly endless chain of sex scenes, in different surroundings and positions. Sex is the main theme, well used in the story instead of character description and the universal solution to every existing problems.
Eva and Gideon don’t know about each other? Well, crazy sex in a limousine not only solves this problem but also develops deep emotional connection between them. Eva is jealous? Gideon forces himself on her, and Eva forgets whatever was on her mind due to the mind-blowing sex. There’s something troublesome in their pasts that gives them nightmares every night? Why talk about that, sex is a great means of communication!
OK, sarcasm aside, till the end of the story I didn’t get any even slightly romantic scene between these two. Where had the Eva from the beginning gone? The one to put Gideon in his place and stand her ground? One day she refuses to even talk to him after his bold proposition and next day she jumps his bones in his limousine, turning into a sex-o-holic.
What is also bothersome is that Eva seems to lust after practically any man she sees. In fact she’s only surrounded by seemingly hottest men on the planet. The way she notices every single detail about their appearances is very strange, considering that she describes Gideon in the same words. Then what is the thing that makes him different for her? Oh, yes, I forgot, it’s sex!
And speaking of secondary characters, why there were no prominent additional female figure in the story, maybe Eva’s friend, a girl to give her a nice and needed advice. I lacked it a lot, I was tired from all this endless stream of gorgeous men. Where was the light and funny girly chit-chat when it would have been so welcomed?
And at last, my main concern was the non-existent connection between Eva and Gideon, I didn’t get why they wanted each other or why they supposedly fell in love in the end. No tension filled situations, no trust growing, no deep conversations or romantic declarations, no sparks between them. Just a new sex scene on every page.
I don’t know how I even managed to get to the end or why. Most pointless story I read this year.
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