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Sexy Capers #1
Bound and Determined
In order to prove that her brother did not steal millions of dollars, Kerry Sullivan kidnaps surly and sexy Rafael Dawson, the top electronic security expert in the world, in hopes that he will help her, but the tables turn when Rafael takes charge of the investigation and of her. Original.
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 172 reviews
December 13, 2010
I wanted more interesting characters. Not enough “showing” of the mystery and suspense part of the plot.
STORY BRIEF:
Someone with deep computer skills stole money from a bank, transferred it to the Cayman Islands, and framed Mark who worked at the bank. He is in jail awaiting trial. His sister Kerry called Rafe to ask for his help to find evidence to free Mark. She was too emotional, babbled, and didn’t make sense, so he hung up on her and wouldn’t take any more of her calls.
Rafe is coming to Mark’s bank to do some computer consulting work. Kerry holds a sign at the airport with Rafe’s name. He doesn’t know she’s the phone caller. Kerry takes Rafe to a limo. Her friend Jason is the driver. She gives Rafe a drugged drink, and he falls asleep. Kerry and Jason take Rafe to a friend’s remote cottage which has lots of sex toys. They handcuff Rafe with chains that are long enough for him to walk between the bed and bathroom. When he wakes, he learns what Kerry wants. He talks her into having sex with him. She is a virgin, but she desires him. He is able to tie her hands, free himself, and then switch places with her. They now negotiate. She will be his sex plaything for 48 hours, and he will investigate the theft.
REVIEWER’S OPINION:
Most of the book – maybe 75 % is about Rafe and Kerry being with each other, lots of sex, lots of pondering and worries about their relationship. I was impatient to get to the story about computer hacking and the bad guys. The mystery and suspense felt empty – like summarizing after the fact. I didn’t get into the minds, motives, details, and actions of the bad guys. I wanted to see bad guys doing things with conversation and thoughts as they did them. For example: a bad guy kills someone. We didn’t see how it was done or the conversation during it. It was told after the fact, not shown. Also, the bad guy had a connection with organized crime that wasn’t described at all. It was sort of tacked on. I wanted to get into that at least a little bit. However at the end we do get one scene being shown – the one where the bad guy gets caught. However that scene was unbelievable. The police and friends just stood outside listening instead of going in to help. The bad guy was in the process of killing someone.
Kerry is a waitress putting herself through school. Her thinking and actions range from not very smart to stupid. She doesn’t bring anything interesting to the story other than being a size 12 knock out that Rafe and other men desire. Her main quality is loyalty to her brother – willing to do anything and everything to help him. Rafe describes her as sunshine – warm and gives with her whole heart. Ok she sounds lovely, but I didn’t like her enough to want to read a whole book about her. I’m not sure what was missing. She just didn’t interest me.
Rafe is smart and talented. I liked his computer hacking skills and brains which helped solve the mystery. He never wanted emotional relationships with women in the past. He was too much into his computers and work.
Kerry really likes Rafe and wants to be with him. So why after having sex, does she go off to be by herself in the bathroom? She locks the door and showers. The next time they have sex, again she is cold and distant afterwards. He doesn’t know why. She doesn’t give him a reason. There’s another scene (p 193) where Kerry realizes she’s falling in love with Rafe, so she tells herself “she had to get away from him soon, before she did something really stupid, like beg him to stay with her forever.” To me that’s just more unentertaining pondering. At one point Rafe tells her he must leave her and stay in a hotel for a day – for her own safety. That causes her to be mad, thinking he doesn’t like her. Rafe tells Kerry not to tell anyone where he is staying. Kerry knows they have three suspects. One of the suspects calls Kerry asking her where Rafe is, and Kerry stupidly tells that person.
I enjoy sex scenes as much as anyone. But I was surprised that I skimmed most of the sex scenes. I’m not sure if I can explain what was wrong with them. They were too drawn out and filled with unrelated conversation. They were doing all the things that most sex scenes do, but I wasn’t interested or emotionally moved.
This book has been published under two different author names: Shelley Bradley and Shayla Black – the same person.
DATA:
Story length: 327 pages. Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 11. Estimated number of sex scene pages: 65. Setting: 2005 Tampa area, Florida. Copyright: 2006. Genre: contemporary romance with mystery suspense.
STORY BRIEF:
Someone with deep computer skills stole money from a bank, transferred it to the Cayman Islands, and framed Mark who worked at the bank. He is in jail awaiting trial. His sister Kerry called Rafe to ask for his help to find evidence to free Mark. She was too emotional, babbled, and didn’t make sense, so he hung up on her and wouldn’t take any more of her calls.
Rafe is coming to Mark’s bank to do some computer consulting work. Kerry holds a sign at the airport with Rafe’s name. He doesn’t know she’s the phone caller. Kerry takes Rafe to a limo. Her friend Jason is the driver. She gives Rafe a drugged drink, and he falls asleep. Kerry and Jason take Rafe to a friend’s remote cottage which has lots of sex toys. They handcuff Rafe with chains that are long enough for him to walk between the bed and bathroom. When he wakes, he learns what Kerry wants. He talks her into having sex with him. She is a virgin, but she desires him. He is able to tie her hands, free himself, and then switch places with her. They now negotiate. She will be his sex plaything for 48 hours, and he will investigate the theft.
REVIEWER’S OPINION:
Most of the book – maybe 75 % is about Rafe and Kerry being with each other, lots of sex, lots of pondering and worries about their relationship. I was impatient to get to the story about computer hacking and the bad guys. The mystery and suspense felt empty – like summarizing after the fact. I didn’t get into the minds, motives, details, and actions of the bad guys. I wanted to see bad guys doing things with conversation and thoughts as they did them. For example: a bad guy kills someone. We didn’t see how it was done or the conversation during it. It was told after the fact, not shown. Also, the bad guy had a connection with organized crime that wasn’t described at all. It was sort of tacked on. I wanted to get into that at least a little bit. However at the end we do get one scene being shown – the one where the bad guy gets caught. However that scene was unbelievable. The police and friends just stood outside listening instead of going in to help. The bad guy was in the process of killing someone.
Kerry is a waitress putting herself through school. Her thinking and actions range from not very smart to stupid. She doesn’t bring anything interesting to the story other than being a size 12 knock out that Rafe and other men desire. Her main quality is loyalty to her brother – willing to do anything and everything to help him. Rafe describes her as sunshine – warm and gives with her whole heart. Ok she sounds lovely, but I didn’t like her enough to want to read a whole book about her. I’m not sure what was missing. She just didn’t interest me.
Rafe is smart and talented. I liked his computer hacking skills and brains which helped solve the mystery. He never wanted emotional relationships with women in the past. He was too much into his computers and work.
Kerry really likes Rafe and wants to be with him. So why after having sex, does she go off to be by herself in the bathroom? She locks the door and showers. The next time they have sex, again she is cold and distant afterwards. He doesn’t know why. She doesn’t give him a reason. There’s another scene (p 193) where Kerry realizes she’s falling in love with Rafe, so she tells herself “she had to get away from him soon, before she did something really stupid, like beg him to stay with her forever.” To me that’s just more unentertaining pondering. At one point Rafe tells her he must leave her and stay in a hotel for a day – for her own safety. That causes her to be mad, thinking he doesn’t like her. Rafe tells Kerry not to tell anyone where he is staying. Kerry knows they have three suspects. One of the suspects calls Kerry asking her where Rafe is, and Kerry stupidly tells that person.
I enjoy sex scenes as much as anyone. But I was surprised that I skimmed most of the sex scenes. I’m not sure if I can explain what was wrong with them. They were too drawn out and filled with unrelated conversation. They were doing all the things that most sex scenes do, but I wasn’t interested or emotionally moved.
This book has been published under two different author names: Shelley Bradley and Shayla Black – the same person.
DATA:
Story length: 327 pages. Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 11. Estimated number of sex scene pages: 65. Setting: 2005 Tampa area, Florida. Copyright: 2006. Genre: contemporary romance with mystery suspense.
October 17, 2009
Rating: 3.5 / 5
The first half of this book was a little weak for me, but I thought it picked up in the second half. I enjoyed it overall for the most part, but I wouldn't say it is one of my favorite books or a book that I'd want to read again some day.
Summary: Kerry Sullivan considers herself to be just your average girl. She works in a dinner to make money to go to college. She's curvy instead of being a size 2. She's never been in a relationship. And the only family she has is her older brother, Mark. But now Mark is in big trouble. He's been arrested for embezzling $3 million from the bank where he works. Kerry knows her brother is innocent...she just has to help prove it. So she finds out the name of the computer security expert the bank has hired to help shore up their security. And comes up with a plan...
Rafe Dawson arrives at the airport and sees a beautiful blonde waiting to escort him. She says she is the "hostess" the bank hired for him while he is in Florida. He's instantly attracted to the blonde and they share a steamy interlude in the limo. Then the next thing he knows, he wakes up naked and bound in a bed, kidnapped by his so-called "hostess."
Kerry pleads with Rafe to help her prove her brother's innocence. At first, he refuses...then he suggests a bargain. She gives him 48 hours of no-holds barred sex and he will look into her brother's situation. Surprisingly, Kerry agrees. They embark on a hot affair that gets dicey when feelings become involved. But Rafe has scars from his past that keep him from giving in. He will have to face some truths about his life if he wants to give Kerry what she deserves.
Review: I liked the concept of this story...the loyal sister kidnaps a man to help prove her brother's innocence. It's got a certain quirkiness to it that makes it interesting. I'm not sure it's the most original storyline...I think I've come across it before. But it's still an interesting one to read. Especially when it's used in an erotic romance because it leads to all kinds of interesting situations ;)
I did think, though, that the first half of the book dragged a bit because it devolved into wall-to-wall sex. Once the H/H get down to business, you get a ton of sex. And for me, that gets boring. I love a hot sex scene as much as any girl, but I'm not generally a fan of books that give you too much sex at once. This one did that in the first half of the book. I started skimming the scenes a little to get to the other stuff in the story - the stuff that moved the plot and the characters along.
As the book moved on, though, the sex got a bit less and the very mild suspense plot came more to the forefront. I actually found that part of the story rather interesting. There's a nice little mildly intense whodunit to the story regarding who framed Kerry's brother. Which keeps you reading to see who the bad guy is. I had a pretty good guess which of the three suspects it was...and I was right. But it was still fairly interesting to read. There was even a nice climax scene with the heroine in danger. I thought that was a great ending to the plot.
The romance was pretty good as well. Kerry is just your average, loyal nice girl who falls in love with the unattainable guy. Rafe has kept himself emotionally distant after growing up with a bastard of a father. He's afraid to love Kerry and must face his shortcomings in order to love her. It's a pretty classic romantic setup but I thought Kerry and Rafe had a good chemistry together and connected well. They were pretty enjoyable to read about.
Other than the over-sexed first half, I didn't really have any major complaints about the book. The rest of it was pretty good...I didn't love it, but I liked it a fair amount. All in all it was a solid erotic romance.
I didn't realize until the end when there was a preview of another book that Kerry's brother, Mark, had his own book. Considering what happens to him in this book, I'm interested in seeing how his story plays out. So I plan to read Strip Search soon.
WARNING, this book contains: moderate to very explicit sex and language, light bondage, toys, body jewelry...nothing too terribly kinky, though
The first half of this book was a little weak for me, but I thought it picked up in the second half. I enjoyed it overall for the most part, but I wouldn't say it is one of my favorite books or a book that I'd want to read again some day.
Summary: Kerry Sullivan considers herself to be just your average girl. She works in a dinner to make money to go to college. She's curvy instead of being a size 2. She's never been in a relationship. And the only family she has is her older brother, Mark. But now Mark is in big trouble. He's been arrested for embezzling $3 million from the bank where he works. Kerry knows her brother is innocent...she just has to help prove it. So she finds out the name of the computer security expert the bank has hired to help shore up their security. And comes up with a plan...
Rafe Dawson arrives at the airport and sees a beautiful blonde waiting to escort him. She says she is the "hostess" the bank hired for him while he is in Florida. He's instantly attracted to the blonde and they share a steamy interlude in the limo. Then the next thing he knows, he wakes up naked and bound in a bed, kidnapped by his so-called "hostess."
Kerry pleads with Rafe to help her prove her brother's innocence. At first, he refuses...then he suggests a bargain. She gives him 48 hours of no-holds barred sex and he will look into her brother's situation. Surprisingly, Kerry agrees. They embark on a hot affair that gets dicey when feelings become involved. But Rafe has scars from his past that keep him from giving in. He will have to face some truths about his life if he wants to give Kerry what she deserves.
Review: I liked the concept of this story...the loyal sister kidnaps a man to help prove her brother's innocence. It's got a certain quirkiness to it that makes it interesting. I'm not sure it's the most original storyline...I think I've come across it before. But it's still an interesting one to read. Especially when it's used in an erotic romance because it leads to all kinds of interesting situations ;)
I did think, though, that the first half of the book dragged a bit because it devolved into wall-to-wall sex. Once the H/H get down to business, you get a ton of sex. And for me, that gets boring. I love a hot sex scene as much as any girl, but I'm not generally a fan of books that give you too much sex at once. This one did that in the first half of the book. I started skimming the scenes a little to get to the other stuff in the story - the stuff that moved the plot and the characters along.
As the book moved on, though, the sex got a bit less and the very mild suspense plot came more to the forefront. I actually found that part of the story rather interesting. There's a nice little mildly intense whodunit to the story regarding who framed Kerry's brother. Which keeps you reading to see who the bad guy is. I had a pretty good guess which of the three suspects it was...and I was right. But it was still fairly interesting to read. There was even a nice climax scene with the heroine in danger. I thought that was a great ending to the plot.
The romance was pretty good as well. Kerry is just your average, loyal nice girl who falls in love with the unattainable guy. Rafe has kept himself emotionally distant after growing up with a bastard of a father. He's afraid to love Kerry and must face his shortcomings in order to love her. It's a pretty classic romantic setup but I thought Kerry and Rafe had a good chemistry together and connected well. They were pretty enjoyable to read about.
Other than the over-sexed first half, I didn't really have any major complaints about the book. The rest of it was pretty good...I didn't love it, but I liked it a fair amount. All in all it was a solid erotic romance.
I didn't realize until the end when there was a preview of another book that Kerry's brother, Mark, had his own book. Considering what happens to him in this book, I'm interested in seeing how his story plays out. So I plan to read Strip Search soon.
WARNING, this book contains: moderate to very explicit sex and language, light bondage, toys, body jewelry...nothing too terribly kinky, though
December 5, 2019
A sexy and fun read!
January 13, 2018
Not a big fan of Kerry. I just don't get her. I thought she knew what she got herself in but whenever she get all prickly everytime Rafe told her they just can't be together after their 48 hours is up, I got super pissed off with ber.
I cannot help but think she is semi-delusional.
I cannot help but think she is semi-delusional.
October 2, 2009
The saving grace of this erotic novel was the fact that you could see the man change. I will admit the plot fizzled for me but the intrigue of the growing romantic relationship of the H/H was what kept me turning the pages.
Kerry Sullivan is a 20-something, curvy virgin waitress living in FL.She needs to remedy her brother's dire situation, by any means neccesary. Enter: Rafe, e-securties expert. Kerry's brother has been accused of embezzling funds from the bank he works at and while she can't afford Rafe's services she has a plan to get his attention.
The way the premise unfolds, I mean, it's gotta starts somewhere, somehow and pretty quick. The 48 hour sex deal was flimsy at best but I went with it. I LOVED the descriptive in the love scenes. The emotional and physical connection was instantly made, and you got to know the characters right away. I really hated Rafe. I called him an asshole/bastard for about 99.9 % of the book. But then when he has a chat with his father it is edvident why he is emotionally cold. I like alpha males that are emotionally scarred and let the women they met help them heal but this harsh, cold personality definately was new to me. But I am glad I hung on. I got to see a transformation that was believable not just because it needed to be a romantic HEA but because I felt
the hero found someone that awakened him. I really enjoyed seeing that.
This was a well written novel. With echoes of Lora Leigh [sizzling sex scenes with real emotional need:] and Megan Hart [the characters
tend to have emotional baggage that makes them more real than romantic, at times:]. I'd recommend this to fans of well written erotic romance
that don't mind plot heavy suspense. There are a lot southern-type quips that threw me out of the rythm of reading [like 'I cried until
my nose was as pink as a bunny' or 'my heart revved up like a motor on a car.' Every response was likened to something. Overall the book was a GOODREAD! 3.5 0f 5 stars
Kerry Sullivan is a 20-something, curvy virgin waitress living in FL.She needs to remedy her brother's dire situation, by any means neccesary. Enter: Rafe, e-securties expert. Kerry's brother has been accused of embezzling funds from the bank he works at and while she can't afford Rafe's services she has a plan to get his attention.
The way the premise unfolds, I mean, it's gotta starts somewhere, somehow and pretty quick. The 48 hour sex deal was flimsy at best but I went with it. I LOVED the descriptive in the love scenes. The emotional and physical connection was instantly made, and you got to know the characters right away. I really hated Rafe. I called him an asshole/bastard for about 99.9 % of the book. But then when he has a chat with his father it is edvident why he is emotionally cold. I like alpha males that are emotionally scarred and let the women they met help them heal but this harsh, cold personality definately was new to me. But I am glad I hung on. I got to see a transformation that was believable not just because it needed to be a romantic HEA but because I felt
the hero found someone that awakened him. I really enjoyed seeing that.
This was a well written novel. With echoes of Lora Leigh [sizzling sex scenes with real emotional need:] and Megan Hart [the characters
tend to have emotional baggage that makes them more real than romantic, at times:]. I'd recommend this to fans of well written erotic romance
that don't mind plot heavy suspense. There are a lot southern-type quips that threw me out of the rythm of reading [like 'I cried until
my nose was as pink as a bunny' or 'my heart revved up like a motor on a car.' Every response was likened to something. Overall the book was a GOODREAD! 3.5 0f 5 stars
January 2, 2016
**2.5 stars**
I really had a difficult time rating this book. I think the whole idea was for the plot to be funny erotica with sexy love scenes and zany situations. Well, if that was the author's aim, it delivered. The book was sexy and I laughed several times:
"Should have listened to his instinct that a woman in the midst of heartbreak needed comfort, not a turkey on rye with light mayo."
"Yes, that would happen as soon as the Cubs won the World Series." (I laughed hysterically at that. Sorry, Cubbie fans!)
However, I've never seen such an overblown use of bad metaphors. There were at least two per page and I couldn't help but continually roll my eyes. I just started keeping track in the last part of the book and I found gems like:
"If Rafe didn't resent her like a waitress does bunions"
"Guilt buzzed and stung like a whole hive of killer bees"
"Thoughts scrambled through her brain like lab mice on crack."
I mean, WTH??
Anyhow, I ended up rounding up instead of down because I laughed a lot with the first two quotes. And the book WAS sexy.
I really had a difficult time rating this book. I think the whole idea was for the plot to be funny erotica with sexy love scenes and zany situations. Well, if that was the author's aim, it delivered. The book was sexy and I laughed several times:
"Should have listened to his instinct that a woman in the midst of heartbreak needed comfort, not a turkey on rye with light mayo."
"Yes, that would happen as soon as the Cubs won the World Series." (I laughed hysterically at that. Sorry, Cubbie fans!)
However, I've never seen such an overblown use of bad metaphors. There were at least two per page and I couldn't help but continually roll my eyes. I just started keeping track in the last part of the book and I found gems like:
"If Rafe didn't resent her like a waitress does bunions"
"Guilt buzzed and stung like a whole hive of killer bees"
"Thoughts scrambled through her brain like lab mice on crack."
I mean, WTH??
Anyhow, I ended up rounding up instead of down because I laughed a lot with the first two quotes. And the book WAS sexy.
August 12, 2013
Considering myself lucky to find this title of Shayla Black (writing as Shelley Bradley)as it was one that I hadn't come across in my first obsessive acquisition of all of her titles, I enjoyed a wonderful read on Saturday. It is not a Wicked Lovers title, and in fact it has a lighter tone than those books do, with less of an intensity about the D/s relationships, but with equally as much humanity and heart, and two equally tormented characters. Kerry Sullivan's had a tough life. The only man who got her through it was her brother. She saw him through cancer only to be horrified when he's arrested for embezzlement. She tries to gain the sympathy of Rafael in order to use his cyber investigative knowledge to prove her brother's innocence, but he's having none of her pleas. He's on a fast track to big bucks - the better to prove his worth to his estranged father. So when Kerry has no other choice - she takes a big risk to get his aid. The set-up requires the twosome spend time sequestered together and Rafael's barter suggestion - sex, anything he wants, anytime he wants for 48 hours - in exchange for his help, isn't really that hard a decision for Kerry. Because Rafael is smoking hot. But things get complicated. Emotions rise to the surface and both lovers' insecurities make for potent conflict. When the outside forces at work forcing her brother into a trial become alerted to Rafe's investigations, danger soon comes calling. The suspense elements in B&D did leave just a teensy bit to be desired (as is the case in some of the other titles of Black's) as I found the climactic confrontation staged a bit too much for plot convenience rather than believability. I also had the villain figured out but maybe it is just because I'm also an avid thriller reader that these 2 points were so evident to me. Regardless, the heat, the passion, the love, the lust, and the sympathy for two lost characters who can change their respective futures, and some nice humor make for a well-rounded and hot hot hot read. Stick with Shayla/Shelley for a good (erotic romance reading) time.
March 1, 2010
Being tied up never looked so good
Kerry Sullivan is desperate. Her brother Mark has been accused of embezzling millions of dollars from the bank he worked at. She knows he’s innocent and is trying to prove it. The only way she knows how is to get into the bank’s computer. Though she has no idea how to do that. She finds someone who can, Rafael Dawson, one of the top electronic security experts there are. She tries to call him, beg him to help. He refuses time and time again. She becomes even more desperate. She calls him in for a job, one that doesn’t exist, so she can get what she wants.
Rafael arrives at the airport and meets Kerry, though he doesn’t know it’s her. She makes herself look sexy hoping he’ll fall for it. The next minute Rafael is dizzy and blacks out. Kerry had drugged him. With the help of a friend, she ties him up in her secret hideaway. She won’t let him go until he helps her. He refuse, so she refuses to until him. Eventually he gets himself until. Though doesn’t leave. He tells her that he’ll help her if she’ll stay three days with him. He has full control. She’s willing to do anything for her brother so she agrees. He starts to fall in love with her, like she has with him. They start to share more then words, making it even hotter. Will she ever get her brother the help he needs, though she can’t and doesn’t want to get away for Rafael.
This book was really good. The way she makes Rafael lose control, and then grow to become more then that. The heat that’s between those two are phenomenal. It’s not as predictable as some of the other books she written. It’ll keep you intrigued till the very end.
Kerry Sullivan is desperate. Her brother Mark has been accused of embezzling millions of dollars from the bank he worked at. She knows he’s innocent and is trying to prove it. The only way she knows how is to get into the bank’s computer. Though she has no idea how to do that. She finds someone who can, Rafael Dawson, one of the top electronic security experts there are. She tries to call him, beg him to help. He refuses time and time again. She becomes even more desperate. She calls him in for a job, one that doesn’t exist, so she can get what she wants.
Rafael arrives at the airport and meets Kerry, though he doesn’t know it’s her. She makes herself look sexy hoping he’ll fall for it. The next minute Rafael is dizzy and blacks out. Kerry had drugged him. With the help of a friend, she ties him up in her secret hideaway. She won’t let him go until he helps her. He refuse, so she refuses to until him. Eventually he gets himself until. Though doesn’t leave. He tells her that he’ll help her if she’ll stay three days with him. He has full control. She’s willing to do anything for her brother so she agrees. He starts to fall in love with her, like she has with him. They start to share more then words, making it even hotter. Will she ever get her brother the help he needs, though she can’t and doesn’t want to get away for Rafael.
This book was really good. The way she makes Rafael lose control, and then grow to become more then that. The heat that’s between those two are phenomenal. It’s not as predictable as some of the other books she written. It’ll keep you intrigued till the very end.
November 28, 2010
Well, let's start by saying that the premise of this book is ridiculous. Kerry Sullivan is trying to get her brother out of jail and she thinks that she can do this by kidnapping, stripping naked and then tying to a bed computer security expert Rafe Dawson? When he wakes up in this predicament 36 hours after the drugs she gave him have worn off, did she expect him to be happily willing to help her and her brother? Oh, and let's not forget that she is a virgin and that the place she is holding him is referred to as Uncle Dave's Love Shack.
Now that I've gotten all of that off of my chest, I really enjoyed the book. I thought that Kerry and Rafe had great chemistry. The sex was plentiful, although pretty vanilla. The Love Shack had some interesting toys that put a smile on my face. Aside from the romance, there was actually a story with some mystery and danger. I look forward to reading the second book in the series.
Now that I've gotten all of that off of my chest, I really enjoyed the book. I thought that Kerry and Rafe had great chemistry. The sex was plentiful, although pretty vanilla. The Love Shack had some interesting toys that put a smile on my face. Aside from the romance, there was actually a story with some mystery and danger. I look forward to reading the second book in the series.
March 10, 2013
Easy reading - after YA trilogies like the Hunger Games n Birthmarked, my brain needed a vacation from outraged disbelief posed from the endings of these YA trilogies!!
July 12, 2017
Hello beautiful people!! So here we are yet again with another review that will most likely have some ranting through out it.
So lets start shall we??
First I got to say that the reviews on the book inside the cover was dead on this time. Seeing as if it wasn't for life and every day things that needed to get done. (laundry, putting things away from shopping, cleaning out a house...) I would of most likely had this done the same day I started this. Seeing as it had me hooked from page 1.
Now do I always give romance books a good ranting and good review? No. Oh heeeeeelll no! Just go look at my 'Fifty Shades of Grey' review if you don't believe me. But anyways. We're not talking 50 Shades here.
Right now, we're talking about this book. Which was really super good! It did have romance in it yes. Did it have some bondage and stuff like that in with it? Yes. But not overly done with the bondage and all that jazz. More times then not it was heated sex and mystery.
Seeing as the story line kept you guessing until the very end on who framed her brother Mark.
Seeing as at one point it seemed like the boss did it, then Jason which is Mark's best-friend did it, then you think it's Tiffany (Marks wife) But then your back to suspecting someone else. Plus Tiffany was a air head. (Or was she... Bawhahahah!) Kerry, at points seemed vain to the point were you thought you would loose your mind if she didn't see reason but then she was able to always redeem herself somehow. So I'll give her a pass. Rafe. Oh Rafe. What to say about you?
Okay. Lets not play dumb here. Rafe sounded hot. And sexy. Plus the fact that he helped her find out who actually framed Mark was a plus too. I have to say over all he was a truly worthy charter. Seeing as he's not perfect by any means but he's also not a jackass- okay. Maybe he is at some points. But the good thing about Mrs. Black is that she never fails to write interesting and amazing charters. And the end is totally worth every minute of reading this book!
The only issue I really had with this book was how it ended. Don't get me wrong. I loved the ending but it also left a lot of things open. It makes me wish that she'd done a month or two or even a year later so that you could know what happens. Seeing as at the end Mark is released. Rafe comes back from New York and asks Kerry to marry him. She agrees. But what about the wedding?? What was it like? Where are they going to live? Is Kerry going to go with Rafe to live in New York while Mark stays in Florida? Is Rafe going to leave New York and move to Florida to be with Kerry and Mark and run his business from there now that their married?? So, so, so many unanswered questions!!! But that was the only thing that I can honestly say that my real problem with the book was.
But if you can over look that I can promise you it's so worth the read.
So lets start shall we??
First I got to say that the reviews on the book inside the cover was dead on this time. Seeing as if it wasn't for life and every day things that needed to get done. (laundry, putting things away from shopping, cleaning out a house...) I would of most likely had this done the same day I started this. Seeing as it had me hooked from page 1.
Now do I always give romance books a good ranting and good review? No. Oh heeeeeelll no! Just go look at my 'Fifty Shades of Grey' review if you don't believe me. But anyways. We're not talking 50 Shades here.
Right now, we're talking about this book. Which was really super good! It did have romance in it yes. Did it have some bondage and stuff like that in with it? Yes. But not overly done with the bondage and all that jazz. More times then not it was heated sex and mystery.
Seeing as the story line kept you guessing until the very end on who framed her brother Mark.
Seeing as at one point it seemed like the boss did it, then Jason which is Mark's best-friend did it, then you think it's Tiffany (Marks wife) But then your back to suspecting someone else. Plus Tiffany was a air head. (Or was she... Bawhahahah!) Kerry, at points seemed vain to the point were you thought you would loose your mind if she didn't see reason but then she was able to always redeem herself somehow. So I'll give her a pass. Rafe. Oh Rafe. What to say about you?
Okay. Lets not play dumb here. Rafe sounded hot. And sexy. Plus the fact that he helped her find out who actually framed Mark was a plus too. I have to say over all he was a truly worthy charter. Seeing as he's not perfect by any means but he's also not a jackass- okay. Maybe he is at some points. But the good thing about Mrs. Black is that she never fails to write interesting and amazing charters. And the end is totally worth every minute of reading this book!
The only issue I really had with this book was how it ended. Don't get me wrong. I loved the ending but it also left a lot of things open. It makes me wish that she'd done a month or two or even a year later so that you could know what happens. Seeing as at the end Mark is released. Rafe comes back from New York and asks Kerry to marry him. She agrees. But what about the wedding?? What was it like? Where are they going to live? Is Kerry going to go with Rafe to live in New York while Mark stays in Florida? Is Rafe going to leave New York and move to Florida to be with Kerry and Mark and run his business from there now that their married?? So, so, so many unanswered questions!!! But that was the only thing that I can honestly say that my real problem with the book was.
But if you can over look that I can promise you it's so worth the read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 24, 2018
I read this a long time ago but never rated it. Loved it!
May 4, 2019
Amateur Teen Painful Painal Black Cock
To seem, rather than to see, to appear, rather than to be: this, in a nutshell, has been woman's existential project thus far, according to de Beauvoir. Woman's historic destiny has prohibited her from developing into a self, understood as an autonomous ontic unit and agent. Instead, hers has been a merely instrumental existence defined entirely by her social roles. Never a maker of meaning, her success in life was defined to the extent that she was a suitable canvas for receiving others' meanings. This philosophical document is first of all, whatever else it might be, a sustained exploration of what it means to know, to be, to make, and ultimately to become a self. De Beauvoir starts from the perplexing situation in which she encounters her selfhood as somehow incomplete, and deeply problematic to herself. From this starting point, she can ask the million-dollar question of philosophy anew (and for our benefit): and namely, What does it really take to know a self, our self?
The first thing one should note about this book is that it was not originally intended as a political treatise; it wasn't made with the intention of shouting shrill slogans over a megaphone. Its aim is philosophical understanding of the human condition, not political expediency. As such, it eschews neat and tidy ideological divisions in its essence, and prefers to obliquely cast a searching light on the rich ambiguity of this queer dual nature we experience as sexual beings, and the implications this has for our sense of identity and our experience of meaning. De Beauvoir's work finds insight not in ideological formulations, but in the poignant and possibly unanswerable questions brought up by the tensions and dualities that seem intrinsic to the human condition, and that, perhaps, the ideologue in his/her search for the perfectly defined political dogma will always and of necessity gloss over. Her highest strength as a thinker attempting to venture in this gender minefield is that she guides herself therein less by a pursuit of ideological neatness, and more by an effort to attain a philosophical consciousness that can comprehend a perhaps intractable ambiguity.
The impulse to “Know thyself” is shown here to cut across all artificial barriers of specialization: de Beauvoir comes to herself through biological and historical research (hormones and hearth, glands and cosmetics), literary and mythological critique, with all of this capped by philosophical reflection. She shows how, in the effort to know our condition, philosophy can contain, inform and direct all partial disciplinary inquiries and perspectives (a modern and biographical take on the more traditional ideal of philosophy as a “queen of the sciences”).
When most people think of self-knowledge, they tend to conceive this process in purely subjectivist terms, in short, in terms of looking into material accessible only to the individual consciousness. Somewhere in the swarmy mess of impulses, affects, personal memories, belief commitments and gut feelings, you are told, you shall find Your Self. In contrast, I suspect she would sympathize with Mann's insight in The Magic Mountain: “A man lives not only his personal life, as an individual, but also, consciously or unconsciously, the life of his epoch and his contemporaries.” As such, the work goes far beyond our culture's subjectivist approach to self-knowledge, in order to illuminate us to ourselves in our guise as participants in the unfolding of larger historical patterns.
Our lives are shaped by the accreted sediment of decisions made by past generations; within the domain circumscribed by those decisions, we exist. And some of the most fundamental decisions we make and inherit are decisions regarding meaning, or about how to shape our human experience. The semantic tools available for the shaping of self are our most critical inheritance from the past. Self-knowledge thus implies far more than insight into personal experience; it necessitates developing a historical consciousness of the inherited patterns of meaning-making that we have available for shaping our individual consciousness of self as it emerges at this given moment in time. So, to understand the female self as it has been historically constrained to develop, she targets her philosophical analysis to the representational tools - and their limits - that she has had available for her self-construction.
The problem of incompletely formulated selfhood that she starts from, de Beauvoir takes great pains to suggest, is not merely a piece of her idiosyncratic subjective biographical trajectory, but is, in a sense, our problem as well, to the extent that we are inheritors of a cultural heritage that does not afford us with the semantic tools that we need in order to lay claim to our experience through its shaping. It is in this effort of shaping that autonomy is slowly consolidated and that we become a genuine acting unity, or a full-fledged individual. A guiding thematic thread in her work is the exploration of how various cultural myths restrict woman to the contrary of autonomy, which she calls a state of “immanence.” This state of immanence is, for her, a stultifying state for a human existent to occupy, whose inward striving relentlessly impels her to a “transcendence” through autonomy.
The inherited semantic tools, far from helping woman shape her experience so as to converge on an autonomous perspective, instead restrict her to an "immanent" identity wholly defined by her contingent web of relations. She must ever define herself as daughter, as mother, as wife, as friend, as helper, as nurturer, as muse, as treacherous slut. The one position that is off-limits is her own, that is, her knowing of herself as irreducible existent and autonomous center of meaning. Her knowing of the one thing that no one can give to her, nor take away from her, is unavailable to her as so long as she operates through the inherited, self-alienating semantic paradigm. This centrifugal, purely contingent existence, de Beauvoir persuasively argues, is a humanly incomplete mode of being. As long as we only know to look outside ourselves for our psychological substance, we are lost to ourselves. We never fully come to be, as a self.
The trouble is that, for a woman coming to consciousness, the collective heritage she finds is invariably an inheritance of scars, caricatures, and symbolic deformations. A young woman, growing to consciousness of self, must find herself in relation to an inheritance of meanings predominantly shaped by her male Other, for whom she can only figure as an object that exists solely in relation to his aspirations and needs. Her fulfilment as an existent – as well as her fitness in the world - are both defined in instrumental terms, in relation to her capacity to fulfil his need for meaning. The pressing existential issue becomes, for her, to mould herself so as to become meaningful to him, whatever meaning he might need for her to embody.
It is a queer sort of destiny, to exist only insofar as one is an object for the perception and appreciation of another. De Beauvoir lingers on this strange self-alienation, say, in a woman's use of self-ornamentation, in which she reflexively comes to see herself from the outside in. The reductive mirror image becomes internalized, creating a profound sense of dissociation from herself. “The lived body,” as Merleau-Ponty calls it, becomes merely an object to contour just-so, for another's gaze. She can seldom ever just be; she must ever seem, through some kind of relentless necessity, even as in so doing she merely starves herself of her true sustenance. Such can only be provided by a richer relationship with her world, established intrinsically, through the taproot of her autonomy.
“The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages,” Woolf aptly put it, and de Beauvoir concurs: others' gazes determine to a very profound extent the shape of our destinies as women. There are so many painfully surgical descriptions here of the growing woman's developmental history as she finds herself sliced up, bit by bit, by others' glances, and hedged into what becomes “her place”: “The young girl feels that her body is getting away from her. (...) On the street men follow her with their eyes and comment on her anatomy. She would like to be invisible; it frightens her to become flesh and to show flesh.” Thus, a growing woman learns that she, as an embodied being, is not just a locus for meaning-making, but, even more urgently for her survival and flourishing in the world, is an object-for-others. She must continually extrude herself from Herself, and shape herself as an object of perception and evaluation for the Other.
The goal of life is for her not learning to see, but managing how others see her; it is not coming to realization, but being instrumental to others'. As she matures, woman is progressively constrained to inhabit her subject-stance only partially, to the extent that meanings gleaned from the Other's, often alienating perspective afford her indirect access to her self. She must ever seek herself through his eyes. As such, she is doomed to encounter herself only as image. In phenomenological parlance, her stance is self-objectifying, never fully subjective.
De Beauvoir's extensive analysis here of how background mythical constructs of Nature regulate the alternative ways women are perceived is brilliant. Through the identification of woman as an instrument of nature, she acquires the characteristics – positive or negative – ascribed to Nature itself. This makes some psychological sense. Aside from our own bodies, nature comes closest to our minds in our confrontation with the other sex. The other sex is nature to us, nature come terrifyingly/ecstatically close... and yet, nature that remains ungraspably other and alien to our consciousness. The problem here, is of course, that it is only the male that is the center of perspective; the female is the “absolute other,” and is thus -identified- with pure (inhuman) nature. She is either the nurturant mother “nature,” the all-encompassing nurturant principle of sympathy, or else, nature as the beast that ensnares merely to devour.
She thus finds herself in a rather impossible position, internalizing a tradition of self-alienating representations made of her, which supposedly exhaust her nature, while nonetheless being radically alien to this tradition in the innermost truth of her experience, for which she has inherited few clear words that she can make entirely her own, few artistically embodied meanings, and almost no usable philosophical formulations. What self can she scrounge up out of such scattered fragments?
This dissociation from lived experience and personal meaning-making is a big price to pay for social survival. And if Mary Pipher is correct in Reviving Ophelia, this same fate of premature developmental arrest due to internalizing a self-alienating perspective still awaits young girls today. The choice is grim: a girl must choose between love and belonging, on the one hand, and full self-development, on the other. The situation's rigged such that she often cannot have both. As Pipher ruefully notes, when questioned, people define “feminine development” and full “adult development” in antithetical terms. Thus, to be a properly “feminine” woman, as per our cultural norms, is to be a psychologically disabled adult, incapable of agency or of self-directed logical judgment. In short, she must choose between the demands of her relational self and those of her autonomous self, between alienation and amputation.
The tension created by attempting to inhabit a subject stance only through self-alienating representational tools is only part of the conflict de Beauvoir finds in a woman's coming-to-consciousness. A further tension is added by the very duality of human, sexual nature, which introduces an additional, and deeply ambiguous constraint through the relational mutuality of the sexes.
De Beauvoir finds, “with a kind of surprise” - and it seems to me also (understandable) dismay - that she is first and foremost a woman. Yet am I first a woman when I close my eyes and think? Is our sexuality really the primal reality of our conscious experience?
When I sit down and reflect, and there's nobody in the room, I seem to myself to be just a good ole thinking... thing... A light flickering in the darkness. I seem to myself indivisible, the center of my phenomenal experience, a sort of singularity. Wittgenstein seems to have got it better than de Beauvoir: “The philosophical I is not the man, not the human body or the human soul of which psychology treats, but the metaphysical subject, the limit - not a part of the world.” I become a aware of my sexuality only when confronted by another, and shoved back into being just a partial being, one item of the duality of human nature – a woman. Does Simone de Beauvoir really mean to say that walking in the forest, alone, with only the trees for her companions, she really feels the word “woman” has any meaning when applied to her conscious experience?
Well, no, as she describes those rare moments in nature when one fully inhabits oneself as a center of meaning-making consciousness, uncircumscribed by any Other's gaze. From her text I glean that sexuality is a kind of polarization we undergo when mingled with others; it is the form of our being-in-relation. We get pushed into one pole to complement the encountered other and to balance out the interaction. There is the same sort of difference here as between the dark expansiveness that Woolf's Mrs Ramsay (“To the Lighthouse”) encounters in herself when she rests contained in her unreachable solitude, on the one hand, and her gushy all-nurturing effusiveness when circumscribed within her role as mother/wife/society pillar, on the other.
This implies a strange double meaning for her foundational self-recognition as a woman: she is, simultaneously, one part of the sexually dual form human nature manifests, and an autonomous, irreducible unity in her own right. She is fundamentally free, yet also fundamentally a self emerging and constructing itself in relation to an other. This brings me to the central difficulty I have with her argument. The former is in keeping with her Existentialist commitments: absolutely autonomous, free choice is the stuff of human life.The latter suggests a teleological ordering of the sexes into a structure of essential relatedness and interdependence. The former divides the world into sovereign individuals, each initiating contractual relations through the sheer force of personal choice unmotivated by any natural impulse to relate; the latter makes of us community animals, as both sexes are partial beings, each requiring union with the other for its completion.
The whole drama of this conflict comes out in sharp relief in her description of the queer metamorphosis of selfhood that is motherhood. "Pregnancy is above all a drama that is acted out within the woman herself. She feels it as at once an enrichment and an injury; the fetus is part of her body, and it is a parasite that feeds on it; she possesses it, and she is possessed by it; it represents the future and, carrying it she feels herself vast as the world; but this very opulence annihilates her, she feels that she herself is no longer anything. (...) Ensnared by nature, the pregnant woman is plant and animal, a stock-pile of colloids, an incubator, an egg; she scares children proud of their young, straight bodies and makes young people titter contemptuously because she is a human being, a conscious and free individual, who has become life's passive instrument." Motherhood is just such a time when one's usual notion of autonomous, individual selfhood is terrifyingly overthrown. At such a time, a woman becomes swamped by immanence, she feels herself to be a mere "passive instrument" of life. She is completely absorbed into the relational function of her subjectivity.
Here, in motherhood, de Beauvoir comes in headlong collision with the critical problematic of female identity, and its seemingly intractable struggle to preserve a sense of independent self that survives the pressures of impinging relationships, for motherhood is the ultimate of all impingements. Your sense of self before and after cannot remain the same. The birth of my two children, at least, was experienced as a crisis moment in which I myself was tasked to a rebirth, a movement from independent to interdependent selfhood.
How DO you reconcile these two? Well, she doesn't. It seems to me that she gives perfect expression to the whole problem of our dual nature (both uncompromisingly autonomous and intrinsically relational), without truly recognizing it as a problem, never mind venturing a solution. Learning to simultaneously honour the self in its autonomy and in its full capacity for self-giving relationship, or to reconcile, in short, the seemingly conflicting demands of self-actualization and relational self-transcendence, would bring greater harmony to a society deeply divided between these two currently conflicting trajectories.
A lot of the meaning of "woman" and "man," she says, was written over and distorted by a great deal of symbolic mechanisms gone wrong and taking on a life of their own, thereby blocking the spontaneous expression of our true sexual nature. "When we abolish the slavery of half of humanity, together with the whole system of hypocrisy it implies, then the "division" of humanity will reveal its genuine significance and the human couple will find its true form." Just so, the full realization of one element of the duality empowers the other to find his true form, in a relation that now manifests its true form for the first time.
What if we have never really spoken truly about ourselves, about our experience, and about the true nature of our relations? This thought haunts much of her work, and I respect that. Thus, she very profoundly partakes of the modern project to re-define the fundamentals of the human condition, or, at least, to re-explore, once more, what seemed to be a foreclosed issue. Her philosophical work is a clearing ground for accreted symbolic clutter that lives on only by a kind of inertia and distorts all that is seen and felt, thereby blocking out deeper reserves of meaning.
It is for us to ponder the means to a larger perspective that can contain the intractable ambiguities that she has so faithfully recorded for us here. Her work provides a map that lays out what it takes to genuinely know – and fully become - our own selves. Her unique historico-philosophical approach to self-knowledge encourages us to know our lives by placing our most intimate personal experience in the context of the broadest perspective attainable at our historic moment. Like all great thinkers who had anything of value to teach about self-knowledge, de Beauvoir holds before us the image of a great tree. In order to understand our particular twig, we must recover a map of the larger tree that holds us in place. The meanings that shape us and limit us can be seen truly only in this perspective of historical depth. This map is the surest ground on which we can lay out our personal stories.
To seem, rather than to see, to appear, rather than to be: this, in a nutshell, has been woman's existential project thus far, according to de Beauvoir. Woman's historic destiny has prohibited her from developing into a self, understood as an autonomous ontic unit and agent. Instead, hers has been a merely instrumental existence defined entirely by her social roles. Never a maker of meaning, her success in life was defined to the extent that she was a suitable canvas for receiving others' meanings. This philosophical document is first of all, whatever else it might be, a sustained exploration of what it means to know, to be, to make, and ultimately to become a self. De Beauvoir starts from the perplexing situation in which she encounters her selfhood as somehow incomplete, and deeply problematic to herself. From this starting point, she can ask the million-dollar question of philosophy anew (and for our benefit): and namely, What does it really take to know a self, our self?
The first thing one should note about this book is that it was not originally intended as a political treatise; it wasn't made with the intention of shouting shrill slogans over a megaphone. Its aim is philosophical understanding of the human condition, not political expediency. As such, it eschews neat and tidy ideological divisions in its essence, and prefers to obliquely cast a searching light on the rich ambiguity of this queer dual nature we experience as sexual beings, and the implications this has for our sense of identity and our experience of meaning. De Beauvoir's work finds insight not in ideological formulations, but in the poignant and possibly unanswerable questions brought up by the tensions and dualities that seem intrinsic to the human condition, and that, perhaps, the ideologue in his/her search for the perfectly defined political dogma will always and of necessity gloss over. Her highest strength as a thinker attempting to venture in this gender minefield is that she guides herself therein less by a pursuit of ideological neatness, and more by an effort to attain a philosophical consciousness that can comprehend a perhaps intractable ambiguity.
The impulse to “Know thyself” is shown here to cut across all artificial barriers of specialization: de Beauvoir comes to herself through biological and historical research (hormones and hearth, glands and cosmetics), literary and mythological critique, with all of this capped by philosophical reflection. She shows how, in the effort to know our condition, philosophy can contain, inform and direct all partial disciplinary inquiries and perspectives (a modern and biographical take on the more traditional ideal of philosophy as a “queen of the sciences”).
When most people think of self-knowledge, they tend to conceive this process in purely subjectivist terms, in short, in terms of looking into material accessible only to the individual consciousness. Somewhere in the swarmy mess of impulses, affects, personal memories, belief commitments and gut feelings, you are told, you shall find Your Self. In contrast, I suspect she would sympathize with Mann's insight in The Magic Mountain: “A man lives not only his personal life, as an individual, but also, consciously or unconsciously, the life of his epoch and his contemporaries.” As such, the work goes far beyond our culture's subjectivist approach to self-knowledge, in order to illuminate us to ourselves in our guise as participants in the unfolding of larger historical patterns.
Our lives are shaped by the accreted sediment of decisions made by past generations; within the domain circumscribed by those decisions, we exist. And some of the most fundamental decisions we make and inherit are decisions regarding meaning, or about how to shape our human experience. The semantic tools available for the shaping of self are our most critical inheritance from the past. Self-knowledge thus implies far more than insight into personal experience; it necessitates developing a historical consciousness of the inherited patterns of meaning-making that we have available for shaping our individual consciousness of self as it emerges at this given moment in time. So, to understand the female self as it has been historically constrained to develop, she targets her philosophical analysis to the representational tools - and their limits - that she has had available for her self-construction.
The problem of incompletely formulated selfhood that she starts from, de Beauvoir takes great pains to suggest, is not merely a piece of her idiosyncratic subjective biographical trajectory, but is, in a sense, our problem as well, to the extent that we are inheritors of a cultural heritage that does not afford us with the semantic tools that we need in order to lay claim to our experience through its shaping. It is in this effort of shaping that autonomy is slowly consolidated and that we become a genuine acting unity, or a full-fledged individual. A guiding thematic thread in her work is the exploration of how various cultural myths restrict woman to the contrary of autonomy, which she calls a state of “immanence.” This state of immanence is, for her, a stultifying state for a human existent to occupy, whose inward striving relentlessly impels her to a “transcendence” through autonomy.
The inherited semantic tools, far from helping woman shape her experience so as to converge on an autonomous perspective, instead restrict her to an "immanent" identity wholly defined by her contingent web of relations. She must ever define herself as daughter, as mother, as wife, as friend, as helper, as nurturer, as muse, as treacherous slut. The one position that is off-limits is her own, that is, her knowing of herself as irreducible existent and autonomous center of meaning. Her knowing of the one thing that no one can give to her, nor take away from her, is unavailable to her as so long as she operates through the inherited, self-alienating semantic paradigm. This centrifugal, purely contingent existence, de Beauvoir persuasively argues, is a humanly incomplete mode of being. As long as we only know to look outside ourselves for our psychological substance, we are lost to ourselves. We never fully come to be, as a self.
The trouble is that, for a woman coming to consciousness, the collective heritage she finds is invariably an inheritance of scars, caricatures, and symbolic deformations. A young woman, growing to consciousness of self, must find herself in relation to an inheritance of meanings predominantly shaped by her male Other, for whom she can only figure as an object that exists solely in relation to his aspirations and needs. Her fulfilment as an existent – as well as her fitness in the world - are both defined in instrumental terms, in relation to her capacity to fulfil his need for meaning. The pressing existential issue becomes, for her, to mould herself so as to become meaningful to him, whatever meaning he might need for her to embody.
It is a queer sort of destiny, to exist only insofar as one is an object for the perception and appreciation of another. De Beauvoir lingers on this strange self-alienation, say, in a woman's use of self-ornamentation, in which she reflexively comes to see herself from the outside in. The reductive mirror image becomes internalized, creating a profound sense of dissociation from herself. “The lived body,” as Merleau-Ponty calls it, becomes merely an object to contour just-so, for another's gaze. She can seldom ever just be; she must ever seem, through some kind of relentless necessity, even as in so doing she merely starves herself of her true sustenance. Such can only be provided by a richer relationship with her world, established intrinsically, through the taproot of her autonomy.
“The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages,” Woolf aptly put it, and de Beauvoir concurs: others' gazes determine to a very profound extent the shape of our destinies as women. There are so many painfully surgical descriptions here of the growing woman's developmental history as she finds herself sliced up, bit by bit, by others' glances, and hedged into what becomes “her place”: “The young girl feels that her body is getting away from her. (...) On the street men follow her with their eyes and comment on her anatomy. She would like to be invisible; it frightens her to become flesh and to show flesh.” Thus, a growing woman learns that she, as an embodied being, is not just a locus for meaning-making, but, even more urgently for her survival and flourishing in the world, is an object-for-others. She must continually extrude herself from Herself, and shape herself as an object of perception and evaluation for the Other.
The goal of life is for her not learning to see, but managing how others see her; it is not coming to realization, but being instrumental to others'. As she matures, woman is progressively constrained to inhabit her subject-stance only partially, to the extent that meanings gleaned from the Other's, often alienating perspective afford her indirect access to her self. She must ever seek herself through his eyes. As such, she is doomed to encounter herself only as image. In phenomenological parlance, her stance is self-objectifying, never fully subjective.
De Beauvoir's extensive analysis here of how background mythical constructs of Nature regulate the alternative ways women are perceived is brilliant. Through the identification of woman as an instrument of nature, she acquires the characteristics – positive or negative – ascribed to Nature itself. This makes some psychological sense. Aside from our own bodies, nature comes closest to our minds in our confrontation with the other sex. The other sex is nature to us, nature come terrifyingly/ecstatically close... and yet, nature that remains ungraspably other and alien to our consciousness. The problem here, is of course, that it is only the male that is the center of perspective; the female is the “absolute other,” and is thus -identified- with pure (inhuman) nature. She is either the nurturant mother “nature,” the all-encompassing nurturant principle of sympathy, or else, nature as the beast that ensnares merely to devour.
She thus finds herself in a rather impossible position, internalizing a tradition of self-alienating representations made of her, which supposedly exhaust her nature, while nonetheless being radically alien to this tradition in the innermost truth of her experience, for which she has inherited few clear words that she can make entirely her own, few artistically embodied meanings, and almost no usable philosophical formulations. What self can she scrounge up out of such scattered fragments?
This dissociation from lived experience and personal meaning-making is a big price to pay for social survival. And if Mary Pipher is correct in Reviving Ophelia, this same fate of premature developmental arrest due to internalizing a self-alienating perspective still awaits young girls today. The choice is grim: a girl must choose between love and belonging, on the one hand, and full self-development, on the other. The situation's rigged such that she often cannot have both. As Pipher ruefully notes, when questioned, people define “feminine development” and full “adult development” in antithetical terms. Thus, to be a properly “feminine” woman, as per our cultural norms, is to be a psychologically disabled adult, incapable of agency or of self-directed logical judgment. In short, she must choose between the demands of her relational self and those of her autonomous self, between alienation and amputation.
The tension created by attempting to inhabit a subject stance only through self-alienating representational tools is only part of the conflict de Beauvoir finds in a woman's coming-to-consciousness. A further tension is added by the very duality of human, sexual nature, which introduces an additional, and deeply ambiguous constraint through the relational mutuality of the sexes.
De Beauvoir finds, “with a kind of surprise” - and it seems to me also (understandable) dismay - that she is first and foremost a woman. Yet am I first a woman when I close my eyes and think? Is our sexuality really the primal reality of our conscious experience?
When I sit down and reflect, and there's nobody in the room, I seem to myself to be just a good ole thinking... thing... A light flickering in the darkness. I seem to myself indivisible, the center of my phenomenal experience, a sort of singularity. Wittgenstein seems to have got it better than de Beauvoir: “The philosophical I is not the man, not the human body or the human soul of which psychology treats, but the metaphysical subject, the limit - not a part of the world.” I become a aware of my sexuality only when confronted by another, and shoved back into being just a partial being, one item of the duality of human nature – a woman. Does Simone de Beauvoir really mean to say that walking in the forest, alone, with only the trees for her companions, she really feels the word “woman” has any meaning when applied to her conscious experience?
Well, no, as she describes those rare moments in nature when one fully inhabits oneself as a center of meaning-making consciousness, uncircumscribed by any Other's gaze. From her text I glean that sexuality is a kind of polarization we undergo when mingled with others; it is the form of our being-in-relation. We get pushed into one pole to complement the encountered other and to balance out the interaction. There is the same sort of difference here as between the dark expansiveness that Woolf's Mrs Ramsay (“To the Lighthouse”) encounters in herself when she rests contained in her unreachable solitude, on the one hand, and her gushy all-nurturing effusiveness when circumscribed within her role as mother/wife/society pillar, on the other.
This implies a strange double meaning for her foundational self-recognition as a woman: she is, simultaneously, one part of the sexually dual form human nature manifests, and an autonomous, irreducible unity in her own right. She is fundamentally free, yet also fundamentally a self emerging and constructing itself in relation to an other. This brings me to the central difficulty I have with her argument. The former is in keeping with her Existentialist commitments: absolutely autonomous, free choice is the stuff of human life.The latter suggests a teleological ordering of the sexes into a structure of essential relatedness and interdependence. The former divides the world into sovereign individuals, each initiating contractual relations through the sheer force of personal choice unmotivated by any natural impulse to relate; the latter makes of us community animals, as both sexes are partial beings, each requiring union with the other for its completion.
The whole drama of this conflict comes out in sharp relief in her description of the queer metamorphosis of selfhood that is motherhood. "Pregnancy is above all a drama that is acted out within the woman herself. She feels it as at once an enrichment and an injury; the fetus is part of her body, and it is a parasite that feeds on it; she possesses it, and she is possessed by it; it represents the future and, carrying it she feels herself vast as the world; but this very opulence annihilates her, she feels that she herself is no longer anything. (...) Ensnared by nature, the pregnant woman is plant and animal, a stock-pile of colloids, an incubator, an egg; she scares children proud of their young, straight bodies and makes young people titter contemptuously because she is a human being, a conscious and free individual, who has become life's passive instrument." Motherhood is just such a time when one's usual notion of autonomous, individual selfhood is terrifyingly overthrown. At such a time, a woman becomes swamped by immanence, she feels herself to be a mere "passive instrument" of life. She is completely absorbed into the relational function of her subjectivity.
Here, in motherhood, de Beauvoir comes in headlong collision with the critical problematic of female identity, and its seemingly intractable struggle to preserve a sense of independent self that survives the pressures of impinging relationships, for motherhood is the ultimate of all impingements. Your sense of self before and after cannot remain the same. The birth of my two children, at least, was experienced as a crisis moment in which I myself was tasked to a rebirth, a movement from independent to interdependent selfhood.
How DO you reconcile these two? Well, she doesn't. It seems to me that she gives perfect expression to the whole problem of our dual nature (both uncompromisingly autonomous and intrinsically relational), without truly recognizing it as a problem, never mind venturing a solution. Learning to simultaneously honour the self in its autonomy and in its full capacity for self-giving relationship, or to reconcile, in short, the seemingly conflicting demands of self-actualization and relational self-transcendence, would bring greater harmony to a society deeply divided between these two currently conflicting trajectories.
A lot of the meaning of "woman" and "man," she says, was written over and distorted by a great deal of symbolic mechanisms gone wrong and taking on a life of their own, thereby blocking the spontaneous expression of our true sexual nature. "When we abolish the slavery of half of humanity, together with the whole system of hypocrisy it implies, then the "division" of humanity will reveal its genuine significance and the human couple will find its true form." Just so, the full realization of one element of the duality empowers the other to find his true form, in a relation that now manifests its true form for the first time.
What if we have never really spoken truly about ourselves, about our experience, and about the true nature of our relations? This thought haunts much of her work, and I respect that. Thus, she very profoundly partakes of the modern project to re-define the fundamentals of the human condition, or, at least, to re-explore, once more, what seemed to be a foreclosed issue. Her philosophical work is a clearing ground for accreted symbolic clutter that lives on only by a kind of inertia and distorts all that is seen and felt, thereby blocking out deeper reserves of meaning.
It is for us to ponder the means to a larger perspective that can contain the intractable ambiguities that she has so faithfully recorded for us here. Her work provides a map that lays out what it takes to genuinely know – and fully become - our own selves. Her unique historico-philosophical approach to self-knowledge encourages us to know our lives by placing our most intimate personal experience in the context of the broadest perspective attainable at our historic moment. Like all great thinkers who had anything of value to teach about self-knowledge, de Beauvoir holds before us the image of a great tree. In order to understand our particular twig, we must recover a map of the larger tree that holds us in place. The meanings that shape us and limit us can be seen truly only in this perspective of historical depth. This map is the surest ground on which we can lay out our personal stories.
February 27, 2017
3.5 Stars.
_____________________________________________
Although over three hundred pages,
this was a quick read.
Lots and lots of sex.
There were times when I wanted
them to take a nap or get something to eat.
I know the poor heroine had to be exhausted
after the author finished the book.
The actual suspense part of the plot kicked in
toward the end of Act Two.
By then I'd been so satiated and dripping with
sperm that I barely followed
the thrill of the small mystery.
By the end of the novel,
I was intrigued by a little twist
in the mystery
and some more sex. . .
Over all I give it 3.5 stars due to
the sex overloading and exhausting me.
________________________________________________________
Additionally, it shocked me that
the heroine was a virgin
and got it in so much in the beginning.
_______________________________________________________
That being said. . .
this is my new go-to author for erotic romance.
Loved her sex scenes.
She draws you into the heat
and doesn't let go until your burning on fire.
July 8, 2010
Trying to prove her brother's innocence when he's charged with embezzlement from the bank he works at, Kerry Sullivan needs the help of big time computer-security expert Rafael "Rafe" Dawson. But every time she tries to enlist his help he blows her of without listening to her story. Kerry decides to take matters into her own hands and abducts him in order to make him listen. When Rafe discovers his kidnapper is the same woman who has been phone-stalking him the past few weeks he comes up with a plan to escape. He bargains her into agreeing to a deal and the deal they strike soon turns into very hot and seductive.
If you pick this book up expecting a nice contemporary romance read with a bit of suspense, forget it! This is downright erotic romance. It's explicitly hot and Shelley Bradley tells it like it is, she doesn't embellish and doesn't tone down on the raw sexual attraction between Rafe and Kerry.
Both Rafe and Kerry haven't had easy childhoods but they each deal with it in very different ways.
Kerry hangs on to the people who haven't left her and she will do anything for them. She is loyal, brave, determined and sometimes a bit naive and willing to see the good in people even when it's clear that some are just plain evil. But she rises to the occasion when needed.
Rafe is a bit overbearing. He is alpha to the bone and just makes you melt for his rugged and raw sensuality. He is determined to proving to a father who never loved him or approved of him that he isn't the good-for-nothing son his father always pegged him for. He is building his own multi-million business to rub it in his father's face. But soon after meeting Kerry he discovers there's more to life than proving his worth to an unloving father.
I loved reading both characters and their fiery interactions. They had some on-liners that had me laughing out loud and some love scenes that were sizzling, intense and lascivious. The first part of the book is little more than erotic scenes linked together by the introduction of Kerry, Rafe and their backgrounds, together with the small beginning of a suspense plot. But the plot didn't have the upper hand in this book. It was the romance and the love scenes that dominated.
Sometimes the phrasing and one-liners were edging toward tumbling over the top and could've been toned down a bit, even if only in quantity. Sometimes it was really dangerously on the edge of turning cliché and shallow. But still Shelley knows how to rev it up. The interactions between Rafe and Kerry, both sexually and emotionally are intense and mesmerizing.
With the second part of the book she more than makes up for the first part both in the emotional department as action wise, picking up on the plot and feelings going beyond the instant sensuality between Rafe and Kerry and she finishes it with a satisfying conclusion. Next to the explicitness there are heartfelt emotional struggles, a suspense plot that's not elaborate but still well written and surprising. The main characters evolve from two people just going at it like bunnies, to a couple that fits each other perfectly and they are fleshed out nicely despite the abundance of eroticism. The story of initial lust and passion grows into something more profound and heart breaking.
Actually, contrary to my obsessive habit of reading books in the correct order, I read book 2 of this series (STRIP SEARCH) before I read this one (due to some logistic problems with receiving this book) but book 2 couldn't have prepared me for what I found in this book even if the books are related. And even though book 2 was explicit and hot too, I really think this book wins in all categories but still I can't say which one I liked more.
To date there are only two books in this series but I really hope Shelley Bradley will one day continue with another story in this setting. The books that are published and which I've read make me want more of her hot writing and her mafia-minded plots. For a contemporary romance the balance was slightly tipped towards the erotic side too much, which can turn away moderate contemporary romance readers but if classified as an erotic romance it provides all the elements needed and gives the reader who's into that genre a great book.
If you pick this book up expecting a nice contemporary romance read with a bit of suspense, forget it! This is downright erotic romance. It's explicitly hot and Shelley Bradley tells it like it is, she doesn't embellish and doesn't tone down on the raw sexual attraction between Rafe and Kerry.
Both Rafe and Kerry haven't had easy childhoods but they each deal with it in very different ways.
Kerry hangs on to the people who haven't left her and she will do anything for them. She is loyal, brave, determined and sometimes a bit naive and willing to see the good in people even when it's clear that some are just plain evil. But she rises to the occasion when needed.
Rafe is a bit overbearing. He is alpha to the bone and just makes you melt for his rugged and raw sensuality. He is determined to proving to a father who never loved him or approved of him that he isn't the good-for-nothing son his father always pegged him for. He is building his own multi-million business to rub it in his father's face. But soon after meeting Kerry he discovers there's more to life than proving his worth to an unloving father.
I loved reading both characters and their fiery interactions. They had some on-liners that had me laughing out loud and some love scenes that were sizzling, intense and lascivious. The first part of the book is little more than erotic scenes linked together by the introduction of Kerry, Rafe and their backgrounds, together with the small beginning of a suspense plot. But the plot didn't have the upper hand in this book. It was the romance and the love scenes that dominated.
Sometimes the phrasing and one-liners were edging toward tumbling over the top and could've been toned down a bit, even if only in quantity. Sometimes it was really dangerously on the edge of turning cliché and shallow. But still Shelley knows how to rev it up. The interactions between Rafe and Kerry, both sexually and emotionally are intense and mesmerizing.
With the second part of the book she more than makes up for the first part both in the emotional department as action wise, picking up on the plot and feelings going beyond the instant sensuality between Rafe and Kerry and she finishes it with a satisfying conclusion. Next to the explicitness there are heartfelt emotional struggles, a suspense plot that's not elaborate but still well written and surprising. The main characters evolve from two people just going at it like bunnies, to a couple that fits each other perfectly and they are fleshed out nicely despite the abundance of eroticism. The story of initial lust and passion grows into something more profound and heart breaking.
Actually, contrary to my obsessive habit of reading books in the correct order, I read book 2 of this series (STRIP SEARCH) before I read this one (due to some logistic problems with receiving this book) but book 2 couldn't have prepared me for what I found in this book even if the books are related. And even though book 2 was explicit and hot too, I really think this book wins in all categories but still I can't say which one I liked more.
To date there are only two books in this series but I really hope Shelley Bradley will one day continue with another story in this setting. The books that are published and which I've read make me want more of her hot writing and her mafia-minded plots. For a contemporary romance the balance was slightly tipped towards the erotic side too much, which can turn away moderate contemporary romance readers but if classified as an erotic romance it provides all the elements needed and gives the reader who's into that genre a great book.
May 20, 2010
Kerry (with a K) is in desperate need to prove her brother isn't guilty for stealing money for the bank that he works for. Which is why she needs Rafe, she's tried to get a hold of him multiple times prior to hear out her situation and hopefully offer some assistance. But Rafe (who has turned his hobby of hacking into a business -- smart man) has already decided that he has no interest to help her. So desperate Kerry comes up with a plan. Kidnap him. She's brilliant, isn't she? So she does exactly that with the help of her brother's best friend, Jason.
The books goes on with Rafe struggling with his feelings for Kerry and what he know's he can't provide for her. And Kerry struggles with her feelings for Rafe and how insecure she feels about them. The steamy scenes were indeed steamy! And a lot of the time they were followed by an aww moment. For an erotica, this book had a really really strong plot in the background. If you were to take out the steamy scenes, it would still make a great suspense story! While you're hoping that they would just out with their feelings for each other, you're also eager to know who framed Kerry's brother? And why? The clues building up make you assume who the person guilty for it is... but the ending I promise will leave you gasping in shock like it did for me!
The books goes on with Rafe struggling with his feelings for Kerry and what he know's he can't provide for her. And Kerry struggles with her feelings for Rafe and how insecure she feels about them. The steamy scenes were indeed steamy! And a lot of the time they were followed by an aww moment. For an erotica, this book had a really really strong plot in the background. If you were to take out the steamy scenes, it would still make a great suspense story! While you're hoping that they would just out with their feelings for each other, you're also eager to know who framed Kerry's brother? And why? The clues building up make you assume who the person guilty for it is... but the ending I promise will leave you gasping in shock like it did for me!
August 10, 2016
*ARC received in exchange for an honest review*
Bound & Determined is the story of what happens when desperation is all you have left. Kerry is a twenty three year old virgin that has no one left in the world but her brother, Mark. Mark is currently awaiting trial for embezzling millions of dollars from the bank he worked at. The only way Kerry can help Mark is to enlist the help of computer security specialist Rafael Dawson. Unfortunately Rafe, as he prefers to be called, is arrogant and far more concerned with earning his millions, which he is preparing to shove in his estranged father’s face. Kerry’s desperation leads her to do the unthinkable. Rafe has to be help if he has no choice, doesn’t he? Bound and Determined sizzled from the very beginning. Ms. Black crafted an outstanding tale of intrigue in which the sexual relationship was very much a part of the story, not simply thrown in, for the sake of calling it erotica. The book was a fast, easy, read that I was engrossed with from the moment I opened the cover. This is five star reading at its finest.
Bound & Determined is the story of what happens when desperation is all you have left. Kerry is a twenty three year old virgin that has no one left in the world but her brother, Mark. Mark is currently awaiting trial for embezzling millions of dollars from the bank he worked at. The only way Kerry can help Mark is to enlist the help of computer security specialist Rafael Dawson. Unfortunately Rafe, as he prefers to be called, is arrogant and far more concerned with earning his millions, which he is preparing to shove in his estranged father’s face. Kerry’s desperation leads her to do the unthinkable. Rafe has to be help if he has no choice, doesn’t he? Bound and Determined sizzled from the very beginning. Ms. Black crafted an outstanding tale of intrigue in which the sexual relationship was very much a part of the story, not simply thrown in, for the sake of calling it erotica. The book was a fast, easy, read that I was engrossed with from the moment I opened the cover. This is five star reading at its finest.
April 13, 2009
Shayla Black (writing as Shelley Bradley) has a definite talent for bringing her characters to life, making the reader feel as if they are a fly on the wall watching the story unfold. I can't get enough of her! The chemistry between the lead duo Rafe and Kerry was sizzling HOT! Well developed characters, a fast-paced engaging plot with lots of twists and turns and an extremely sexy love story. Can't wait for the re-release of Strip Search in July, this isn't a series but recurring characters!
March 27, 2011
Kerry´s brother is framed for embezzling millions from his employer and noone can help her solve the puzzle of who´s framing him except security expert Rafe. A man who won´t take her calls after all her crying and begging. So she comes up with a plan, to kidnap him and persuade him to help her. =) Great plan.
Love the book, Kerry is a sweetheart and Rafe has a heart of gold even if he doesn´t want to admit that.
Love the book, Kerry is a sweetheart and Rafe has a heart of gold even if he doesn´t want to admit that.
May 9, 2011
....sigh......every girl should have a fantasy .....I do like her "Wicked Lover's" series better, but this was a nice story for a Sunday afternoon. I liked the characters, and the plot guided them through the story enough that the sex didn't seem to out of place. I found the book charming in its innocence of Kerry's character and the "little boy lost" of Rafe. Not a best seller or a keepsake book, but a nice read anyway. Looking forward to Mark's story.
Read
August 21, 2014DNF. :( There was nothing interesting in this story for me and after 50% I couldn't find it in me to have any interest to go back to reading the other half or knowing what happens to the characters. Sad about it because I liked the novella I read in this series. Will probably try for book 2 at some point.
March 17, 2014
omg this book is awesome, i wanted to know more n more, n it kept me captivating, shayla and shelly good job, i so love rafe
December 9, 2018
Huh. It ... felt like reading this book took for-ev-er but ... I'm pretty sure I started it December 6th ... and I finished it ~yesterday so ... [Maybe I started it the night of December 5th/early early morning December 6th?]
I so wanted to love this book, even though I was a smidge iffy on the premise and ... unfortunately this book made me 😒 and kinda think "oh. this is why I haven't read the author in a decade"
Which is really disappointing because OBVIOUSLY I've been on a huge kick and I even re-read the first "Perfect Gentlemen" book again ~yesterday ...
And I enjoyed so many of the Dark Desires (?) books.
This one though... I ABSOLUTELY understand it was written prior to, and published in 2006. And I really really tried to keep that in mind while reading it. ... Unfortunately/however, even giving it that "handicap" [LIKE GOLF- SO A NICE THING] - and suspending disbelief on how ~outdated so many things were ... I felt there were still too many issues.
The name dropping etc. Oh that was rough. And also ... the snarky? Like, slut shaming Anna Nicole Smith which - bad look, these days ... and then the ~hero saying this other character "is gay" as an insult. [Especially considering Kevin Hart just lost his Oscars hosting gig...]
I GET people can change, and likely (hopefully maybe?) Shayla Black wouldn't be thinking or writing things like that these days ...
but just - there were all those issue.
BUT EVEN MORE- the heroine says her sister in law "makes the poodle next door look like Einstein" but ... really I felt she was the one who was dumber than rocks. There was a loooooooooooot of TSTL.
And I personally hate the "I'm a freak because I'm a 23 year old virgin" thing. It's a huge pet peeve of mine. [Like, bitch - if you're SO ANNOYED by your virginity - just GO OUT AND FUCK SOMEONE? - obviously JUST the virginity is not the issue.] Also I think it's a super shitty lazy trope.
So.
Then the hero is all "oh I'm too damaged and nobody can love me"
... oh my gooood these characters needed to get over themselves.
I read half, then read with some skimming because there's only so much angsting and contradictory shit I can handle. Plus Jason being so one note and obvious - it was just clunky.
I actually ... while it was too over the top, liked how there was a "twist" to who the villain was.
Sad to say this book was meh - and I guess I did finish it but it made me grumpy.
D
I so wanted to love this book, even though I was a smidge iffy on the premise and ... unfortunately this book made me 😒 and kinda think "oh. this is why I haven't read the author in a decade"
Which is really disappointing because OBVIOUSLY I've been on a huge kick and I even re-read the first "Perfect Gentlemen" book again ~yesterday ...
And I enjoyed so many of the Dark Desires (?) books.
This one though... I ABSOLUTELY understand it was written prior to, and published in 2006. And I really really tried to keep that in mind while reading it. ... Unfortunately/however, even giving it that "handicap" [LIKE GOLF- SO A NICE THING] - and suspending disbelief on how ~outdated so many things were ... I felt there were still too many issues.
The name dropping etc. Oh that was rough. And also ... the snarky? Like, slut shaming Anna Nicole Smith which - bad look, these days ... and then the ~hero saying this other character "is gay" as an insult. [Especially considering Kevin Hart just lost his Oscars hosting gig...]
I GET people can change, and likely (hopefully maybe?) Shayla Black wouldn't be thinking or writing things like that these days ...
but just - there were all those issue.
BUT EVEN MORE- the heroine says her sister in law "makes the poodle next door look like Einstein" but ... really I felt she was the one who was dumber than rocks. There was a loooooooooooot of TSTL.
And I personally hate the "I'm a freak because I'm a 23 year old virgin" thing. It's a huge pet peeve of mine. [Like, bitch - if you're SO ANNOYED by your virginity - just GO OUT AND FUCK SOMEONE? - obviously JUST the virginity is not the issue.] Also I think it's a super shitty lazy trope.
So.
Then the hero is all "oh I'm too damaged and nobody can love me"
... oh my gooood these characters needed to get over themselves.
I read half, then read with some skimming because there's only so much angsting and contradictory shit I can handle. Plus Jason being so one note and obvious - it was just clunky.
I actually ... while it was too over the top, liked how there was a "twist" to who the villain was.
Sad to say this book was meh - and I guess I did finish it but it made me grumpy.
D
August 30, 2020
il libro parte bene, l'idea di rapire un hacker per salvare il fratello fingendosi un'escort è carina, poi shelley precipita in un mare di ovvietà ed è la fine. premetto che questa autrice mi piace molto. però. intanto, non si capisce perchè il fatto che a 23 anni la protagonista sia vergine serva alla trama. non serve. anzi, crea incongruenze inutili. lo stereotipo della vergine che si concede per salvare un altro uomo (il fratello, in questo caso) è sin troppo sfruttato e non lo vedo bene in questo contesto. non si menzionano perdite ematiche sia pur lievi, nè doloretti anche minimi di assestamento. anzi. l'ovvietà risiede nel fatto che l'ignoranza di lei viene trasformata in un insaziabile desiderio erotico. ma ho proseguito. altro cliché: perchè gli uomini devono avere tutti un master in orgasmica e punto G? gli sfigati li incontro solo io? d'accordo, è un romanzo d'evasione: leggere di sfigati potrebbe essere un tantino deludente, ma qualche difettuccio glielo vogliamo lasciare? per renderli più umani e meno semidei? bah. l'intrigo di sottotrama nel frattempo viene dipanato e anche se vorrei sapere chi è il colpevole, mi fermo. questi due sono peggio di bonobo relegati in gabbia. il troppo stroppia. adieu.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 22, 2020
I can't believe I wasted three days on this. What the hell did I just read? Don't get me wrong, I like to read sexy romance novels but there was not plot at all..only at the last quarter of the book was when things actually happened besides 24\7 sex. Ugh it was so hard to read this, it was so boring and no story that made sense. Characters are flat and soo not original. I have no words for this. It was just horrible. I almost gave up on it and not finish it but I hate leaving books unread.
Trust me, if you are an avid reader, stay away from this one. I'm still so mad I wasted my time..when I could've read some Stephen King. Lesson learned..stay with authors that you trust.
I have to be honest..the writing was not bad and the sex scenes where sexy and well written, but there was nooooo plot. Like I said..sex scenes for like 90% of the book. Not cool at all.
Trust me, if you are an avid reader, stay away from this one. I'm still so mad I wasted my time..when I could've read some Stephen King. Lesson learned..stay with authors that you trust.
I have to be honest..the writing was not bad and the sex scenes where sexy and well written, but there was nooooo plot. Like I said..sex scenes for like 90% of the book. Not cool at all.
May 9, 2023
Bound & Determined
Shelley Bradley, Shayla Black
Rating 3.5 ⭐️
Spice: 4 🌶
I have to say this book was really good. It had it all suspense, heat, drama, and spicy scenes.
This book won't leave you disappointed, just wanting more.
Kerry wants to help her brother, who got locked up on charges from the bank he works at. She doesn't know what to do, she tries to get Rafe to help her. He's somewhat of a grumpy, billionaire hard a**. She tricks him up and kidnaps him to force him to help her with her brother's case. She even offers herself up as payment.
The chemistry from these two is off the charts. Definitely check this book out & and find out all the drama/suspense that happens trying to get her brother out of jail and her interactions with Rafe.
Shelley Bradley, Shayla Black
Rating 3.5 ⭐️
Spice: 4 🌶
I have to say this book was really good. It had it all suspense, heat, drama, and spicy scenes.
This book won't leave you disappointed, just wanting more.
Kerry wants to help her brother, who got locked up on charges from the bank he works at. She doesn't know what to do, she tries to get Rafe to help her. He's somewhat of a grumpy, billionaire hard a**. She tricks him up and kidnaps him to force him to help her with her brother's case. She even offers herself up as payment.
The chemistry from these two is off the charts. Definitely check this book out & and find out all the drama/suspense that happens trying to get her brother out of jail and her interactions with Rafe.
December 30, 2020
Great book.
I loved this book. It’s a fun and sexy read and I loved that I felt their emotions. Is Kerry’s brother really innocent? She’ll do anything to help prove it, even to kidnapping Rafe. Loved their chemistry and he really fought his feelings for her. I felt their heartbreak and had some tears. Thankfully they get a very happy ever after. I highly recommend this book and excited to read the next one in this series. I actually read the last book first.
I loved this book. It’s a fun and sexy read and I loved that I felt their emotions. Is Kerry’s brother really innocent? She’ll do anything to help prove it, even to kidnapping Rafe. Loved their chemistry and he really fought his feelings for her. I felt their heartbreak and had some tears. Thankfully they get a very happy ever after. I highly recommend this book and excited to read the next one in this series. I actually read the last book first.
May 28, 2018
I really, really liked this book. The h was trying to help her brother, the only way she knew how. The H was such an island, no friends, removed from family....... yet these two bonded and the HEA was very rewarding.
March 26, 2024
DNF
I like spicy books but this was all sex I wasn’t connected to the characters I wanted more plot. I don’t think it’s a bad book just not for me right now I might go back one day and finish it when I’m in the mood for a lot more spice but I’m really into the plot of books lately
I like spicy books but this was all sex I wasn’t connected to the characters I wanted more plot. I don’t think it’s a bad book just not for me right now I might go back one day and finish it when I’m in the mood for a lot more spice but I’m really into the plot of books lately
February 3, 2018
Sorry I don't write reviews, I just rate the books I read and if a book gets a five star from it was a very good book.
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