BOOK REVIEW:
His To Possess
 |
| Gold watch in cover actually is a reference to a past memory between the Ranier brothers. Neat huh? |
When reading erotic romance, I always go about it slowly…
Why? Because I tend to become to disenchanted with all the sex scenes, and
considering there are plenty of sex in an erotic romance, it sorta takes away
the whole point if I skipped through.
So I just go about it slowly, setting a reasonable page
count/day until The End. It doesn’t mean I hate the erotic romance genre, or
this next book I’m reviewing, it can sometimes be a bit too much when, I don’t
know, the characters are having sex everywhere (i.e.in the office, during a
friggin’ meeting, against the office window, with two blood-related men—egads!)
And I do believe that every reader goes in with their own
pre-established comfort zone concerning the topic of sex—what it is, what it
isn’t, what’s hot, what’s not, etc. For some readers these books can even be
educational…you walk away and learn something, hey, why not?
And although Opal Carew’s His To Possess did not teach me anything new in the toy department—which
to be honest says a lot about my perverted mind—it wasn’t super kinky like the
more recent His To Command (ßcheck out my review for
that one).
Not very kinky, but it was still pretty fun to read. I fell
in love with one of the secondary characters, Melanie, who will star in the 2nd
book of this duology… Unfortunately I didn’t really bond with heroine Jessica
Long, or the hero Dane Ranier.
Where do I begin with these two?
Well, first these two had the most annoying set-up ever in
all the romance books I’ve read this year. The whole rain-so-let-me-offer-you-a-ride
scenario. I mean, do people actually meet this way? I’ve never even had someone
offer me an umbrella while waiting at the bus stop sans shelter…
It was irritating but I let it slide because A) Jessica is
the new girl in Philadelphia and I can imagine how hard it is to transition
into a new life in a new place, and B) I was, what, 15 pages in and I figured
this couldn’t get more annoyingly cliché. Of course it did when Jessica ends up
getting a scoped by Dane’s company, Ranier Industries at a hiring fair and she
gets the job which nails down her big move to the city of…brothers?*
After she finds out that Dane is her new boss and the
co-owner of Ranier Industries had pulled strings to get her the job as his
personal assistant in the growing company, she doesn’t…I don’t know…think it’s
highly inappropriate now that they slept together?
But she surprises me by setting up professional boundaries
because she’s been heartbroken once and she WON’T, just can’t STAND to have sex
with Dane the billionaire who totally wants to bang her so bad he got her a
well-paying job that basically pays for her new life in Philadelphia.
That lasts about another 20 pages and they’re back to
screwing like bunnies in heat. Fine. Whatever with the sex part, I signed up
for that, but I did NOT sign up for Jessica’s back-and-forth assery as soon as
Dane’s little brother, Rafe comes into the picture about halfway through the
book.
Up to that point I sorta grew on Jessica and Dane and their
attraction past the hot sex to each other.
Rafe has a past with Jessica and now he’s ready to rekindle
it, and suddenly Jessica doesn’t know which of these two billionaire brothers—who,
may I remind you are BOTH her bosses; Rafe being the other co-owner of Ranier
Industries—is in her flippin’ future.
That’s fine. She’s got the rich, more mature versions of
Edward/Dane and Jacob/Rafe, but then she opens her big fat mouth and says this:
"That's right. I slept with both of you. This is a very confusing and emotional situation for me and I'm dealing with it as best I can. But I haven't lied abut anything I've done, and I haven't agreed to a commitment with either one of you." She placed her hands on her hips. "And maybe I like it that way. It's not like you own me. Maybe I'll keep on sleeping with both of you." She glared at them. "If either one of you wants to stop, just say the word." (pg. 84)
Excuse me for a second.
What?!
Oh, how I wished
that the next part wrapped up in a quick ending where both Dane and Rafe left
Jessica’s ass and decided Melanie, poor Melanie, was their dream lady all
along. Just sayin’.
I don’t think this empowered Jessica or made her a “strong
female heroine” (ß
a phrase which pisses me off btw), it just made me want to give up and stamp a
DNF at pg. 275.
And the thing is I actually didn’t mind the character
development of other characters, Rafe and Melanie, even Dane might rank third—though
tbh he was like a wall fixture compared to Rafe who actually become the life of
the company on his introduction. But Jessica just pissed me off to no end.
Considering this was a romance
The sex scenes were hot, I must admit, but sex doesn’t make
up for the crappy heroine or the bland hero.
It’s okay, but make sure you read His To Possess with Rafe and Melanie’s story in His To Claim. Seriously those two had
WAY more chemistry. If you’re going to dredge through this one now that your
victory treat on completion is book 2 of the duology. :)
My verdict:
✮✮.5
(2.5 stars)
*Fun fact: Philadelphia actually means lover of brothers in Greek. And most of the internal conflict for Dane is his rocky relationship with his little brother. Don't know if the author did this on purpose, but I thought it was pretty cool. Cool enough to share it here at least.
No comments:
Post a Comment