It's Getting Hot in Here!

Wow!  I'm not even sure where to go with this one. Let me start by stating that if you thought Fifty Shades of Grey was a hot steamy book then you haven't read nothing yet!  Coined as a "similar" style book to Shades, I found a new story to read, Bared to You by Sylvia Day, the first in a new series entitled Crossfire.  

Day's novel starts much like a typical romance 
novel but quickly takes the reader into a much more sophisticated journey between the smart and hard working Eva Trammel and the white-hot mega billionaire, Gideon Cross.  Eva and Gideon instantly feel a connection between them and Gideon isn't shy about telling Eva exactly what he wants from her right from the get go.  The two, who initially want nothing more than a physical relationship, quickly begin to develop a more serious relationship and through this, we also start to see the flaws that both characters have.  Both are scarred and have some type of non-consensual sex pasts that they are reluctant to fully divulge to each other.  


We go through this roller coaster of a relationship with Eva and Gideon with both characters making mistakes, following old patterns, etc.  I like that Day made the characters real.  They mess up in relationships and say dumb things like the rest of us.  They run away from their problems instead of confronting them.  Both characters yell and scream at each other and it is very volatile.  They then tend to fall back on the one thing that they're both good at, and good with each other at:  sex.  They have cataclysmic, eye-popping, writhing in your pants sex.  Every.  Single.  Time.  Now, I'm no expert but this is the one thing that seemed a bit unbelievable to me.  I'm not saying that two people can't have a great time and trust me, the author did a phenomenal job describing the hot, steamy sex scenes but I just think that it would be more believable if they had more awkward moments between them...between the sheets.


I also wish that Day had developed the characters a little more.  I didn't feel a big connection with them or the intense emotional connection between them.  It was clear there was attraction, but I didn't feel much more.  I don't know if the writer's intention is to drag that out more and reveal more in the next couple books in the trilogy or what.  This book deals mostly with Eva and her issues and her past, while revealing only a small amount about Gideon.  We only know that they're both emotionally scarred.  There is no real emotional depth to either of them.


Yes, there is a lot of sex going on in this novel and 
a small amount of discussion about being dominate and submissive (personally I think the writer should've left it out altogether; that part really did seem like a rip off), but that is where the comparisons should end between Bared to You and Shades.  They are both very different books with relationships and characters that are very unique to their writers.  


Though I read this book easily in a day, I'm still not entirely sure if I liked it.  Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike it either.  I'm just not sure.  I'm looking forward to the follow up novels in this series, hoping that putting them all together will make for a more cohesive story and better understanding of the characters and their lives.  So for now, I will give it a 6.5 out of 10.  






*Any links posted are not endorsements for that company or business, nor has that company or business payed me to use their name or likeness in any way.*