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Book Review of Bared to You (Crossfire, Bk 1)

Bared to You (Crossfire, Bk 1)
skywriter319 avatar reviewed on + 784 more book reviews


Ah, an actually worthy erotica title to recommend! While it is not perfect, BARED TO YOU blows Fifty Shades of Grey completely out of the water with its put-together writing and incredible protagonist.

Seriously, Im not exaggerating when I say that Eva Tramell is incredible. Why was the passive, plain, who, me? female protagonist ever in vogue? I say that Evas independent, forward, and dont-cross-this-line-with-me personality should be the model for future romantic protagonists! The thing that drove me craziest in FSoG was how Ana let Christian walk all over her: Oh, youre a man, youre rich, youre handsome, youre experiencedyou obviously know me better than I know myself. Hehe! Gag. No, Eva knows what she wants. Shes not afraid to voice her desires, and shell put her foot down if Gideon does or says anything that gets her riled up. That she does all of this while being a survivor of childhood trauma makes her even more impressive and sympathetic. And she gets jealous and insecure, like everyone else. Wow! Eva should be every mansand even every womansdream. She sure has become mine.

On the other hand, rather disturbingly, Gideon Cross is kind of less appealing than Christian Gray. Christian at least is a man, albeit one with a mysterious and troubled past. Gideon, on the other hand, is like a man-child with too much money and time on his hand. Ooh, pretty shiny woman, me want, me want more than anything in my life, gimme! Sexyuh, yeah, no. I appreciated that Eva was the stronger person in their relationship, instead of letting the troubled Gideon walk all over her (a la Ana Steele). Gideon grew on me by the endhis utter determination to get help for himself in order to make Eva happy and keep her safe definitely threw points in his favorand besides, without his oftentimes outrageous behavior, there wouldnt be a story, would there?

The beginningup to Eva and Gideon getting togetherfelt a little forced in terms of the writing, but the sexytimes are hot hot hot, and Sylvia Day has created major and minor characters that youll find yourself getting attached to before you even realize it. You should read this if you like erotica but felt FSoG was lacking in good writing technique and a compelling character relationship. Because BARED TO YOU delivers on exactly those fronts.