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challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Abandonment
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content
Moderate: Death, Gore, Death of parent
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
💬: “That was the biggest problem with getting used to someone, she thought. You were lonely when they weren’t there."
Robb, J.D.. Naked in Death (In Death, Book 1) (p. 347). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
📖Genres: romance, dark, thriller, mystery, crime, suspense
📚Page Count: 373
🎧Audiobook Length: 10h 17min
👩🏾🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️ 2/5
Naked in Death is the first book in the "In Death" series by J.D Robb (who is actually romance writer, Nora Roberts). In the year 2058 Detective Eve Dallas is residing in New York when she gets a case where a senator's daughter is murdered and it's discovered that the vicitim was a full service sex worker. The case then becomes a high profile case and Dallas enters a world of politics in order to track down the killer. While the case is taking place, Dallas becomes enthralled with Roarke, one of the leading suspects. Is Dallas' attraction to Roarke leading her to disaster or will she find the murderer and close the case?
I think overall this story was okay, there were things I liked and things I didn't like. I really have issues with Roarke becausehe's very controlling and seems to not take "no" for an answer. I found it a bit disturbing how the sex workers in the book were talked about but I keep trying to remind myself that this was written in 1995 and there are going to be some characters who are against sex workers because of prejudice so their dialogue about the sex workers reflects that. I did like how this takes place in the future, and all the futuristic and scientific advancements and inventions in the story were clever and very interesting. I also like how I didn't guess what the ending was going to be until it was already in motion and being explained to the reader.
The spicy scenes in here were either the beginning of murder scenes or they were intended to be sexy but were lacking consent, and in these instances it was evident that this novel was written in the 90s. The love interest has the idea that he knows what the main character wants more than she does, and so he's not respecting her boundaries. In fact, the love interest keeps pushing up against Eve's boundaries in the hopes that he can bend them. I'm giving it zero chilies 🌶️ out of five chilies.
Overall, this novel had it's issues but it also had some interesting elements. I think the lack of consent when it came to the love interest was a big issue with the story. I really enjoyed the ending, it was action packed and even though I still had questions at the end I definitely didn't guess that it was going to end the way it did. Instead of giving this novel 1 stars for the lack of consent all throughout, I'm giving this 2 stars out of 5.
⭐️⭐️
2/5
I listened to this audiobook for free on [Libbyapp.com]
Robb, J.D.. Naked in Death (In Death, Book 1) (p. 347). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
📖Genres: romance, dark, thriller, mystery, crime, suspense
📚Page Count: 373
🎧Audiobook Length: 10h 17min
👩🏾🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️ 2/5
Naked in Death is the first book in the "In Death" series by J.D Robb (who is actually romance writer, Nora Roberts). In the year 2058 Detective Eve Dallas is residing in New York when she gets a case where a senator's daughter is murdered and it's discovered that the vicitim was a full service sex worker. The case then becomes a high profile case and Dallas enters a world of politics in order to track down the killer. While the case is taking place, Dallas becomes enthralled with Roarke, one of the leading suspects. Is Dallas' attraction to Roarke leading her to disaster or will she find the murderer and close the case?
I think overall this story was okay, there were things I liked and things I didn't like. I really have issues with Roarke because
The spicy scenes in here were either the beginning of murder scenes or they were intended to be sexy but were lacking consent, and in these instances it was evident that this novel was written in the 90s. The love interest has the idea that he knows what the main character wants more than she does, and so he's not respecting her boundaries. In fact, the love interest keeps pushing up against Eve's boundaries in the hopes that he can bend them. I'm giving it zero chilies 🌶️ out of five chilies.
Overall, this novel had it's issues but it also had some interesting elements. I think the lack of consent when it came to the love interest was a big issue with the story. I really enjoyed the ending, it was action packed and even though I still had questions at the end I definitely didn't guess that it was going to end the way it did. Instead of giving this novel 1 stars for the lack of consent all throughout, I'm giving this 2 stars out of 5.
⭐️⭐️
2/5
I listened to this audiobook for free on [Libbyapp.com]
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
CW: explicit horrific sexual violence, gun violence, paedophilia, rape, murder, dismemberment of a small child, and non-consensual everything, oh and armed robbery with a bomb
Don't read any further if this is too much.
This was a book that was recommended to me at the local library. Why? I guess the librarian thought I might want to branch out a bit, and I liked "futuristic" stuff. Every time I tried to figure out why this book might be a popular choice I was reminded that it was written in 1995.. and we just had different expectations back then. The only reason I stuck it out is because I'm a masochist like that. J.D. Robb is a pen name of Nora Roberts. Apparently these books are popular but I don't think that is with a Left-Progressive crowd.
Eve is a cop who works homicide, in a gritty 90s-view dark future made clumsier still by the relics like discs for recording media. She has a shadowy past and is an abuse survivor, who won't let herself get close to anybody. She is a "good cop" and fits the bill for what passes as a "strong female character" if you lived in the mid 90s.
In the middle of a homicide investigation, Eve manages to decide that a particular hot guy couldn't possibly have done it, and get romantically involved with him before the case is even closed. Rourke (yes he only goes by one name) is a paint by numbers fantasy man who ticks all the boxes on a list of Desirable Attributes that don't attract me in the the least. He is a buff, ultra-rich Libertarian hustler who likes to buy things that have been banned (like tobacco and beef). It all feels a little Demolition Man, but without the tongue in cheek. To make him a little more exotic the author made him Irish, but as the Audiobook narrator can't do an Irish accent to save herself, she typically doesn't bother except every now and then when she remembers he's supposed to be Foreign.
This edition was recorded in 2000, and unfortunately it has plenty of mouth noise, breath intake, and even chair squeak in the recording. It's not quite as amateurish as volunteer projects like Librivox, but there are obvious cuts in the recording and poor sound balance between chapters.
The fancy future tech like "palm computer" was named way too explicitly to be anything less than cringey now, especially as it's not set so far in the future so a lot of those dates are now in the past. I've read and seen a lot of sci-fi where things don't mention dates, or that deliberately throw otherworldly tech into a modern setting making things clearly an alternate reality, so there are ways around this. Not bothering to explain what the tech is, and just using it in a "show don't tell" way is pretty common even in sci-fi from the 60s, but this author didn't get that memo, so the futurism was poorly pulled off, and basically needless anyway - as the crime in the mystery was using "20th century tech". The hacking scene was utterly ridiculous; omg he can use a keyboard rather than just voice commands *gasp*, down to the 'this is going to take over an hour a while for my computer cracks the security code...' wow. Even in 1995 I knew more about data security than this author.
There is a lot of snuff porn in this book. It's gross and needless. I think it's supposed to be edgy but it's just lame. We have video footage of escorts being brutalised, sexual gun violence and paedophilia roleplay, that is delivered in such a way that we are treading a nasty line. It feels like the author is trying to be grotesque and say 'isn't this awful!' but also, the content seems to be delivered to be arousing. If that was not supposed to be the intent then Roberts is completely tone deaf to it, but more likely is that it's supremely gross, deliberately inflammatory, and .. not even artful. Was this what passed for entertainment in the 90s?!
And where are the boundaries??! Rourke manages to impose himself on our hero whenever he likes. Not only does he own a whole bunch of buildings and the master key to all of them, but he ignores any law he doesn't like and rocks on up to wait for you in your apartment as a giga-chad version of the romantic gesture. This is a guy for whom every "no" is interpreted as a "not yet". He is Alpha dominance and a permanent display of unrelenting desire.. and you are supposed to like him because he's picked a favourite and is monogamous? He's powerful, buys you real imported coffee, and is nice to you... watch as he leaps low bars with a single bound! Maybe this would have appealed to me when I was 19 but these days I expect a little more from a man than to be borderline rapey and disrespectful of my personal boundaries. The romancey boffing was, not even that good.
One of the other distressing bits of this story is that all the abuse victims are badgered to tell their story, even the ones for whom their trauma was so damaging that they have repressed memory of it. What's worse is that it feels predatory and voyeuristic.
As far as a murder mystery goes, the plot was fairly obvious the moment you identified who had the most to gain,actually using the oldest whodunnit trope in the book and it was barely important to the frolicking sexplay or the vulgar ugliness of the violence and depravity.
Fine. I seem to hate this enough to give it a 1 star.. it's not as lumbering as Wilbur Smith, but almost as affronting.
Don't read any further if this is too much.
This was a book that was recommended to me at the local library. Why? I guess the librarian thought I might want to branch out a bit, and I liked "futuristic" stuff. Every time I tried to figure out why this book might be a popular choice I was reminded that it was written in 1995.. and we just had different expectations back then. The only reason I stuck it out is because I'm a masochist like that. J.D. Robb is a pen name of Nora Roberts. Apparently these books are popular but I don't think that is with a Left-Progressive crowd.
Eve is a cop who works homicide, in a gritty 90s-view dark future made clumsier still by the relics like discs for recording media. She has a shadowy past and is an abuse survivor, who won't let herself get close to anybody. She is a "good cop" and fits the bill for what passes as a "strong female character" if you lived in the mid 90s.
In the middle of a homicide investigation, Eve manages to decide that a particular hot guy couldn't possibly have done it, and get romantically involved with him before the case is even closed. Rourke (yes he only goes by one name) is a paint by numbers fantasy man who ticks all the boxes on a list of Desirable Attributes that don't attract me in the the least. He is a buff, ultra-rich Libertarian hustler who likes to buy things that have been banned (like tobacco and beef). It all feels a little Demolition Man, but without the tongue in cheek. To make him a little more exotic the author made him Irish, but as the Audiobook narrator can't do an Irish accent to save herself, she typically doesn't bother except every now and then when she remembers he's supposed to be Foreign.
This edition was recorded in 2000, and unfortunately it has plenty of mouth noise, breath intake, and even chair squeak in the recording. It's not quite as amateurish as volunteer projects like Librivox, but there are obvious cuts in the recording and poor sound balance between chapters.
The fancy future tech like "palm computer" was named way too explicitly to be anything less than cringey now, especially as it's not set so far in the future so a lot of those dates are now in the past. I've read and seen a lot of sci-fi where things don't mention dates, or that deliberately throw otherworldly tech into a modern setting making things clearly an alternate reality, so there are ways around this. Not bothering to explain what the tech is, and just using it in a "show don't tell" way is pretty common even in sci-fi from the 60s, but this author didn't get that memo, so the futurism was poorly pulled off, and basically needless anyway - as the crime in the mystery was using "20th century tech". The hacking scene was utterly ridiculous; omg he can use a keyboard rather than just voice commands *gasp*, down to the 'this is going to take over an hour a while for my computer cracks the security code...' wow. Even in 1995 I knew more about data security than this author.
There is a lot of snuff porn in this book. It's gross and needless. I think it's supposed to be edgy but it's just lame. We have video footage of escorts being brutalised, sexual gun violence and paedophilia roleplay, that is delivered in such a way that we are treading a nasty line. It feels like the author is trying to be grotesque and say 'isn't this awful!' but also, the content seems to be delivered to be arousing. If that was not supposed to be the intent then Roberts is completely tone deaf to it, but more likely is that it's supremely gross, deliberately inflammatory, and .. not even artful. Was this what passed for entertainment in the 90s?!
And where are the boundaries??! Rourke manages to impose himself on our hero whenever he likes. Not only does he own a whole bunch of buildings and the master key to all of them, but he ignores any law he doesn't like and rocks on up to wait for you in your apartment as a giga-chad version of the romantic gesture. This is a guy for whom every "no" is interpreted as a "not yet". He is Alpha dominance and a permanent display of unrelenting desire.. and you are supposed to like him because he's picked a favourite and is monogamous? He's powerful, buys you real imported coffee, and is nice to you... watch as he leaps low bars with a single bound! Maybe this would have appealed to me when I was 19 but these days I expect a little more from a man than to be borderline rapey and disrespectful of my personal boundaries. The romancey boffing was, not even that good.
One of the other distressing bits of this story is that all the abuse victims are badgered to tell their story, even the ones for whom their trauma was so damaging that they have repressed memory of it. What's worse is that it feels predatory and voyeuristic.
As far as a murder mystery goes, the plot was fairly obvious the moment you identified who had the most to gain,
Fine. I seem to hate this enough to give it a 1 star.. it's not as lumbering as Wilbur Smith, but almost as affronting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Vomit, Abandonment, Alcohol
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
On paper, I should have loved this. A complex mystery, a prickly heroine, and an enigmatic hero? That sounds right up my alley. Alas.
I did try and ended up DNFing this a few years ago because I didn’t like the hero, Roarke. I couldn’t remember much about it and it seems like everyone in the romance sphere talks about what a perfect, amazing hero he is so I thought, Well, I must have been missing something last time I attempted to read it, let me try again. I managed to push myself to finish it, but I hated him even more this time around.
I did try and ended up DNFing this a few years ago because I didn’t like the hero, Roarke. I couldn’t remember much about it and it seems like everyone in the romance sphere talks about what a perfect, amazing hero he is so I thought, Well, I must have been missing something last time I attempted to read it, let me try again. I managed to push myself to finish it, but I hated him even more this time around.
Granted, I don’t like alphahole heroes in general, but in my opinion he went way past that and was straight-up abusive. He’s manipulative and controlling, uses physical force on Eve, breaks into her apartment (literally waits for her in the dark while he knows she’s investigating a very disturbing case as well, I might add), violates her privacy, has sex with her twice after she says no and tells him to stop (but apparently it’s OK because he could see ~desire in her eyes~ or whatever), and just generally stomps all over her boundaries. I can tolerate some degree of overbearing/high-handed behaviour in books but it felt more like he saw Eve as an object to be possessed than love. That’s the kind of hero I might expect to encounter in a dark romance (which is why I avoid that genre) but this wasn’t billed as a dark romance.
The murders being investigated (and Eve’s past) were also much more graphic and disturbing than I was expecting. I could have dealt with it if I had enjoyed the romance itself but combined with the abusive elements in the romance it just made me extremely uncomfortable. At more than one point I actually suspected that Roarke was the killer based on his behaviour.
I did really like Eve, even though IMO she wasn’t anywhere near as competent as the narrative portrayed her to be. She literally doesn't figure out who the killer is until they confess to her. But she was a great character overall. The 1.5 stars are for her.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Classism
Minor: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Vomit, Abortion, Alcohol
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was my first book written by Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, which is surprising as she has written like a million books and is super popular.
I picked it up on the recommendation of a friend and while I did have some issues with it, overall it was a satisfying police procedural/romance, especially considering when it was written.
The misogyny that is present is done on purpose and is clearly pushed back against by numerous characters. I also really liked the take on the possible future world, as it's not too far from what the real world looks like so it feels reasonable that it could have occurred.
I do think that this book requires a pretty hefty content warning (it could possibly be viewed as a minor spoiler, but I think it is more important to go in prepared) There is graphic depictions and discussions of multiple instances of pedophilia/sexual abuse of small children. As well, there is graphic depictions of the murder of a number of Sex Workers (the main case in this book).
I did end up liking this book enough that I'll probably give the next book a shot, however this is a 50+ book series and I'm not sure if I would be willing to attempt to play catch up with quite that many books.
I picked it up on the recommendation of a friend and while I did have some issues with it, overall it was a satisfying police procedural/romance, especially considering when it was written.
The misogyny that is present is done on purpose and is clearly pushed back against by numerous characters. I also really liked the take on the possible future world, as it's not too far from what the real world looks like so it feels reasonable that it could have occurred.
I do think that this book requires a pretty hefty content warning (it could possibly be viewed as a minor spoiler, but I think it is more important to go in prepared) There is graphic depictions and discussions of multiple instances of pedophilia/sexual abuse of small children. As well, there is graphic depictions of the murder of a number of Sex Workers (the main case in this book).
I did end up liking this book enough that I'll probably give the next book a shot, however this is a 50+ book series and I'm not sure if I would be willing to attempt to play catch up with quite that many books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia
Minor: Incest