Scan barcode
l_spade's review
3.0
*Mild Spoilers*
Kendra books a birthday boudoir shoot and plans on making the photos into a calendar for her boyfriend Xavier so he’ll have a sexy reminder of her every day. That quickly changes when she finds Xavier cheating on her, but Kendra doesn’t cancel the photoshoot. She goes and meets Dillion, the photographer. He knows just what to say to help her regain the confidence she lost at seeing the man she loved with someone else a week prior.
This is my first book by this author, and while I wasn’t disappointed, I did expect a bit more. Don’t get me wrong, the novella had its moments. Several of the scenes were described so poetically and I could envision exactly what happened as if I was watching it unfold from the corner of the room. With that being said there were also a few metaphors that took away from the scenes and had me stopping to make sure it actually said what I’d just read.
There were several spots where words were missing or the incorrect tense of a word was used. In several places, the author structured sentences a bit odd and it took from the flow of what was being read. It would flow so well and get you almost into it and then the structure would shift and it threw off the entire scene for a bit.
While reading there were several missing details and inconsistencies. For example, when Kendra is deciding what to wear first, Dillion tells her to wear the green bra and panties since Christmas is coming. However, she never mentioned what color they were to him nor did he see them inside of her bag. This happens sometimes with novellas because the author will think that they put it in and didn’t to keep things short, so confusion ensues.
From Dillion’s POV we get such a wonderful description of Kendra, from how he imagines her skin, to describing almost every facet of her face and body. However, we were not rewarded with the same for Dillion. We were given minimal descriptive markers for him, and while description typically unfolds over the course of a novel we didn’t have that luxury with this book, and I wanted to be able to envision this man that she was so attracted to.
There were several times where small phrases are repeated in close proximity and made the flow repetitive when other words could have been substituted or the sentence could have been worded differently. Example: “...the posters on the bed, she noticed the metal ring attached to the poster of the bed.” That sentence could have ended at attached and still had the same impact the author was going for.
I was a bit unsettled by the fact that the author included that Kendra’s kink came from watching her father torture a woman he’d tied up with pleasure, and that it turned Kendra on. As a reader that was offputting. Literally, anything else could have been used to describe her introduction to the kink. The fact that Kendra admitted to thinking about it to get herself off often did not help matters.
There were two POV changes mid-chapters. One took place in Kendra’s chapter about two-thirds of the way through the book. The other happens in Dillion’s final chapter when it switches from third person to first all of a sudden. I’m not sure why the author did this because it took away from what we’d previously read.
When it came down to the act of intimacy it was clean and straightforward. There was good detailing on the author’s part even though some of it was repetitive from one paragraph to the next. I was able to still stay in the moment of the two of them together. That is until there was an abrupt shift from one act to another. There was no transition. He went from one to three, skipping two which would have acted as the progression.
Kendra seemed to try far too hard at the end in order to be back in a private space with Dillion, and while he was honest with her about what he wasn’t looking for, she seemed to push. It almost felt like she was desperate to be with him again which I didn’t quite understand. After being out of a relationship for seven days, was she really ready to try to hop into one with Dillion? Because that was exactly what she wanted to do. I understand she felt as if he’d been phenomenal in bed, though I’d give him good, it wasn’t worth her pushing so hard at the end.
I’m interested to see how the next novella in the series goes and if Dillion gives in to what he’s trying to avoid. I want to see some character growth for them both. As a short read, I understood we wouldn’t get that here. However, when you make it a series it’s expected.
Kendra books a birthday boudoir shoot and plans on making the photos into a calendar for her boyfriend Xavier so he’ll have a sexy reminder of her every day. That quickly changes when she finds Xavier cheating on her, but Kendra doesn’t cancel the photoshoot. She goes and meets Dillion, the photographer. He knows just what to say to help her regain the confidence she lost at seeing the man she loved with someone else a week prior.
This is my first book by this author, and while I wasn’t disappointed, I did expect a bit more. Don’t get me wrong, the novella had its moments. Several of the scenes were described so poetically and I could envision exactly what happened as if I was watching it unfold from the corner of the room. With that being said there were also a few metaphors that took away from the scenes and had me stopping to make sure it actually said what I’d just read.
There were several spots where words were missing or the incorrect tense of a word was used. In several places, the author structured sentences a bit odd and it took from the flow of what was being read. It would flow so well and get you almost into it and then the structure would shift and it threw off the entire scene for a bit.
While reading there were several missing details and inconsistencies. For example, when Kendra is deciding what to wear first, Dillion tells her to wear the green bra and panties since Christmas is coming. However, she never mentioned what color they were to him nor did he see them inside of her bag. This happens sometimes with novellas because the author will think that they put it in and didn’t to keep things short, so confusion ensues.
From Dillion’s POV we get such a wonderful description of Kendra, from how he imagines her skin, to describing almost every facet of her face and body. However, we were not rewarded with the same for Dillion. We were given minimal descriptive markers for him, and while description typically unfolds over the course of a novel we didn’t have that luxury with this book, and I wanted to be able to envision this man that she was so attracted to.
There were several times where small phrases are repeated in close proximity and made the flow repetitive when other words could have been substituted or the sentence could have been worded differently. Example: “...the posters on the bed, she noticed the metal ring attached to the poster of the bed.” That sentence could have ended at attached and still had the same impact the author was going for.
I was a bit unsettled by the fact that the author included that Kendra’s kink came from watching her father torture a woman he’d tied up with pleasure, and that it turned Kendra on. As a reader that was offputting. Literally, anything else could have been used to describe her introduction to the kink. The fact that Kendra admitted to thinking about it to get herself off often did not help matters.
There were two POV changes mid-chapters. One took place in Kendra’s chapter about two-thirds of the way through the book. The other happens in Dillion’s final chapter when it switches from third person to first all of a sudden. I’m not sure why the author did this because it took away from what we’d previously read.
When it came down to the act of intimacy it was clean and straightforward. There was good detailing on the author’s part even though some of it was repetitive from one paragraph to the next. I was able to still stay in the moment of the two of them together. That is until there was an abrupt shift from one act to another. There was no transition. He went from one to three, skipping two which would have acted as the progression.
Kendra seemed to try far too hard at the end in order to be back in a private space with Dillion, and while he was honest with her about what he wasn’t looking for, she seemed to push. It almost felt like she was desperate to be with him again which I didn’t quite understand. After being out of a relationship for seven days, was she really ready to try to hop into one with Dillion? Because that was exactly what she wanted to do. I understand she felt as if he’d been phenomenal in bed, though I’d give him good, it wasn’t worth her pushing so hard at the end.
I’m interested to see how the next novella in the series goes and if Dillion gives in to what he’s trying to avoid. I want to see some character growth for them both. As a short read, I understood we wouldn’t get that here. However, when you make it a series it’s expected.
More...