Take a photo of a barcode or cover
imme_van_gorp 's review for:
Cold Hard Cash
by K.L. Hiers
The premise for this book was right up my alley. A cold, ruthless mafia boss falling for a sweet, gentle and beautiful young man? Um, YES PLEASE. I love the trope where a grumpy and powerful guy develops a soft spot for his sunshine love interest. It's just so swoon-worthy to me.
Then again, it's a trope that is sometimes pretty difficult to execute well, and this book is a perfect example of that. It definitely did not live up to its potential, and I had some complaints.
First of all, there was farrrrr too much sex in this book. Almost every single interaction between Cold and Jimmy involved sex. They hardly talked, and they never actually did anything outside of sex. Why they even fell in love with each other is a mystery. You just kind of have to accept that they somehow had a connection, even if there is no reason for them to have that. It's a lazy development of the relationship, and this could have been done so much better.
Secondly, Jimmy was too much of a doormat and Cold was a bit too stand-offish. Jimmy was incredibly naive and easy-going. He accepted everything without question, and he made due with the tiny scraps of 'affection' he got from Cold. He wanted more, but never truly confronted Cold about it; he never demanded to get the treatment he deserved. He accepted being treated as an inferior, someone who needed to keep Cold happy, and it didn't matter how he felt about it.
And don't get me wrong, it's not like Cold treats him badly. He just doesn't treat him super lovingly either. I am having trouble explaining it well, since it was clear Cold cared in his own way, but I still would have preferred for him to be more obsessed with Jimmy; be desperate to make Jimmy happy and try to be the best version of himself for the man he loves, that sort of thing.
And that brings me to my third point: I felt like this book really missed Cold's POV. It would have been very nice to actually know what Cold was thinking. We needed to know what his thoughts on Jimmy were. He's obviously a stoic and tough person, not showing his emotions, and in those cases it's very beneficial to get inside a character's head. I think his POV could have made it more obvious how important Jimmy was for him, and also why.
Nonetheless, I did enjoy this. Sometimes it was a bit boring, it definitely lacked any kind of depth, and there was nothing that really stood out here, but I still liked the general idea of the book, and I do want to read the sequel!
Then again, it's a trope that is sometimes pretty difficult to execute well, and this book is a perfect example of that. It definitely did not live up to its potential, and I had some complaints.
First of all, there was farrrrr too much sex in this book. Almost every single interaction between Cold and Jimmy involved sex. They hardly talked, and they never actually did anything outside of sex. Why they even fell in love with each other is a mystery. You just kind of have to accept that they somehow had a connection, even if there is no reason for them to have that. It's a lazy development of the relationship, and this could have been done so much better.
Secondly, Jimmy was too much of a doormat and Cold was a bit too stand-offish. Jimmy was incredibly naive and easy-going. He accepted everything without question, and he made due with the tiny scraps of 'affection' he got from Cold. He wanted more, but never truly confronted Cold about it; he never demanded to get the treatment he deserved. He accepted being treated as an inferior, someone who needed to keep Cold happy, and it didn't matter how he felt about it.
And don't get me wrong, it's not like Cold treats him badly. He just doesn't treat him super lovingly either. I am having trouble explaining it well, since it was clear Cold cared in his own way, but I still would have preferred for him to be more obsessed with Jimmy; be desperate to make Jimmy happy and try to be the best version of himself for the man he loves, that sort of thing.
And that brings me to my third point: I felt like this book really missed Cold's POV. It would have been very nice to actually know what Cold was thinking. We needed to know what his thoughts on Jimmy were. He's obviously a stoic and tough person, not showing his emotions, and in those cases it's very beneficial to get inside a character's head. I think his POV could have made it more obvious how important Jimmy was for him, and also why.
Nonetheless, I did enjoy this. Sometimes it was a bit boring, it definitely lacked any kind of depth, and there was nothing that really stood out here, but I still liked the general idea of the book, and I do want to read the sequel!