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A review by jce
Beguiled by Joanna Chambers
emotional
hopeful
tense
Despite having a few reservations about the first book, I still started the second immediately afterwards. And, as with the first book, I really liked this overall, but there were a few issues for me. I liked the second book more, overall, mainly because the two MC's finally get to know one another. They still spend most of the book not fully opening up to one another though. Again, there's a lot of angst in this one, and my overall mood while listening was tense. I love the characters, and the writing is just fantastic, but I just wanted to shout at the MC's to TALK TO ONE ANOTHER! They just hold so much back throughout the first two books.
As with the first book, while some aspects of the sex scenes were so great, some left me uncomfortable. In the first book did not have the most enthusiastic consent, in my opinion. And in this book, I had something of the same issue, namely Murdo thinking he knows more about what David wants than David does himself. There's a scene where Murdo directs David to be in charge during their encounter, but then when David says he would like Murdo to do something, Murdo refuses on the grounds that it isn't what David actually wants. Now, there's reason for Murdo to say that, but it's frustrating that he is once again telling David what David wants, instead of listening to David.
And, while I don't think every sex scene needs to be on page, I was disappointed about a scene in this that takes place off page. Not because the act in itself is anymore meaningful than any other, but because we've seen the emphasis these characters put on it, and Murdo has pointed out how important it is to him that they feel a certain way before and during. And since sex scenes do tell a lot about the characters here, and I was just wanting them to finally feel connected and on the same page and to see them being really gentle and openly loving together, I did wish we had gotten that scene.
Again, these issues didn't stop me from overall really liking the book. After finishing this one I immediately started the next in the series. And I did really love the series overall. There were enough fantastic things that they outweighed the things that bothered me. Once again, the audio was fantastic with this one.
As with the first book, while some aspects of the sex scenes were so great, some left me uncomfortable. In the first book did not have the most enthusiastic consent, in my opinion. And in this book, I had something of the same issue, namely Murdo thinking he knows more about what David wants than David does himself. There's a scene where Murdo directs David to be in charge during their encounter, but then when David says he would like Murdo to do something, Murdo refuses on the grounds that it isn't what David actually wants. Now, there's reason for Murdo to say that, but it's frustrating that he is once again telling David what David wants, instead of listening to David.
And, while I don't think every sex scene needs to be on page, I was disappointed about a scene in this that takes place off page. Not because the act in itself is anymore meaningful than any other, but because we've seen the emphasis these characters put on it, and Murdo has pointed out how important it is to him that they feel a certain way before and during. And since sex scenes do tell a lot about the characters here, and I was just wanting them to finally feel connected and on the same page and to see them being really gentle and openly loving together, I did wish we had gotten that scene.
Again, these issues didn't stop me from overall really liking the book. After finishing this one I immediately started the next in the series. And I did really love the series overall. There were enough fantastic things that they outweighed the things that bothered me. Once again, the audio was fantastic with this one.