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A review by ghostbusterwhit
Brazen by Maya Banks
1.0
Yikes. There were a lot of parts of this book that just made me cringe, and after a certain number of those it's just hard to have any fun.
The writing seemed to treat the main female character as the protagonist but the perspective would often just float away to the male leads for no apparent reason.
The three leads were interesting, but the character of Carmen was really awfully written. She's a Mexican-American housekeeper, cook, and surrogate mother who uses a handful of Spanish words over and over and over while seemingly having no life outside this creepy little family. She frets over everyone and just keeps saying that the female character, Jasmine, is like her own child. It's painful that this character has been given nothing besides her job, which is service to these white people.
There's a scene with surprise and nonconsensual sex/bondage that just all works out because this is how adults negotiate sex and boundaries, apparently, with the kicker being that the local sheriff is the one who supplied his own handcuffs for the job.
There are miles of back and forth over ironing out how Jasmine is going to make a polyamorous relationship work (with two brothers!) but again almost none of this is done via reasonable conversations but is instead handled by having Jasmine approach them individually for sex and then get frustrated or completely Bella Swan self-destructive when they're not all at her level from the jump.
Honestly, there's more. A backstory of sexual exploitation that was shocking but not really thoughtful, entirely too much angst, creepy protective guys who are also A-okay with having sex with a girl who is dehydrated, possibly concussed, and drunk? Yi-i-i-i-ikes.
The writing seemed to treat the main female character as the protagonist but the perspective would often just float away to the male leads for no apparent reason.
The three leads were interesting, but the character of Carmen was really awfully written. She's a Mexican-American housekeeper, cook, and surrogate mother who uses a handful of Spanish words over and over and over while seemingly having no life outside this creepy little family. She frets over everyone and just keeps saying that the female character, Jasmine, is like her own child. It's painful that this character has been given nothing besides her job, which is service to these white people.
There's a scene with surprise and nonconsensual sex/bondage that just all works out because this is how adults negotiate sex and boundaries, apparently, with the kicker being that the local sheriff is the one who supplied his own handcuffs for the job.
There are miles of back and forth over ironing out how Jasmine is going to make a polyamorous relationship work (with two brothers!) but again almost none of this is done via reasonable conversations but is instead handled by having Jasmine approach them individually for sex and then get frustrated or completely Bella Swan self-destructive when they're not all at her level from the jump.
Honestly, there's more. A backstory of sexual exploitation that was shocking but not really thoughtful, entirely too much angst, creepy protective guys who are also A-okay with having sex with a girl who is dehydrated, possibly concussed, and drunk? Yi-i-i-i-ikes.