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A review by chantaal
Naked in Death by J.D. Robb
3.0
What drew me into this and kept me going was how similar this is to Urban Fantasy that I enjoy. You've got a strong, stoic female lead who has to solve some sort of mystery, and who meets a hot alpha male along way. Just change the set dressing from magic to futuristic sci-fi, and the alpha animal male to an alpha billionaire human male, and you've got Naked in Death.
The mystery itself wasn't compelling. I found the sexual violence of the killings absolutely unnecessary and gratuitous - they did nothing for the story as a whole aside from increasing shock value. Oh, and the sexual violence of the memories of women who were sexually abused as children - holy fucking shit, that was a bit too much. There's a fine line between showcasing women who have that trauma in their past, and having certain moments spelled out in brutal detail. FOR NO REASON. I will not hear otherwise. There was NO reason for some of the horrific detail. And to have this be a major trauma of Eve's past? So this is going to keep going on??
As characters, Eve and Roarke were fine. Eve felt very much like a stereotypical urban fantasy lead character, just with a Be The Best Cop chip on her shoulder to mask her trauma. Roarke was a billionaire mystery man whose only personality is that he's rich and sexy and finds Eve intriguing. I was surprised at how damn fast the romance moved in this. Instalove happens even in the future, I guess.
And yet here I am, writing this review even as I'm almost done with book 2...like I said, compelling. The character and plot beats are very reminiscent of Urban Fantasy and the comfort of those get me through reading slumps. We'll see how far I'll go with this series.
The mystery itself wasn't compelling. I found the sexual violence of the killings absolutely unnecessary and gratuitous - they did nothing for the story as a whole aside from increasing shock value. Oh, and the sexual violence of the memories of women who were sexually abused as children - holy fucking shit, that was a bit too much. There's a fine line between showcasing women who have that trauma in their past, and having certain moments spelled out in brutal detail. FOR NO REASON. I will not hear otherwise. There was NO reason for some of the horrific detail. And to have this be a major trauma of Eve's past? So this is going to keep going on??
As characters, Eve and Roarke were fine. Eve felt very much like a stereotypical urban fantasy lead character, just with a Be The Best Cop chip on her shoulder to mask her trauma. Roarke was a billionaire mystery man whose only personality is that he's rich and sexy and finds Eve intriguing. I was surprised at how damn fast the romance moved in this. Instalove happens even in the future, I guess.
And yet here I am, writing this review even as I'm almost done with book 2...like I said, compelling. The character and plot beats are very reminiscent of Urban Fantasy and the comfort of those get me through reading slumps. We'll see how far I'll go with this series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Rape, Death, and Sexual violence