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A review by shandra
Hudson by Shayne McClendon
5.0
Out of Wonderland and Back to Reality
Hudson takes place within the same world as The Barter System. Riya and Max and Micah do make an appearance in this book; they are still the same characters I loved before in that book and this book does make a few more passing nods to the fact that it's in the same world/time frame as that work, however this book is not, for me, a true "sequel" to it. This book just happens to share a world with The Barter System. It's very much its own work. I honestly don't know that I would tell someone interested in reading Hudson that they MUST read The Barter System first. Do you get more out of it if you have that connection with the returning characters? Sure. Do you have enough interaction with the returning characters that you absolutely "lose out" if you've not read it before reading this one? No. I wouldn't say that.
Hudson all on his own is worth reading this book for if you ask me. He's as literal a definition of an Alpha Male as you're going to get: control-oriented to an intense, obsessive level, driven, forceful, powerful, demanding, and always very much the master of his domain to the point that you do get a little of the D/s scene from him. I find him fascinating as a character since I loved his intensity and his depth which is hard for a writer to achieve with a character like him who one is instantly thinking should feel "cold" or "distant" from the reader.
Hudson was a man I knew. I never felt cordoned off from him because of his intensity. I loved him as he came. I love the fact that he's that guy who isn't inclined to make apologies even when he really, really should. I think the reason that I was attracted to him as a character is that he embraces his flaws to the point that he's willing to accept and overlook them in others as well---though he appreciates and accepts only the same flaws in others which is its own form of hubris.
Whatever, I loved him. He's pushy, demanding, domineering, and outright mean sometimes and I still loved him.
For me, the really striking difference between this work and The Barter System was the overall "feel" of the work. Where there was very much the sense of falling into the fantasy of Wonderland with Riya in The Barter System, there are an equal number of reminders that this is The Real World, no one's fantasy, here in Brie's world. Her life isn't the sheltered, coming-of-age journey filled with wonderment and exploration that I saw in Riya's story. Brie is a woman who has lived, keeps living, and knows all about living, yet she's so, so lovely. I wanted such amazing things for her. I wanted a HEA for her that I couldn't even describe, but I knew, somehow, that her story would surprise me from the very beginning.
It's incredibly hard to review this book without giving away anything important -like the ending which is its own kind of HEA, by the way- but I will say that I felt that Brie was not done poorly in this book. She was given a fair shake which life hadn't often done for her prior to the events of this story. I don't know what I wanted for her, but I am happy with how things turned out in this work simply because I liked the back-to-reality feeling of it. There are many elements of the book that aren't one-hundred-percent every-day-living -since how many billionaires do you really know? I mean, really- but it's still got a lot more "life" in it than I really expected. It's a fantastic reality tale with enough sex to make for a good erotic read, but not so much sex that it loses the point of the story which comes from the development of the characters.
On an odd note, even though The Barter System remains my favorite of Shayne McClendon's works, I will say that Hudson is the one that I recommend the most. I feel that it's more universal in some ways and I simply believe it's a book everyone should have a chance to read when they're looking for contemporary with a little more bang for the buck.
***COPY GIVEN IN EXCHANGE FOR HONEST REVIEW ON BEHALF OF THIS REDHEAD LOVES BOOKS BLOG***
Hudson takes place within the same world as The Barter System. Riya and Max and Micah do make an appearance in this book; they are still the same characters I loved before in that book and this book does make a few more passing nods to the fact that it's in the same world/time frame as that work, however this book is not, for me, a true "sequel" to it. This book just happens to share a world with The Barter System. It's very much its own work. I honestly don't know that I would tell someone interested in reading Hudson that they MUST read The Barter System first. Do you get more out of it if you have that connection with the returning characters? Sure. Do you have enough interaction with the returning characters that you absolutely "lose out" if you've not read it before reading this one? No. I wouldn't say that.
Hudson all on his own is worth reading this book for if you ask me. He's as literal a definition of an Alpha Male as you're going to get: control-oriented to an intense, obsessive level, driven, forceful, powerful, demanding, and always very much the master of his domain to the point that you do get a little of the D/s scene from him. I find him fascinating as a character since I loved his intensity and his depth which is hard for a writer to achieve with a character like him who one is instantly thinking should feel "cold" or "distant" from the reader.
Hudson was a man I knew. I never felt cordoned off from him because of his intensity. I loved him as he came. I love the fact that he's that guy who isn't inclined to make apologies even when he really, really should. I think the reason that I was attracted to him as a character is that he embraces his flaws to the point that he's willing to accept and overlook them in others as well---though he appreciates and accepts only the same flaws in others which is its own form of hubris.
Whatever, I loved him. He's pushy, demanding, domineering, and outright mean sometimes and I still loved him.
For me, the really striking difference between this work and The Barter System was the overall "feel" of the work. Where there was very much the sense of falling into the fantasy of Wonderland with Riya in The Barter System, there are an equal number of reminders that this is The Real World, no one's fantasy, here in Brie's world. Her life isn't the sheltered, coming-of-age journey filled with wonderment and exploration that I saw in Riya's story. Brie is a woman who has lived, keeps living, and knows all about living, yet she's so, so lovely. I wanted such amazing things for her. I wanted a HEA for her that I couldn't even describe, but I knew, somehow, that her story would surprise me from the very beginning.
It's incredibly hard to review this book without giving away anything important -like the ending which is its own kind of HEA, by the way- but I will say that I felt that Brie was not done poorly in this book. She was given a fair shake which life hadn't often done for her prior to the events of this story. I don't know what I wanted for her, but I am happy with how things turned out in this work simply because I liked the back-to-reality feeling of it. There are many elements of the book that aren't one-hundred-percent every-day-living -since how many billionaires do you really know? I mean, really- but it's still got a lot more "life" in it than I really expected. It's a fantastic reality tale with enough sex to make for a good erotic read, but not so much sex that it loses the point of the story which comes from the development of the characters.
On an odd note, even though The Barter System remains my favorite of Shayne McClendon's works, I will say that Hudson is the one that I recommend the most. I feel that it's more universal in some ways and I simply believe it's a book everyone should have a chance to read when they're looking for contemporary with a little more bang for the buck.
***COPY GIVEN IN EXCHANGE FOR HONEST REVIEW ON BEHALF OF THIS REDHEAD LOVES BOOKS BLOG***