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A review by brutalistemerald
Storm Clouds and Devastation by Ashley James
1.0
I have so, so many issues with this book. Some of them are niggly little things, others not so much. All together they made this book a painful read. I’m not even sure why I persisted - it was a little like watching a car crash, knowing you shouldn’t but you can’t tear your eyes away.
Jules stalks and pursues Bodhi, and doesn’t seem to understand the word “stop”, nor does he respect the boundaries of a hired sex worker, he’s purely driven by his desires for his ‘pretty boy’ who he seems to fetishise.
There are trigger warnings, but I think you need to go to the author’s website to actually view these which isn’t the best. I prefer the trigger warnings to be in the book, upfront and obvious. Two of the biggies for me:
There is a short but somewhat graphic scene involving the sexual abuse of a child. Which is then mirrored in a scene involved the sexual assault of an adult.
The stalkerish, obsessive behaviour of Jules towards Bodhi, particularly early in the book. Is this supposed to be romantic or endearing? It wasn’t; it was creepy, unsettling and deeply unromantic/unsexy. “Stop” means stop, not ignore what the other person is saying and do what you were going to do anyway.
There were a couple of factual things that I found distracting too. I had a problem with the premise of Jules as a Supreme Court Judge. Perhaps the author meant he was a State Supreme Court Judge, and the more I read I think this was the case, but for a significant part of the book I thought Jules was supposed to be a Supreme Court Judge … who lives in North Carolina and not Washington DC, is only 42, and pays for male escorts. I can suspend disbelief a certain amount, but this was a step too far for me. If a character is referred to as a Supreme Court Judge my mind is automatically going to think of those select few judges who sit in the Supreme Court.
Frustratingly, Jules’s wife is described more than once as “braindead”. Just to be clear, a person with brain death cannot breathe on their own.
Also, I’m just putting it out there that I’m fairly confident that complementary hotel lotion shouldn’t be used internally - eek!
I read a review here on Goodreads where someone referred to it as ‘torture porn’ - that’s about right. There’s nothing romantic or sexy in this book. It’s a whole heap of abusive and toxic relationships.
Yeah, so I didn’t like it very much.
Spoiler
I’m not a big fan of age gap romances and this one just made me feel a bit grubby. Jules was literally old enough to be Bodhi’s father and had known Bodhi as a child, and possibly as a vulnerable child. As an adult Bodhi is vulnerable too, and Jules seems to recognise this early on (he thinks he looks “broken”), but yet he still pursues him even when Bodhi is clearly rejecting his advances. That Jules calls Bodhi “pretty boy” all the time is weird too - infantilising Bodhi that way is creepy given the age gap and what we the reader know about Bodhi’s abusive childhood.Jules stalks and pursues Bodhi, and doesn’t seem to understand the word “stop”, nor does he respect the boundaries of a hired sex worker, he’s purely driven by his desires for his ‘pretty boy’ who he seems to fetishise.
There are trigger warnings, but I think you need to go to the author’s website to actually view these which isn’t the best. I prefer the trigger warnings to be in the book, upfront and obvious. Two of the biggies for me:
There is a short but somewhat graphic scene involving the sexual abuse of a child. Which is then mirrored in a scene involved the sexual assault of an adult.
The stalkerish, obsessive behaviour of Jules towards Bodhi, particularly early in the book. Is this supposed to be romantic or endearing? It wasn’t; it was creepy, unsettling and deeply unromantic/unsexy. “Stop” means stop, not ignore what the other person is saying and do what you were going to do anyway.
There were a couple of factual things that I found distracting too. I had a problem with the premise of Jules as a Supreme Court Judge. Perhaps the author meant he was a State Supreme Court Judge, and the more I read I think this was the case, but for a significant part of the book I thought Jules was supposed to be a Supreme Court Judge … who lives in North Carolina and not Washington DC, is only 42, and pays for male escorts. I can suspend disbelief a certain amount, but this was a step too far for me. If a character is referred to as a Supreme Court Judge my mind is automatically going to think of those select few judges who sit in the Supreme Court.
Frustratingly, Jules’s wife is described more than once as “braindead”. Just to be clear, a person with brain death cannot breathe on their own.
Also, I’m just putting it out there that I’m fairly confident that complementary hotel lotion shouldn’t be used internally - eek!
I read a review here on Goodreads where someone referred to it as ‘torture porn’ - that’s about right. There’s nothing romantic or sexy in this book. It’s a whole heap of abusive and toxic relationships.
Yeah, so I didn’t like it very much.