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A review by lalauren04
Designs of Desire by Tempeste O'Riley
2.0
This story was actually kind of difficult for me to get through and I have to admit that I ended up skimming through a lot of it. It started off well, but then nothing really happened to make the story stand out. Nothing grabbed me, and there was very little substance to the story. There was no strong plot line that kept me wanted to turn the page to find out what would happen next. I didn't connect with the main characters as much as I usually do, and I just found it very difficult to get into and to keep going.
One thing that really bugged me was the use of pet names. It actually drove me crazy after a while, and I'm the kind of person who usually loves that sort of thing! I'm not one to complain over the occasional use of pet names. In fact, I usually encourage it. But seriously, "baby" and "pet" were really overused here to the point where I found myself rolling my eyes every time Seth used those words. And I've always disliked the term "pet" anyway, so that didn't help.
The story wasn't terrible but it was very slow and felt as if it lacked any real direction. It was very sweet, but maybe a little too sweet in places. There were a few scenes that felt rather contrived and certain parts just didn't feel particularly realistic. When I'm reading contemporary romance, I like a degree of realism. This didn't really have that.
Something that particularly confused me were the hints at BDSM. We were told about a past relationship where Seth had engaged in sexual practices that involved inflicted pain on his partner. The author also had James call Seth 'Sir' every so often and threw in words like "submissive" which all hinted at a BDSM theme, but then the author never really followed through on it. I'm not against BDSM at all (even if it's not something I read too often and even then I don't read anything too hardcore) but it would have been better either to leave that out completely or to have actually fully incorporated it into the story. It just ended up seeming random and out of place here.
To be fair, I'll outline a couple of things I liked about this book:
- Chase was an interesting secondary character and although he was a bit interfering, he was a great friend to James. I appreciated that. It was nice to see that James had a support system and that Chase was so protective of his friend. Okay, so there was one drunken scene where he was a bit of an idiot, but overall he was a good guy.
- I'll admit that Seth and James were cute together. It was overly sweet and corny at times (which elicited many eye rolls and snorts of laughter), but it was also very lovely too.
- James wasn't portrayed as the poor cripple or as someone who couldn't do anything for himself, and I liked that. I'm glad the author didn't portray James as being physically weak or incapable.
- The writing was good - not perfect, a few typos here and there, but still good.
- This isn't actually related to the story, but I love the cover. Seriously, it's stunning.
Overall, this book wasn't as good as I had hoped. It wasn't what I had expected after reading the blurb, either. I'm left feeling rather disappointed.
One thing that really bugged me was the use of pet names. It actually drove me crazy after a while, and I'm the kind of person who usually loves that sort of thing! I'm not one to complain over the occasional use of pet names. In fact, I usually encourage it. But seriously, "baby" and "pet" were really overused here to the point where I found myself rolling my eyes every time Seth used those words. And I've always disliked the term "pet" anyway, so that didn't help.
The story wasn't terrible but it was very slow and felt as if it lacked any real direction. It was very sweet, but maybe a little too sweet in places. There were a few scenes that felt rather contrived and certain parts just didn't feel particularly realistic. When I'm reading contemporary romance, I like a degree of realism. This didn't really have that.
Something that particularly confused me were the hints at BDSM. We were told about a past relationship where Seth had engaged in sexual practices that involved inflicted pain on his partner. The author also had James call Seth 'Sir' every so often and threw in words like "submissive" which all hinted at a BDSM theme, but then the author never really followed through on it. I'm not against BDSM at all (even if it's not something I read too often and even then I don't read anything too hardcore) but it would have been better either to leave that out completely or to have actually fully incorporated it into the story. It just ended up seeming random and out of place here.
To be fair, I'll outline a couple of things I liked about this book:
- Chase was an interesting secondary character and although he was a bit interfering, he was a great friend to James. I appreciated that. It was nice to see that James had a support system and that Chase was so protective of his friend. Okay, so there was one drunken scene where he was a bit of an idiot, but overall he was a good guy.
- I'll admit that Seth and James were cute together. It was overly sweet and corny at times (which elicited many eye rolls and snorts of laughter), but it was also very lovely too.
- James wasn't portrayed as the poor cripple or as someone who couldn't do anything for himself, and I liked that. I'm glad the author didn't portray James as being physically weak or incapable.
- The writing was good - not perfect, a few typos here and there, but still good.
- This isn't actually related to the story, but I love the cover. Seriously, it's stunning.
Overall, this book wasn't as good as I had hoped. It wasn't what I had expected after reading the blurb, either. I'm left feeling rather disappointed.