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willeh 's review for:
Bared to You
by Sylvia Day
2024 Reread
I’m probably more pensive after finishing this than I need to be, but it’s both funny and thought provoking on the second run. Especially with how much my life has changed.
I first read this series as follow-up to Fifty Shades of Grey. I remember loving it so much and thinking that this better written. To an extent, it is. Does it make it a better book? Not necessarily. However, if the author’s aim was to publish something that is 80% arousing, 15% problematic characters, and 5% plot then goal achieved.
The smut is sultry, no doubt. Not necessarily explorative.
The plot is hardly there but minimally progressive, I guess.
It’s the character development that takes up the bulk of this book. Frankly, if they were to be summarized: detestable. They’re awfully broken. Both of them.
I would leave it there, but I can’t in account of the victims of assault I’ve met in clinic. They’re riddled with behavioral problems and their coping mechanisms are sometimes as aberrant as the protagonists in this book. It’s easy to dismiss them, as they often are, and very difficult to like them or even understand them. It’s the forceful realizations that broke the mirage for me; the knowing that you fucked up after 2 minutes without intent to fix it. While that behavior can be very real for victims, it did clash with Eva’s “progress”. It felt like a combination of immature psychological responses in otherwise highly functional people.
I understand the judgement of these characters, but I also hope others create space for “understanding”. You can, in fact, meet people whose adult life is in disarray because they were so brutally battered as children.
I can’t, in good conscience, rate this anything above 3 star. More so out of nostalgia than merit. For those seeking some reprieve and a little fun…pick it up.
——
Review from 2013
So I'm going to start off this review with something that has been bothering me all along. Stop judging this book in comparison to Fifty. If we were going to do that with all books we'd have to create a shelf for all dystopians, or at least ninety percent of them, and label it as, "Here you will find the same story sixty times."
This book was great! I found myself laughing at the characters more often than not. She pisses me off! That's great! We readers have to feel some form of...something towards our characters. Whether love or hate, something is something.
I did think that it was a poor plot. I closed the last page thinking, "Well that was...not informative." We still don't know what's up with him or his family or anything for that matter. Hopefully the next book resolved that problem. I don't think I can deal with another book filled with childish tantrums from a childish idiot. Maybe I'm just jealous.
I’m probably more pensive after finishing this than I need to be, but it’s both funny and thought provoking on the second run. Especially with how much my life has changed.
I first read this series as follow-up to Fifty Shades of Grey. I remember loving it so much and thinking that this better written. To an extent, it is. Does it make it a better book? Not necessarily. However, if the author’s aim was to publish something that is 80% arousing, 15% problematic characters, and 5% plot then goal achieved.
The smut is sultry, no doubt. Not necessarily explorative.
The plot is hardly there but minimally progressive, I guess.
It’s the character development that takes up the bulk of this book. Frankly, if they were to be summarized: detestable. They’re awfully broken. Both of them.
I would leave it there, but I can’t in account of the victims of assault I’ve met in clinic. They’re riddled with behavioral problems and their coping mechanisms are sometimes as aberrant as the protagonists in this book. It’s easy to dismiss them, as they often are, and very difficult to like them or even understand them. It’s the forceful realizations that broke the mirage for me; the knowing that you fucked up after 2 minutes without intent to fix it. While that behavior can be very real for victims, it did clash with Eva’s “progress”. It felt like a combination of immature psychological responses in otherwise highly functional people.
I understand the judgement of these characters, but I also hope others create space for “understanding”. You can, in fact, meet people whose adult life is in disarray because they were so brutally battered as children.
I can’t, in good conscience, rate this anything above 3 star. More so out of nostalgia than merit. For those seeking some reprieve and a little fun…pick it up.
——
Review from 2013
So I'm going to start off this review with something that has been bothering me all along. Stop judging this book in comparison to Fifty. If we were going to do that with all books we'd have to create a shelf for all dystopians, or at least ninety percent of them, and label it as, "Here you will find the same story sixty times."
This book was great! I found myself laughing at the characters more often than not. She pisses me off! That's great! We readers have to feel some form of...something towards our characters. Whether love or hate, something is something.
I did think that it was a poor plot. I closed the last page thinking, "Well that was...not informative." We still don't know what's up with him or his family or anything for that matter. Hopefully the next book resolved that problem. I don't think I can deal with another book filled with childish tantrums from a childish idiot. Maybe I'm just jealous.