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Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Review: Undeniable


Undeniable
Undeniable by Madeline Sheehan

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



This is a tough review. I'm not even sure where to start to be honest. I wanted to like this book. I tried. It was almost a DNF for me, but I pushed through since it was a BOTM for my group and I was the one that actually *chose* this book.

The idea of the book was interesting. "Right idea, wrong execution", type of deal. I love an MC book with a bad boy hero and a smart, sassy, strong heroin. But this book? I didn't find a single likeable character, the story was full of holes, and everything was just too extreme and over the top. It wasn't plausible or believable.

I felt like I was reading a book that should have been set a loony bin somewhere. I have no problem with foul language, non-con, etc., just take a look at some of the books I read, but, this book bordered on ridiculous. The F word, C word, Bitch, etc. was so overused. If you took out half of them the usage might have been more believable. Maybe. If you have to use them, use them for *emphasis*, not for the sake of seeing yourself type them. I checked my Kindle and the F word in some form was used "Over 500 times" in just the first 160 pages", that was all my Kindle would count... OVER 500 times. Over 400 of them unnecessarily, they didn't add a thing to the story.

Deuce was the most unlikable leading male that I've ever read about. Not because he was a bad boy, because I really like bad boys, but because he was an idiot. Bad boys have redeeming qualities. Deuce was just a douche.

Eva, I really tried to like her. But I just couldn't. She flip-flopped and was wishy-washy. She loved Deuce, but she loved Frankie. Felt the need to "take care of him", yeah... okay. He raped her, and yet she married him. He threatened her, and yet she stayed with him to protect him. She was the daughter of the President of the MC, and she was much loved, yet, she didn't go to "daddy", or any of the "brothers" for help after the rape. No. She married him. Oh and let's not forget this is the "man" (sic) that was raised as her brother. Seriously?

I didn't have a problem with the 18 year age difference between Eva and Deuce, once she was of age herself that is. But the way she was talking about him when she met him... at 5 years old. Eva was 5 and Deuce was 23. And the way he spoke to her, a little girl. *shaking head* For instance, about her shoes...

"I like you, kid," he said, still grinning. "You got good taste in tunes, and you've got a pair of Chucks on instead of those stupid fuckin' high-tops everyone's wearin'."

Who talks like that to a 5 year old? Just another instance where the F-word could have been left out of the sentence, then it may have been sweet, and not idiotic.

And she, by the end of that first meeting, (did I mention she was 5?) when he calls her "darlin'"...

"It was official. I was head over heels in love."

It was just another ridiculous, non-plausible part of this whacked out book.

They met again when she was 12. Yeah, still pretty creepy, seeing how he was 30 at that time. The next meeting, she is 16. He is 34, married with 2 children, and he's got his tongue in her mouth, or as she put it, "He laid siege to my mouth. He plundered and pillaged until I had no reservations, no choice but to kiss him..." and had his hand down the front of her pants bringing her to orgasm. Then at 18 he takes her virginity in a dirty alley. How romantic and thoughtful. This guy is just all kinds of fantasy man.

Frankie. Now there was a character that was fifty shades of crazy. Seriously. This was the second most unlikeable character in the book, behind Deuce only because I didn't have to read about him as much. Just sick and twisted from the get go.

Eva wore a necklace that Deuce gave to her when she was a young girl. A necklace that had "Horseman" on it which was a *different* MC. One that her father's MC was on shaky ground with. Frankie slept with her, (at night because he couldn't sleep alone), could never be away from her, he threw a fit and practically went into a fetal position if she was out of his site for more than a few hours, he was obsessed with her. If anyone even glanced in her direction he went off the deep end, threatening to beat them or send them "to ground" (a term SO overused in this book). He was all that and at the same time knew that she loved Deuce, and drove him crazier... yet he never said anything in all the years they were together about her wearing that particular necklace? Are you kidding me? *No one* said anything about her wearing that particular necklace. Not her dad who actually shot Deuce, TWICE, for messing with Eva after seeing him with her when she was 16, not any of "her boys" in her dad's MC. *No one*, it just hung there around her neck day in and day out, she never took it off. If her father saw fit to shoot a man, TWICE, for what Deuce did when she was 16, how do you seriously think he would have reacted to her being raped by Frankie?

Kami. The "main whore" (cause there were a few) of the book, was probably the one I least despised. She was Eva's best friend and she was actually true to her friendship with Eva. Too bad I can't say the same about Eva towards Kami. Kami may have liked to sleep with a couple bad boys, at the same time, but at least she was honest about it.

Chase. another one that Eva screwed around with. The man was married to her best friend. Sure, she disguised it under the misnomer of "blackmail so he'd help Frankie". Just another in a long line of characters in this book I didn't like. Sitting around drinking his $75,000 bottles of whiskey. The author could have at least made *that* small thing somewhat realistic.

The sex. It wasn't sexy, erotic, or hot, it was overplayed and pretty sloppy. Someone was always getting "sloppy seconds". I had to actually skim the "sex scenes" just to get through them.

I do have one positive spin, sort of, okay half a spin. Towards the end of the book is a nice twist, some action, but it didn't last too long… the crazy train was traveling way too fast at that point and it just blew by the one interesting stop in the whole book, making it feel like the author rushed to tie up loose ends. The one thing that Eva did that made me actually feel a little glimmer for her, the person she killed, the author drops the ball once again by not even saying how Eva dealt with it. Yeah, crazy train/station... whoooooosh!

This is nothing more than Fanfiction and poorly written Fanfiction at that, stripped and mangled from Sons of Anarchy. Another reviewer said it best, "It makes 'Fifty Shades of Grey' look like Pulitzer material".

I can't, for the life of me, fathom how this book has so many 4 and 5 star ratings.




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Sheldon spanks Amy

Just had to share this, for those of you that know me, you'll understand why I find this so humorous!

(The Big Bang Theory Season 6 Episode 10)

Review: Tender Mercies

Tender MerciesTender Mercies by Kitty Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another great story from Kitty Thomas, is there really much more to say about it than that?! Of course there is!

This is a story about Grace Warner, a woman that should come with a big sign that says, "Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it!"

She wants a 24/7 Master/slave relationship, and she is willing to give up everything to have it. And when I say "everything" I do mean *everything*! She is willing to move to a private island full of Dominant men, who live by a strict set of rules. She will become a fulltime slave to her Master. When a submissive joins a Dom on this island, she is giving up all rights of modern society to become an owned slave. Her Master can do anything he wants to her. Anything except kill her. That is the only law.

Grace meets Lucas online when she goes in search of information about this island. She talks to him via chat and webcam. He wants her to join him and be her slave. She takes a year to decide, and when Lucas has had enough of waiting he gives her one final chance to make up her mind or he's going to move on. Grace at this point is "infatuated" with Lucas and the idea of being his slave, and agrees to give up everything for this man who admits that he won't be an easy Master. Which is the understatement of the century in this story!

Grace's best friend Lainey tries every way in the world to talk Grace out of doing this. For a year, she's talked, begged, and pleaded... everything to get Grace to see that she is making a mistake. I felt for Lainey, her best friend, who had Grace's best interest at heart.

But what good would this story be if Grace didn't hop on that plane and fly off into the sunset to be with her dream Dom?

Ahh, her Dream Dom is Lucas Stone and he turns out to be so sadistic and twisted that from the moment Grace steps into his luxurious mansion, she is immediately stripped of her own humanity... and her clothing. She is kept in a dungeon cell and beaten, tormented, starved, and repeat... daily. Everything he told her and made her believe over the last year has been a lie. But she doesn't realize it until it's too late and she's give up all of her rights, all of them.

My heart just broke for Grace. Even though she did all her homework on Lucas, he wasn't what he seemed, or what the internet showed about him.

Time goes by Lucas finally tires of Grace, mainly because there is one part of her that he can't break, so he decides to sell her. And he does. Grace is bought by another Dominant on the island, Asher Collins, who recognizes that she has been severely beaten and almost completely broken. Lucas warns Grace that the Master, Asher Collins, that just bought her is more twisted and sadistic than he is, and rumor has it that he killed his last slave and the authorities just haven't been able to prove it... but everyone knows he did it. Asher Collins is the worst of the worst.

It's Grace's fate, a fate that is out of her control, she has no choice in the matter. No amount of begging or pleading will keep Lucas from selling her to an even worse Dominant.

The story ends with a big twist the just made me want to cry for Grace. It all plays out perfectly and Ms. Thomas wraps everything up nice and neat.

Be warned, the story between Grace and Lucas Stone is hard core. There were times I had to just step away and catch my breath. Lucas is a master manipulator, he was patient waiting for his prey, and he waited for a year for Grace's decision. He made all the right moves, said all the right things, to get her there without making it look like coercion in any way. But, truth be told, that's exactly what it was. The scenes and the things Lucas does to Grace to try and completely break her are descriptive and at times terrifyingly heartbreaking.

This book is dark and twisted... and it was right up my alley!

A solid 5 stars!


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