One of my favourite tropes is the enemies-to-lovers scenario. If well done, both MCs end up learning so much about themselves and each other, and the One of my favourite tropes is the enemies-to-lovers scenario. If well done, both MCs end up learning so much about themselves and each other, and the journey is both revelational and emotionally satisfying. Many are not done well, and the combination of immaturity and petty scoring against each other, with way to early capitulation by the wronged party (almost always the girl) makes for a dissatisfying, shallow read.
I have to say this one is well done. Macon and Delilah are complex people, a little older (thank goodness, no college drama here, although their history starts with school drama) and successful in their respective careers. They do still carry the scars of their childhood and teen years, and while Macon (view spoiler)[has been deeply damaged by a violent, bullying father (hide spoiler)], Delilah's scars have been caused to a large extent by Macon. And this is where the problem lies, for me.
I am not a fan of so-called "bully" romance. That is an oxymoron. I am no psychologist, but to me, a teen bully is someone without empathy, and I struggle to accept that they could ever have a healthy relationship, where they are not battering their partner either literally or psychologically. I don't care what the explanations or excuses are: my sympathies ultimately lie with the victim. So Macon, in this book, is someone I struggled to actually respect for a lot of the book, because he was incredibly cruel to Delilah in High School.
Delilah confronted me with another of my dislikes: the heroine who constantly allows people to take advantage of her because she loves them or because they are family, even when tough love would lead to a happier outcome for everyone concerned. Delilah's sister was an irredeemably manipulative, lying bitch, but it's always: Delilah to the rescue.
So I had to get over all that, and it took a while. But Macon and Delilah developed as characters over the course of the book, increasing in both self-awareness and self-esteem, and it was ultimately a very satisfying, mature novel about the stupidly cruel things we do as children and teenagers in an effort to protect ourselves, and how it is possible to acknowledge them and move on. It was as much about self-forgiveness as it was about forgiving each other.
A nicely crafted, well-written story by an author I always enjoy. It's not Darkest London (I'm a sucker for PNR set in Victorian England) but it was a great read.
This was a much dirtier book that than its prequel. And the putative hero, Prescott, was pretty much a promiscuous pig.
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Prescott is a very dirty This was a much dirtier book that than its prequel. And the putative hero, Prescott, was pretty much a promiscuous pig.
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Prescott is a very dirty, sex-obsessed, shag anything-with-a-pulse, foul-mouthed borderline stoner/alcoholic. Whew! He is also, and this is somewhat laughable, a successful businessman. He is certainly much more independent than his friend, Weston, the hero from the previous book. But he is another with a very problematic relationship with his parents. Prescott is really the clichéd dude who uses sex, drugs and alcohol to avoid any introspection. God forbid that any self-awareness might creep in to that numbed emotional intelligence. Lots of daddy issues in these books.
Again, Prescott seems to be quite immature compared with the heroine. Vivi puts up quite a fight when he starts chasing her, and I did not blame her. (Prescott knew her in high school as the plump chick who he paid to do his homework, all the while he screwed around. Now Vivi has metamorphosed into the proverbial swan and Prescott wants her.) Vivi was a nice girl. She deserved much better than the soiled screw-up that Prescott was. But in the usual romantic cliché, the good woman swoops in to save his sorry arse.
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I enjoyed all that he did to try and win her over and the sex scenes were plentiful and pretty filthy/erotic. Smut level high, but then what do you expect from a raging, sex-addicted man-whore? (Warning: backdoor action in this one.) ...more
The Slow Burn series has been an interesting set of books for me. I really liked the first one in the series and found I resonated with the wit and clThe Slow Burn series has been an interesting set of books for me. I really liked the first one in the series and found I resonated with the wit and clever banter that is always present in this author's books. But for me, it was probably the strongest of the set. This one, with its aggressive, angry and brash American fashion designer heroine and sexy, macho Latino hero, was a little harder for me to connect to. The initial clash became an ongoing battle, and while enemies-to-lovers is one of my favourite tropes, I got a little tired of the endless push and pull. (I probably didn't like the heroine as much as I wanted to.)
While I think I enjoyed the setting of this book as much as the story, ( my ongoing love-affair with Italy) I still had fun reading it. The characters were a little stereo-typical but I was in the mood for a bossy, alpha Italian hero so I let the typical JT banter flow over me and smiled. I just like the way this author writes, despite often potty-mouthed MCs- and the humour is sure to get me chuckling. Yes, the story might be a bit Romancelandia cliché, but a good writer like JT Geissinger can still make that work for me....more
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