tl; dr: no plot, just badly written porn
The story:
I’m no stranger to a racy novel. In fact, some of my favorites have some pretty explicit content. However, I do tend to require some kind of plot with my novels, and this book … did not have one. It had just as much plot as I imagine a pornographic film would, meaning it was pretty thinly developed and barely made sense, stringing together the erotic scenes rather than composing a story.
The description for this book is 100% inaccurate, especially since ‘Rex’ is not a character in this book. The handsome billionaire is Reid, and what the description also doesn’t say is that Stevie becomes entangled in a menage-a-trois with Reid’s roommate and business partner, Dylan (who is also a billionaire, but he’s different, he’s ‘bad’ because he has tattoos).
The first part of the book takes place over only a couple of days, and both Reid and Stevie fall head over heels in love, which is ridiculous, particularly when it seemed like she had a better connection and more things in common with Dylan the whole time. The ‘conflict’ makes no sense (jealousy over Stevie’s ex-fiance) and is not earned.
The smut is the entire purpose of this book, and in general, it’s fine. It’s racy and explicit, and if that’s what you’re here for, well, you got it. There are many parts that are so unrealistic they border on fantasy. Things like consent and safety are totally overlooked, and none of the characters even seem to acknowledge it. There are no STIs or pregnancy risks in this alternate universe. Arousal is nearly instant. If you like your smut to have a little foreplay, look away, because this isn’t for you.
There’s a ‘twist’ near the end right before the HEA is supposed to be achieved, and it came out of nowhere (figuratively and literally), and just tosses a weird conflict in between the two characters. When they finally begin to sort things out, he immediately proposes marriage to her. I laughed out loud. It was just completely ridiculous.
Technical elements:
Where do I even begin? This book is riddled with typos, missing words, wrong words, and other errors. I find it hard to believe that such a large publisher would go ahead with this, but there you go. Romance is generally considered to be the bottom of the barrel in the literary world because it’s written by women for women, and I can rail against that another day, but this book in particular is a good example of why it’s not taken seriously.
Ever heard of purple prose? Here’s a great example for you. Every single time a character’s eyes are references (looking, gazing, etc., included), the author includes the specific eye color they have. Reid’s eyes are described as ‘cobalt blue’ 18 times (and that’s not the only shade of blue they are called, but seriously?). Any time there is a meal served, it’s described like it would be on a menu. The male anatomy is so overly described it’s painful. She calls the female outer labia ‘petals’. I won’t go on.
Final thoughts:
This book reminded me of terrible fan fiction. I’ve seen more subtle story lines on soap operas. If you’re looking for a hyper-unrealistic erotic m/f/m fantasy, here it is. If you want an actual story with character development, look elsewhere. I recommend Nina Lane or Tiffany Reisz.