Author: Georgia Le Carre
Series: Billionaire Banker Series
Books in Series (that I read):
Owned
Forty 2 Days
Besotted
Seduce Me
The tl;dr recommendation: I can’t.
Longer Review:
I’ve just learned by looking at Goodreads that there’s a fifth book and a book in between Forty 2 Days and Besotted. I’m sorry, I can’t read them. I was attempting to stick to my principle of reading all of the books in a series prior to reviewing, but I won’t do it. It’s already taken me a week to read those four books (which is a ridiculously long time for me) and I voluntarily helped my husband clean out my garage yesterday instead of finishing the fourth book.
I struggled. That should say it all….but I’ll elaborate.
The basic storyline is that Lana Bloom is selling her virginity to her current boss at her temp agency who is rumored to pay big bucks for sex in order to pay for her mother’s cancer treatments. This guy is pretty repulsive in every way possible. Blake, a billionaire banker from the ever secretive Barrington family, sees her at the restaurant, is captivated, invites them to a party and eventually offers her double the amount to make her “his” for three months.
The storyline actually has potential. It could have been great. Once you get over the whole ‘she sold her virginity’ part of the story, the plot isn’t bad. The problem is that it jumps. around. a lot. and it DROVE ME MAD. Staccato. That’s the best way that I can describe the writing style. Maybe you’ll like it, but it was a ‘Dear Diary’ type writing that included speaking to me as the reader and I hate that. Maybe it can work in some situations, but this series didn’t make me a believer. There was also an interview with Blake at the end of one of the books. What.The.Fuck. I’m sorry, who is interviewing him?! It just made zero sense.
The author also jumps around a lot. They’ll be in (what I thought) was the middle of a scene in some public place and then the next paragraph they’re at home and she’s on the bed. I was fucking confused. One second Blake is friendly with Jack, you get no indication otherwise, and then all of a sudden he’s screaming ‘Don’t touch her!’ I had whiplash. I need flow. I need transitions. I need more research into the crazy backstory of the Greek Gods and EI. There was so much potential there, but not enough foundation to support what happens in the story. I was stumbling. The books exhausted me.
I cannot explain how pissed I was when I finished Besotted and then discovered if I wanted to know what happens with Blake and Lana (there were plenty of loose ends) that I had to read a fourth book that was written in the narrative of a new goddamned character who we had never fucking met. I. ahhhh. ugh.
What threw me over the edge is (what I feel to be) a political message that flows through the books regarding the social classes and income disparity. It wasn’t super present in the first few books but the ending of Seduce Me felt like I was being preached to. Don’t hide a political message in a fucking erotica novel and pretend like it’s not there. Don’t do that. I am not reading 1984 with sex. I don’t want your opinion on the future of society regarding the disparity between the classes – I want a happy ending with love and happiness abound. Gah.
I really struggled with whether to even write this review because I am far more interested in writing about books I loved, but I see all of the awesome reviews on Amazon and Goodreads and I just don’t know what these people read. From what I understand some people loved it after they got ‘used to the writing style’…This is not fucking Jane Austen. I shouldn’t need to get used to a writing style – this should be a fun, easy, enjoyable read! Goddamnit.
So, my friends, I think I’m done here. Read at your own risk. Also, if you’ve read them and you think I’m wrong, please advise. Discuss below!
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