Review: Release Me by J. Kenner
Let me start by saying that I liked 89% of this book. 89% of it was good, not great, but okay enough that I didn’t want to kill myself reading it like I did while reading Three Stages of Love: Lust by T.C. Anthony. The author description gears you up for a Fifty Shades of Grey and Bared to You-esk novel, which is fine, but I am getting so very tired of it all. Millionaire/Billionaires, BDSM, “I am fucked in the head” men who are only hot for those reasons. They have no depth because you don’t get to know them like you know other heroes. You only see this constant façade and it sucks.
So why about the other 11%? It all went south about the point where the “drama” starts happening. It’s not really all that much drama. SURE, I could probably see some of it playing out in real life with some similarity, but I’d honestly imagined more fireworks. Think like Anna Steele and Christian Grey where he spanks the holy hell out of her and she storms out. Yeah, those kind of fireworks. The big ones that go f**king KABOOM. Not like those annoying little bottle rockets.
My biggest issue is the making up part. At this point I expect sex. I expect soft, sensual lovemaking. What I did not expect was that this novels determining moment where instead of being Him and Her and they finally become “them” (in the emotional sense) because she lets him put it her back door. Yes, they do anal and suddenly it’s all, “I’m Yours”. (GAG) For reals? Is that how we determine it nowadays? Missed that memo.
I lost all emotional attachment to the novel at that point. Not that much happened after that anyways. But they fact that it is set up for a 2nd and 3rd novel doesn’t even really register on my radar of “oh cool, there is more to the story” or “F*ck me! I don’t want to read another!!!”… it’s a passing “eh”.
Author Description:
For fans of Fifty Shades of Grey and Bared to You comes an erotic, emotionally charged romance between a powerful man who’s never heard “no” and a fiery woman who says “yes” on her own terms.
He was the one man I couldn’t avoid. And the one man I couldn’t resist.
Damien Stark could have his way with any woman. He was sexy, confident, and commanding: Anything he wanted, he got. And what he wanted was me.
Our attraction was unmistakable, almost beyond control, but as much as I ached to be his, I feared the pressures of his demands. Submitting to Damien meant I had to bare the darkest truth about my past—and risk breaking us apart.
But Damien was haunted, too. And as our passion came to obsess us both, his secrets threatened to destroy him—and us—forever
| The Reviewing Romance Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Story Line |   |
| This is basic enough for this type of novel. It follows a similar paths as Bared to You and Fifty Shades of Grey. Boy meets Girl, Girl meets Boy. Boy is Bazillionaire and starts stalking girl in classy, only kind-of creepy way. Boy introduces girl sexual passion beyond what she ever thought was possible. Boy's secrets come out. Girl feels obligated to fix boy. Girl get's jittery and runs off. Boy comes back and begs. New issue comes up and thus the story continues. | |
| Heroine Likability | |
| Nikki (Nichole) is supposed to be this damaged ex-beauty queen who has been ruined by her mom. While I believe character portrays that, she is still too polished. She is constantly going on about 'Social Nikki' and how she has to appear to be perfect-- even though that is exactly who she hates her mom for being. She is acting like her mom and doing everything her mom wants her to do despite how much she doesn't want that. She should be rebelling completely. She's also described as 'fiery' but it is very few and far between. Essentially from the beginning she's almost offered herself up as a whore Damien. Job one is to meet him and capture his attention for her boss. Job two is to pose nude for him, for money and be 'his' for a week. She should have more inner turmoil about this than she does. One would think she'd argue a bit more with herself over this. | |
| Hero Likability | |
| Damien is not as dominant as Christian Grey. More than anything, he has a lot of money and a lot of connections.... which is nice in a sense. There is only so much controlling male I can handle. He seems to like kinkier than average sex and to be in control of what is going on, but I don't know I'd call it BDSM yet. We know he has secrets, but none revealed yet and without any kind of sneak peek into why he is the way he is just makes him fall flat rather than be mysterious or 'inscrutable'. | |
| True-to-Life | |
| I have always thought fiction is at it's best when it's almost impossible to decipher from reality. When everything could actually happen. It might be a 'best-case-senario' sort of reality, but things fall together flawlessly. In this case, there is so many things that just work too good-- yes it is possible. Nikki going to school under Damien's grant, the beauty pageant, the party, the pitch to Damien's company, the fact that Damien has tracked her for 5 years while being 'willing to wait for her'. Just too fitting together to make it really feel real for me. It almost comes off creepy. | |
| Sex Scenes |  |
| The sex is not awful. It is well written. There is a ton of 'my sex' in the text, and a whole lot of coming on demand. It does vary. It's not all BDSM, which is nice, but even throughout all of it. I felt a lack of connection. The one thing that I was more concerned about was that Damien keeps pulling all these toys out of the blue. Cat'o'nine tails, vibrating eggs... but no 'red room of pain' yet. Wonder where he keeps them all? | |
| Writing Style | |
| I liked it. There was an obsessive use of certain phrases and words, and that for being my least favorite part of Fifty Shades of Grey, was really what I hoped would not carry over into this novel. I liked the imagery used. The references to the sunsets painted a beautiful picture on top of the story. | |
| Predictability | |
| It followed a pretty predictable path. It was pretty obvious, although I was pretty let down at the climax. I expected more. | |
| The Happily Ever After-ness | |
| As stated earlier, I was pretty let down with the ending. 1.) the idea that anal sex really bonds people bugs the hell out of me. 2.) the set up for the next book was pretty dull. I might just tell myself they end up married with 3 kids and lots of money and call it good. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| We Give it... | |
Available At: Amazon – Goodreads – Barnes & Noble -
Title: Release Me
Author: J. Kenner
Genre: Contemporary, BDSM Romance
Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.
Release Date: January 1, 2013
This book was provided to ReviewingRomance.com as an ARC copy via Net Galley and the book’s publisher in exchange for an honest review
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