Rabid Reads

Reviewed by: Rabid Reads

After my positive experience with Fifty Shades of Grey, I decided to give this book a try seeing how so many comparisons haven been made between the two. The story is definitely similar as is the rich, alpha male stereotype but its Sylvia Day’s writing that is the clear winner here. The narrative flows well, the vocabulary is diverse and there’s minimal repetition which is a feat in itself considering the number of sex scenes in this novel. Bared to You is clearly the superior read amongst the two contemporary erotica series’.

I found that both of the main characters were reasonably well-developed but that Eva was significantly more defined than Gideon which is not surprising seeing how Day probably wanted him to maintain a certain degree of mystery. Tramell is just as messed up as her counterpart which surprised me a little because I’d expected there to be only one broken person in this book so there’s another un-Fifty like characteristic for you. Eva’s past is a troubled one and her tell-all session with Gideon took real courage and made my opinion of her skyrocket.

One of the things that irked me about this novel is that every single character, even the secondary ones, are beautiful. I expected as much of Eva and Gideon seeing how their initial attraction was purely physical but was it really necessary that Tramell’s roommate and Cross’ receptionist be equally as stunning? It felt like overkill to me. Also, as I mentioned, Day probably purposefully didn’t explore Gideon’s character in detail but by the end of the book I didn’t know much more about him than I did when he’s first introduced; other than the fact that he’s gorgeous of course. I’m thinking that this first installment was more about Eva and am hoping that the next book will focus more on Cross. You can only push the “mystery” so far in my opinion until it morphs into shallowness and this novel was close to falling into the latter category.

Jill Redfield is an enthusiastic narrator to say the least and listening to Bared to You while at work was… interesting. I will definitely be adding more erotica audiobooks to my library in the future! Redfield does every scene justice by adding just the right amount of emphasis to suit the storyline. She does a great job of alternating between a sassy tone and a dramatic one. More than once I found myself looking around my office to see if any of my coworkers were finding it as hot in the room as I was. Needless to say, it was just me!

I read the entire Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy so I think that it’s only fair that I give Sylvia Day’s next installment a chance as well. Hopefully Crossfire will improve with each book unlike its sister-series. But one thing is for sure, Bared to You will make your blood boil with either lust or anger and sometimes both!