Lady Vigilante (Feifei)'s Reviews > Raw

2 stars

Being honest sucks donkey balls. Okay I'm going to cut the sweet talk and just list what I didn't like.

Numero Uno: Writing style

There are some books that have the perfect plot, amazing characters, and dynamic chemistry, but I still don’t like. Why? If I can’t even read the book because of the way it’s styled, then I just can’t read the book. It’s not that the author’s style was bad, no. It’s just for me I can’t stand all the fuckin’, darlin’, and other words missing the “g” key, along with chopped up sentences like “You just gotta.” <--- I just got to what?

What else was bothersome? The endearments. 81 instances of ‘babe’ and ‘angel.’ I also don’t like it when all the characters address each other as babe. I know, I know. It’s a way of conveying affection but for hardcore readers like myself, it symbolizes way too much mush, not enough grit. That may just be a personal preference, or I just don’t roll with Aussie lingo. Probably both. *shrugs*

Plot that I did not find to be a plot

Was this book meant to be dark? If it was, it failed. A sexual awakening for the heroine, mixed in with some BDSM and kinky sex does not equate dark romance. You want dark? Go read Topping From Below or Her Master's Courtesan. For me, the book was hyped up to be a "dark read," which was the reason why I read it in the first place and when it ended up being more of a smutty guilty pleasure book, that feeling of disappointment is just....disappointing.

The main problem I had with this book though is this: nearly 50% of the story is made up of filler sex. I’m normally not critical of the amount of sex in a book because as long as it’s hot and steamy, it’s a plus for me. But for this book? No. With an amazing blurb like this story has and with key terms like “falling in love with stalker,” I expect to see plot development throughout the story on that aspect.

Why does she fall in love with Twitch? (No, the answer is not because he’s fucking hot).
Why does he even stalk Lexi?
Why is he so intent on “breaking” Lexi?

So many questions that needed to be answered, and quite frankly, there was no build up or plot development to get to that point. It was “bang, bang, filler sex, get to a point where Twitch says he needs to ‘tell the truth’ and BANG, truth, and then some.” So you have numerous detailed kinky sex scenes but everything else happened too suddenly without a good plot pace in between events.

The second huge problem I had with this book was Twitch himself. I will concede that he’s messed up, maybe even twisted, but I feel like he tried too hard to be an evil devil rather it being in his nature. (view spoiler)[The moment Lexi says she loves him, he turns into a love drunk boyfriend...for starters I didn’t even how he fell in love with her in the first place so there’s that. But really? For the first part of the book, he’s so intent on conquering her, branding her, and he makes a sudden 180 into an attentive boyfriend? (hide spoiler)]

This part I'm adding in after 24 hours of thinking about the events in the book, and also played a huge role in why I rated this book so lowly. (view spoiler)[It's obvious to the reader after a good 10% that Twitch is Antonio Falco, the little boy from the prologue. (hide spoiler)] As the reader, when I know this way ahead of time before Lexi knows it, it just makes her character more of a tool. Besides, the author dropped SO MANY hints throughout the book so it was incredulous that Lexi didn't connect the dots!!! ----> Falco, Falcon Industries? That bandage scene where they repeat the exact same words from the prologue? It may be a 20 year gap, BUT since Lexi said she thought of Antonio a lot through the years and that one scene in the prologue was their ONE time of communicating, how is it that she doesn't connect the dots? Way too many similarities and a TSTL naive female lead.

Another thing was Twitch’s reasoning behind the stalking. This and the filler sex part is what made it a 2 star book for me. **WARNING** The spoiler tells you his reasoning so open at your own risk. (view spoiler)[In the prologue, a 6 year old Lexi helps an 8 year old Twitch by bandaging his wounds. This gave him “hope” for a better life, and just gave him hope in general. Later when he couldn’t find Lexi (because she moved) he became dejected and desperate, thus blaming LEXI for giving him hope. That sparks his agenda for tracking her down and worming himself into her life. He does that by hiring a dude to attack Lexi so he can come to her rescue. (hide spoiler)]

You know, I didn’t even mind the last part of the spoiler, after all, it makes this book kinda twisted and that’s cool as long as it was executed properly. But the reasoning? Seriously? Way too flimsy and I expected something a LOT darker, especially since the author dangled this part to the reader for a good 65% of the book.

Last thing: the ending. *rubs head* I don’t mind that (view spoiler)[it’s not an HEA. (hide spoiler)] I expected it because the author did warn everyone in the blurb that this is a love story gone wrong. But hello? The last few lines of the book I need some serious clarification on. Is this supposed to be a standalone? Also it seemed like EVERYONE cried. Sorry I didn’t! When you smack me with that kind of ending and epilogue don’t expect me too. I think I was still in the dismal shock phase and never got out of it to cry.

So why not 1 star then?

Because there WERE parts I genuinely liked. There are some fantastic quotes in here that you’ll probably see floating around on teasers and such so I think the author is a talented writer, just not the type of talented writer I can identify with.

The last thing I wanted to say is, there have been several concerns with a particular reader not liking this rating and proceeding to tell me how to rate it. Originally I had posted a portion of what this person said to me, but I took it down because I didn't want to confuse others into thinking I was addressing the author. I have several screenshots of the PM this person sent me, and if I were truly vindictive, I would've posted it for the entire GR community to see (comes with this person's name, full PM, etc) but I didn't because who wants a GR shitstorm when this is a place for readers alike to gather around and chat books?