**The books featured on SEXY SUMMER SATURDAYS are for adults. If you are under 18 years of age, or do not like smexy books, please stop here. **
Allie prowls the club for a man who will use her hard and then ditch her. Hey, it's not rape if she wants it. Instead she finds Colin, who looks tough but treats her tenderly, despite her protests.
He tempts her, but kindness and a few mindblowing orgasms aren't enough to put her back together again. Allie has no hope for a real relationship. Two years ago her best friend betrayed her in the worst possible way – she’d be stupid to trust a man again. Besides, she has her daughter to think of, the only good thing to have come from that dark night.
But when her rapist returns, threatening her sanity and custody of her daughter, Allie turns to Colin. Under his protection and patient touch, Allie begins to heal and learns to hope. Colin’s no saint, though, and his criminal past draws danger of its own. Allie must fight to protect her child and the man she loves, hoping her new found power will be enough to save them all.
Oh boy. I am TORN over this review. Honestly, I had issues with Giving It Up. Maybe it's my fault. I thought this was an erotic romance, but it read to me as a psychological crime drama with a little romance thrown in.
So...Allie is a rape survivor. And two years later, she seems to be almost punishing herself for that. Once a month she goes to a club and picks up a man, with whom she has sex. Rough sex. Now, I don't want to get all psychoanalytical here, that's not really what I'm about with these Sexy Saturday reads, but what I think is going on is this: Allie is, in a way, reenacting rape. On her own terms. And this makes my brain hurt. I get it (kind of), I really do. But knowing there is a valid psychological reason for her actions doesn't necessarily mean I want to read about it.
Like I said earlier, Giving It Up felt more like a crime drama than a romance to me. There's a whole "mob-ish" subplot. Colin, the guy Allie hooks up with, is shady. There's a lot of behind the scenes deals that he makes, some really nasty business he's involved in that didn't sit well with me. But Allie's fine with it, really, as long as Colin provides and protects her and her baby.
The smexy scenes were okay. I'm all for a steamy scene. But the psychoses behind the acts disturbed me. The things Allie was saying in her head kept me detached and kind of weirded out.
I'm not saying Giving It Up is not a good book. The writing was fairly good and the story had a decent pace. It's simply that it came with so much baggage that I couldn't get into it.
For an alternate point of view, check out this positive review from GoodReads.
Published June 18th 2012 by Loose Id
You can purchase Giving It Up at:
Amazon
Source: Received from author in exchange for an honest review.
