I’ve been meaning to read the Crossfire series for some time, but I decided to pick it up this year because a friend wanted me to read it. I always complain to her that most sex scenes are boring to me. They’re written in a way that isn’t interesting to me. It’s hard to please me when it comes to sex scenes, but I don’t ask for so much. Just make them interesting.

I also decided to pick up this series because I’m in the mood for romance or erotica. I don’t know why. I just am. I can’t control my reading moods.

I’ve already finishd the series. The one thing I’ll say is that it’s very similar to Dynasty. It’s a terrible soap opera, but in book form.

Synopsis

A woman starts a new job, only to fall for a dark, dangerous, and mysterious man. Things change rapidly as she engages in an affair with him. She finds herself facing her past and a possible new future.

Book Information

Genre: Romance
Category: Adult
Explicit violence: No
Explicit sex: Yes
Content warnings I noticed: Sexual assault of children and adults, controlling behavior, and stalking. There is a very explicit sexual assault scene
This is the first book in a series.

Review

The prose is good. Very accessible and easy to read. I read this book in two days and it wasn’t for the plot.

The story is told in Eva’s point of view. It’s written in first person, so we’re in her head the entire time. This is a pitfall of first person writing. In my experience, the other characters don’t feel like they go through an arc since we don’t get to spend time with them.

The pacing is too fast. I have no reason to root for these characters and romance because it doesn’t feel like I’m spending enough time with them. On top of that, no events were built up to.

The themes are not well explored. There’s an attempt at exploring the heavier themes, but it’s superficial. The themes feel like they’re added for extra drama. For shock value. It fits the soap opera model, but doesn’t explore the themes.

The characters are introduced, but not developed. It makes sense, considering it’s a five-book series. In this introduction, however, there’s not a lot for me to root for them. Like the exploration of the themes, the characters are superficial.

The romance is terrible. Problematic in every aspect. By saying this, my intent is not to prevent you from reading this book or series. It’s important to draw that line as a reviewer for me, so, if you’ve read this book, let me know what you think of the romance.

The problems in this romance include stalking and sexual assault. The stalking is romanticized, yet it’s also stated that it’s wrong. This could have worked if Eva didn’t constantly excuse Gideon’s reasons for stalking her or disrespecting her boundaries.

The characters attempt to be healthy, but fall into old patterns. This is a good portrayal of a toxic relationship thought to be romantic by both parties. It’s stated in the book that it’s toxic, but it’s ignored. I appreciated that it was a good portrayal of a toxic relationship where both parties tried to be healthy, but it’s not enough to make it a good romance.

Believe it or not, it’s not all the problematic shit that makes this a bad romance for me. It’s the fucking instalove. I hate it. By the end of the week, they already love each other.

This story is a trainreck that I couldn’t look away from. As I said earlier, I’m not reading this series because of the plot. It’s the prose and soap opera model for me.

I describe this as a better Fifty Shades of Grey. It’s a lot more interesting and, while it follows a similar model, Bared to You is written better. Am I the only one who had this experience?

Conclusion

Overall, this is not a good story. The only thing it did for me is satisfy my romance and erotica mood. It satisfied the erotica part because it’s definitely not a good romance. I rate it one star.