THE DIARY
Sydney Tate spends a lot of time fantasizing about her small town's mayor, Matthew Stone. New in town, she has been working as the reporter for local government for the last six months, and has gotten to know Stone pretty well. She is shy about approaching him, however, since her last boyfriend was a real jerk who used and discarded her – humiliating her and costing her her job.
Sydney has a penchant for exhibitionism. Her book club has been reading a book called The Secret Diary of an Anonymous Victorian Lady. Sydney claims this book is faked and sets out to “prove” it by writing a steamy confessional diary of her own. Fictional, of course. How this would “prove” anything is beyond my understanding, but heroines in romance novels are always coming up with these bizarre ideas.
ANYWAY. Sydney is now walking around with a notebook filled with erotic fantasies involving her and Matt Stone (whom she calls X in the notebook). One thing leads to another and the notebook is misplaced. Guess whose hands it ends up in? You're right! But he only gets it after more than half the town has read it and jumped to the conclusion that Sydney and Matthew are having hot, exhibitionist sex everywhere.
This short story could have been amazing – perhaps if it was a full-length novel and given a chance to grow and breathe. I love when heroine's have this kind of “hang-up about men because her evil ex did a real number on her.” Love this plot. And she's naively exposing her psyche to the hero, with no regard for her personal well-being. In this scene, Matthew and Sydney are discussing the “common” male fantasy of having a woman meet him at his office wearing nothing but a coat and heels.
“What's not to like about that scenario?” His eyes glittered as he considered the fantasy. “A woman is taking the initiative and making it clear that she wants you right here, right now. That's always a turn-on.”
“I don't think that's the thing that's turning men on.” At least, that hadn't been her personal experience. “It's the fact that the woman is exposing herself to a great deal of risk.”
“The guy wouldn't let her get caught. It's for his eyes only.” From his tone, Sydney realized Matthew would take care of his woman even in the throes of passion. “That's part of the fantasy.”
“No, the most important part of the fantasy is that everyone knows what you are doing. If I visited a man at work and was wearing a trench coat, all of Seedling would be aware that I didn't have anything on underneath. And that's the turn-on for men.” She frowned at looked away. “They want to show how much power they have over women. Show the world that they can make normally reasonable women take stupid risks.”
Okay. It doesn't take a genius to realize that Sydney is completely opening her deepest fears and desires to this man. She's recklessly (or naively, depending) exposing herself to this guy. She's very lucky that he isn't a predator because this kind of conversation is pretty much blood in the water. But Matthew appears to have only half a brain, and doesn't really realize what's going on here.
He's got his own hang-ups, which seem to involve believing that – even though he has a reputation of being a Lothario – he is somehow not 'sophisticated' enough for the 'worldly' city girl, Sydney. I didn't really understand this attitude of his, which seemed rather tacked on to the story. Again, perhaps a full book would have been able to deal with this concept better.
Oh, and Sydney's girlfriends were annoying and I didn't trust them. I was begging Sydney not to share anything personal with them. Ugh, I didn't like them.
And I should mention that the endless talk of a man “protecting” his girlfriend and preventing her (them) from getting caught is nice in theory... but pretty hard to pull off in real life. There's almost no way you can be in a 'exhibitionist' situation and have no risk of being caught – or a way a man could 'prevent' a catch from happening. I just do not understand what the author is trying to say here. I get that Matthew is “noble” and Sydney's ex is scum, but I still fail to understand how Matt would prevent or be able to prevent the two of them from getting caught having sex in public. Stuff happens, you can't really be 100% sure and guarded against exposure if you are going to be running around having sex in public/semi-public places. Which is part of the reason people get a thrill from having public/semi-public sex. So...
I could complain about how fast the couple falls into bed together, but I won't. It's a romance AND a short story, at that. What do I expect? At least they've known each other for 6 months, that's more than I can say for most romances.
I'll give this 3 REAL STARS, 3 ROMANCE STARS, even though the sex wasn't really doing anything for me.
TALK OF THE TOWN
Remember when I said in the previous story that Matthew wasn't a predator? Well, this man in Story 2: TALK OF THE TOWN is a predator. And I hate him.
Isabel Bennett is a librarian and everyone thinks she is a quiet “good girl.” But she has a naughty, wild streak which finally became public when she got kicked out of her book club for wanting to read The Secret Diary of an Anonymous Victorian Lady. Her controlling, uptight father is worried that Isabel is becoming too daring and orders his associate, Sean Hawkins, to keep an eye on Isabel and “rein her in.”
Little does Mr. Bennett know that Sean and Isabel had an unexpected one-night-stand together one month ago.
Long story short, I spent the whole time telling Sean to go fuck himself. I did not like him, think he was sexy, or want him within 50 feet of Isabel.
He's kind of got this... weird fake dominant vibe that I can't easily explain. He obviously gets off on being bossy and commanding, possessive and controlling, but often Isabel will take control in bed and he is fine with that. Also, he frequently humiliates and disrespects her in front of her father, which makes me rabid with hate and anger. I don't know how she can stand even two seconds of that nonsense, if I were her he'd be out on his ass so fast he wouldn't know how he got there. But she just sits there and takes it. I mean, some of the humiliation stuff (while not my kink) I can understand. For instance, he orders her not to wear panties when she hosts the library's poetry jam. I don't like this – but I get that it's sexual and some sort of power play blah blah blah. I know some people enjoy this for some reason. Fucking around with her feelings/life/personal business in front of her dad – on purpose in order to humiliate her or embarrass her – “playing” with her sexually on some level at family dinners - on the other hand, is revolting and completely beyond any realm of understanding that I have for sexual games.
He also joins her book club, practically for the same reason. This is devastating for her, because before he strolled in, book club was a safe space for her where she could explore and discuss some of her more adventurous feelings.
I feel like he's basically a disrespectful asshole, is what I'm saying.
She's also trying to come through as her true self and explore some of her more “wild” urges which range from wanting to wear sexy high heels to wanting to read erotica. Yeah. So crazy and out-there. o.O Not really, but ANYWAY, instead of encouraging her and being supportive of her new feelings and boldness, he tries to shut the whole thing down and shove her back into the “proper lady” pocket. Eventually, at the end of the book, the author has him realize his mistake on this front, but I was not amused. He spends the book pooh-poohing her new-found feelings as “late rebellion” and offers to “guide her through this stage” (read: control her). He actively discourages her from something as simple as wearing stiletto heels which will give her pleasure. Mainly because he's a dick. I DIDN'T LIKE HIM. Perhaps I mentioned that?
1 REAL STAR, 1 ROMANCE STAR
CRAVING YOU
A sweet, “good boy” and a sweet, misunderstood “bad girl” find love and happiness together. Sweet and cute.
3 REAL STARS, 3 ROMANCE STARS, although, again, the sex wasn't exciting.
Harlequin Blaze February 2015