Sandy M’s review of Bonded by Anne Wesley Hardin
Contemporary Erotic Romance eBook released by Red Sage Sept 2008
Well, I finished this book a couple of days ago and still have no idea what to say about it. I almost didn’t finish the darned thing, but then decided I should give it a chance, you never know, maybe it will get better. Maybe it’s one of those tongue-in-cheek things that starts out so silly you roll your eyes with every word. I’m now sorry I gave it a chance.
Three friends are taking a weekend at the “Castle” where they can live out their fantasies, a place where actors will don whatever persona is necessary to give the women what they want, sexual or otherwise. Okay, I can live with that. But once two of the women are settled with their fantasy men and the third is taking the night easy with a book in her room because her hero called in sick, the book goes downhill at a very rapid pace.
Sela tells herself she doesn’t need a man. She has Charlie. Her vibrator. And she proceeds to use “him” with gusto. This was the one of the silliest scenes in the book, especially when the owner of the place, who has decided to take Sela down a peg or two for her nervous but disparaging comments about the “Class A joint” on arrival, walks in on her during her rendezvous with Charlie — and her reason for naming the thing is ridiculous.
The scene and dialogue that follow are some of the same silliness, and not a bit of it was sexy or romantic in any sense of the word. The words the author chose to use in the sex scenes and the way she worded those scenes just didn’t work at all. Made it all sound like a medical convention than down-and-dirty sex with a stranger. But the word usage continues throughout the book, words that just bring the wrong picture to mind no matter the situation.
Daniel Bond is the owner who takes exception to Sela’s remarks about his business and decides to “handle” her himself. Although the Castle is a place where sex is not necessarily a part of the fantasy being lived, we, of course, know it can happen and these two go at it fairly quickly. Dan slips into three different hero personas during the weekend, one of which is himself, the one that Sela doesn’t care for because of all she’s heard about him. He wants her to want him for himself and not “Jorge” or “Randolph,” though she had fun with those “men” during their time together.
He’s determined to keep seeing her after she goes home, but she’s learned the truth and decides to exact her revenge by putting together a cheesy ad campaign for his business ventures. She’s supposedly an intelligent woman, makes loads of money at her job, but she uses the workplace for an act of revenge? Just doesn’t cut it for me. The man didn’t do anything to her that would cost her personally or financially, but she decides to humiliate him in the boardroom. Doesn’t make one bit of sense.
Even the supposed witty banter and snappy comebacks between the characters were sappy and irritating. The only place in the book that any sentimentality at all was when Sela explained to Daniel how her husband perished in the September 11th attacks. By this time, though, I was so disappointed that not even something as sad and heartfelt as that should have been could save anything about this book. Even Sela’s friends keep the truth of Daniel’s identity from her until she figures it out for herself. Some friends.
This book just left me flat and cold. The characters aren’t people I’d like to know. The storyline has been done before and we aren’t given anything new or different to keep it interesting.
Grade: F
Summary:
W hen Sela Wilson requested a gothic hero during Fantasy Weekend at a luxury hotel, she didn’t expect to be stuck with the worst actor ever. Daniel Bond, womanizing, billionaire hotelier, didn’t expect to have to go under cover to play the part, nor did he expect Sela to ditch him for a dildo. But soon, his offer to fulfill all her sexual fantasies has him peeking out from under his mask, and finding that only Sela can coax out the real man he is inside.
Read an excerpt.
