Sandy M’s review of Switch by Megan Hart
Contemporary Erotic Romance published by Harlequin Spice 1 Jan 10

It’s been a long while since I’ve not finished a book. I usually stick with whatever I’m reading, good or bad, until done, but this time I’ve read half a dozen books since I put this one aside and I just can’t make myself pick it up again.

I’m getting ready to start Chapter 11, and I just don’t care anymore. I have no idea who the hero of this story is. Too much time is spent on issues in Paige’s life that just don’t make any difference to anything so far in the book. With most of it I was just plain bored. Shopping with Paige for a birthday gift for her stepmother, which the woman won’t like, and then going through the party itself lends nothing to the concept of this book. And there are other similar issues too. Getting to know Paige maybe? Fine, but I have to like the character first before I want to get to know her/him/them. There’s really nothing so far that makes me like Paige all that much.

Paige is in her mid 20s, lives alone, has a job she likes okay with a so-so boss. She goes out now and again for a night on the town with her best friend, who really turns out not to be that good of a friend after all. Their latest jaunt takes them to a local bar where Austin just happens to be. This is Paige’s ex.

She’s irritated that the friend told Austin where they were going, not wanting to be near him because of the way he treated her, but she ends up having sex with him anyway. He tries to tell her he’s changed, to give him another chance, but she won’t listen. Just heads home and life goes on as usual.

But the unusual that happens is bizarre notes are being inadvertently left in her mailbox, notes that make her think with the demands each one makes. And she’s starting to see and run into a new guy in her building. He doesn’t notice her for a while, that is until they finally have a few words at a neighborhood coffee house.

There’s other family issues and the like described in detail as they come along, but that’s it for eleven chapters. I figured the new guy is going to the hero after she leaves Austin behind, but still nothing of any substance has yet to happen because the man is hardly in the story at all. At this point I’m not even curious enough to keep reading to find out which man wins, nor am I curious enough to find out who the switch is and how Paige fares in being submissive.

The story just doesn’t grab a reader. It’s very slow. The characters aren’t all that interesting. The one sex scene in all those pages is good, enough to make me like Austin at that point. But that’s not enough.

Maybe I’m giving up too soon. Maybe in Chapter 11 things start to move in the book, things become more clear. I’ll never know.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Don’t think.Don’t question.

Just do.

The anonymous note wasn’t for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in the habit of reading other people’s mail, but it was just a piece of paper with a few lines scrawled on it, clearly meant for the apartment upstairs. It looked so innocent, but decidedly–
deliciously–it was not.

Before replacing the note–and the ones that followed–in its rightful slot, I devoured its contents: suggestions, instructions, summonses, commands. Each was more daring, more intricate and more arousing than the last…and I followed them all to the letter.

Before the notes, if a man had told me what to do, I’d have told him where to go. But submission is an art, and there’s something oddly freeing about doing someone’s bidding…especially when it feels so very, very good.

But I find that the more I surrender, the more powerful I feel–so it’s time to switch up roles.

We play by my rules now.

Read an excerpt.