Sylvia Day

Holy trainwreck Batman!

Look, this series was never amazing. It's readable in a weird way, yes, but it's also ridiculous while attempting to be serious. But this book was just...wow. I don't even have adequate words to describe my feelings for this book, except that this was the book that convinced me that Gideon Cross is a sociopath.

First off, as we started to see at the end of the third book, Eva's friend Megumi has had some serious trouble recently in the love department. It turns out that show more she tried some BDSM and it went horribly wrong and ended up with her being raped. Even though NO ONE in the book called it that and preferred to politely refer to Megumi's rape as the BDSM "going too far" and her "not feeling safe" during the act. And I was scratching my head wondering why this was the case. Was it because Megumi had originally consented to being tied up and fucked? She said no, repeatedly, and the guy kept going. That is rape. And then the guy took pictures of her without Megumi's consent and threatened her with them. WTF. Anyway, Eva is understandably upset for her friend and wants to help her, and Gideon doesn't give a flying fuck. He wants Eva to stay away from Megumi entirely because he wants Eva to be "safe." I wanted to throat punch him more than once.

So we see more about what happened to Gideon when he was raped, and I kind of wish we hadn't. I was okay with it being mostly "in the shadows" and off-page; I really didn't need graphic passages of a child being raped in this book.

The book doesn't really have a plot; the characters kind of wander from thread to thread, with the author hoping that she's spinning something cohesive at some point, except it's not. I really don't think this series needed another two books tacked on the end, and by this point it feels like the author was just milking the franchise and throwing in a bunch of shit that no one really cares about. Or, at least, I don't care.

Gideon is even more domineering and controlling in this book. He tells multiple people off for following Eva or invading her privacy, including people who really do have Eva's best interests at heart (or seem to, judging by their words and past actions), but he has no problem following her without her knowledge throughout the book. He seriously stalks her more than once, jacking security cameras to spy on her and "just happening" to be at different points where Eva, coincidentally, also is. I know he's done this before, but now it feels like he's becoming even more obsessed with Eva, to the point that I would actually fear for her life and safety if she did leave him, or attempt to, permanently. And yes, I know that she puts some distance between them at the end of the book, but she's still texting him and saying how she loves him and she's not giving up on them, so it's softening the blow. If she went up to Gideon Cross and said "I'm not coming back," I really wonder what he would do, and my feelings are that it would end up being something definitely not good for Eva.

So the dude is unhealthily obsessed with Eva. I doubt his "love" for her. He barely says that he loves her, choosing instead to use "Crossfire" to substitute for the words, which is a building he owns AND a play on his own name. Narcissistic much? And when he talks about Eva, 90% of the time it is either about how sexy she is OR what she can do for him and how she makes him feel. Yeah, not feeling the love here, and I'm wondering if Gideon even can feel love (I have my doubts). Or is he confusing obsession with love? Is that what "love" is to him? Like I said, I am now convinced that he's a sociopath. His emotions are blunted and, when loosed, unstable at best. His feelings for Eva center on what she can do for him, whether it be making him feel sexual attraction in a way he has never experienced before or how she makes him feel.

He even goes so far as to make a move that will make her job cease to exist - a job that she is good at and loves, which she has told him repeatedly, and he is SHOCKED when she is mad at him when she finds out about what he did. What the holy fuck? Like he has absolutely no idea why she would feel anything but pleased by the fact that he nixed her job at a firm that she likes and tried to boss her into working for him, when she told him MULTIPLE TIMES that she wasn't sure if she wanted to do that at all, and downright refused his offers to do such NUMEROUS TIMES. I just don't think that Gideon Cross processes emotions like most of us do.

Oh, and he also gets so upset with Eva telling his step-father about him being raped as a child that he gets drunk and tells Eva, quite explicitly, that even though they have a safeword, he's so pissed at her that he might ignore her saying it and just keep going. And she still wants to take a ride on his discostick after all of this, AND after she is tied up in an elevator by him against her will. Oh so hawt, right? :P Consent issues ahoy! Oh, and a few days later, when at the psychiatrist's, the psychiatrist asks Eva if she ever wonders or fears that Gideon will push past her boundaries forcibly, and she says NO! No, after he told her, without a doubt, that there was a good chance that he would do that! WHAT THE FUCK.

This series. :|

There's only one more book to go, and since I've already downloaded it to my Kindle, I'll probably read it. Probably. Maybe. I'm actually not sure. This series is a trainwreck romance at its finest, and I'm just not sure if I want to look away or watch the carnage continue to unfold. show less

Hahahaha seriously what the fuck is this?

So the first book got two stars out of me, even though it had a LOT of problems. But this book was all aboard the failboat the entire way. Eva becomes much weaker as a character, and she is completely losing all personality and drive just so she can be with the all-mighty Gideon. And Gideon spends much of the book waxing hot and cold about Eva, which is explained in the end, but still.

Gideon starts whaling on some guy (I think his name is Brett - he's show more one of Eva's exes, who is now a successful singer in a popular band and wrote a song about her, which is their first single) just because he saw Brett and Eva kissing. And Brett started the kiss, not that it should matter. Eva is understandably freaked out, because Gideon is seriously creaming this guy into the pavement for the most part (although Brett does get in a few good blows himself, and he doesn't appear to be horribly worse for wear later in the book), but everyone is just like, oh well, Gideon knows when to stop. Except he looks completely out of control. And then, later that night, Gideon blames Eva for his reaction, turns everything around onto her, and then uses sex as a weapon against her.

Excuse me, how is this hot? Because I'm not seeing it. I'm seeing someone with a severe anger problem who is completely out of control, then takes absolutely no responsibility for his own actions.

And then it gets worse. Really? Yeah, it does.

Gideon commits a highly premeditated murder and kills Nathan Barker, the former step-brother of Eva's who raped he repeatedly. Granted, Barker wasn't exactly a great person - even his own father was saying "oh well" when finding out about his murder - and he was trying to ruin Eva's life again (although Eva didn't know it). All the while, he pushes Eva out of his life so he can set up "plausible deniability" and pretends to carry on with his ex flame and doesn't tell Eva any of this.

This dude is a fucking sociopath.

And when Eva finds out that it is Gideon who kills Nathan - and also conveniently finds out from one of the detectives working the case that Gideon was so meticulous that they'll likely never be able to charge him with the crime, much less convict him - Eva feels...relief and love. Seriously, she doesn't for one second question her decision to spend her life with some dude whom she has known for maybe two months tops who commits such a perfect murder that the freaking detective is saying they'll never be able to catch him.

Honey, if he can kill that guy with no remorse/guilt, he has a SERIOUS problem. And considering that he keeps telling her that he'd never ever let her go no matter what she says or does - how exactly does she think he might react if she decided that this was all too much for her to take and she tried to leave him?

Oh god this is a train wreck of epic proportions.

And yes, I will read the next book just to see how bad it can get. ;) show less

So I needed a little mindless reading, and this fit the bill.

It is definitely similar to 50 Shades of Grey, except that there are no inner goddesses doing the samba or whatever nonsense. Plus I liked the character of Eva more than I liked Ana. And there was even more dysfunction, which is normally something that I like.

This book was a train wreck romance in every sense. Eva was repeatedly raped by her stepbrother when she was younger, even getting pregnant, though she didn't realize it until show more she was having a miscarriage. Gideon was apparently raped as well, although there are few details and neither the reader nor Eva know who is responsible.

So I am normally all for two damaged people getting together and discovering sexual healing, but Gideon is a creep. He stalks Eva repeatedly. He knows her roommate's name, the gym she attends, etc, etc. At first Eva is understandably repulsed by this, but then she just kind of shrugs and dismisses it as him being protective of her. Umm how about no. That is not being protective. That is being a creepy asshole.

They are both insanely jealous when the other is talking to someone else. They are completely obsessed with one another, and this entire book takes place over the span of two weeks. By the time the book is over, they are saying they love one another and buying each other promise rings and all sorts of crazy shit. Oh honey, no.

And yet this book is so damned readable! I just kept wondering how much worse the "romance" would get. And it did get worse.

I felt much like I did when reading "Beautiful Disaster" - the romance is creepy as hell, but I just couldn't look away. show less

If BARED TO YOU introduces two broken characters with a chance for happiness, REFLECTED IN YOU explores the dark depths between them. Insecurity, drama, jealousy, the make up/break up cycle absorbs most of this book. I still enjoy Eva, and given her past, her behaviors all make sense. I applauded her rallying confidence near the end, but can't help but be appalled by the ending. Eva and Gideon are larger than life, but firmly rooted in our reality. That means behavior that I dismiss in show more fantasy alpha heroes is deeply troubling in a real world context. Still enjoy Gideon and Eva, but good heavens they're broken. show less