GRR Reviews The Challenge by Deana Farrady

Jasmine and Sara are roommates living across the hall from Matt and Harrison, also roommates. Matt, a "lazy blogger", flirts with Jasmine a lot, but Matt's also never serious about anything. Harrison is on his way to a PhD and is platonic friends with Sara. Then after a get-together, and a lot of wine, Sara proposed "the Challenge"... Jasmine and Matt will pair up, Sunday eight till midnight... go have sex, and work out their sexual tension. Sara and Harrison will do the same. Next week, they switch partners, then switch back the week after. Any of them can call stop. It's NOT supposed to affect their friendships. And all four, after a bit of pondering, agreed. But how can taking that extra step not change their relations fundamentally? As each learned a lot more about their friends, and work through their unrequited love (or lust), each also learned a lot about his or herself. And nothing will ever be the same...

On the surface, the idea seems... preposterous. But the sex is sensual, and the self-discovery exquisite. However, by the end of the book, there's a morose period, where basically Jasmine fell into some serious self-pity. OTOH, I really like the half-Asian angle. 4.5/5

GRR Review: The Alpha Billionaire's Revenge by Deana Farrady

BOOK NO LONGER AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

The Alpha Billionaire's Revenge by Deana Farrady is a very hard book to rate, as it deals with what is basically a kidnapping and holding a woman prisoner, then the kidnapper fell for the prisoner. It has a lot of domination / submission scenes. While I like the reasons given for each character to behave as he or she did, I honestly find the entire premise rather absurd.

An "alpha billionaire" is out to avenge his brother, who was betrayed by a woman while he was young, did some bad drugs, and almost died. The billionaire kidnap the woman to turn her into his "plaything" (almost a slave, without physical torture). Except he got the wrong woman. He actualy got the target's submissive twin, who not only likes being submissive, she reasoned it as protecting her twin's family, who has since reformed into at least a decent human being. What will he do when he found out? 

I find the entire situation completely implausible. Someone who can dream of a way to take revenge and takes years to bring his plans to fruition can't even verify which twin he was holding? This is a "dark romance", which I find, was not romantic at all.

Category: Dark Romance

Primary Plot: Billionaire intending on revenge holds woman captive as his pet; he's actually got the target's submissive twin and fell for her

NOTE: Non-con cohabitation, D/S and BDSM, Sex

Rating: 1/5  (unless you like the genre, I don't)