13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A mess from beginning to end, September 4, 2007
This story took us from small-town Maine to Manhattan, Paris, and the fascinating motels and gas stations of New England. None of the characters display any defined personalities or motives. Frankie goes from being a 17 year-old virgin to being a breathtakingly promiscuous slut in literally the course of a couple of pages; the reader never knows why Dax does the things he does or why he is so attracted to Frankie but won't act on it (except, sometimes, sexually); the sex scenes in the book are completely ridiculous - what woman in her right mind would take the chances these women do with their bodies? The whole book is dumb. There's no character development, no explanation for anything, and the ending is, no pun intended, rushed and anticlimactic. Granted, this is erotica, and I like sex scenes as much as the next girl, but I expected better from this author. Don't waste your time or your money.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Just didn't grab me..., July 28, 2007
I am a fan of Thea Devine's books but was very disappointed in this particular effort. It didn't rate as a romance for me as the "hero" (Dax)and the "heroine" (Frankie) were apart far more than they were together and did not ever seem to grow in their relationship. He showed up occasionally to lecture her and frown disapprovingly and sometimes bed her. Frankie yearned for his love yet jumped wholeheartedly into Marianne's manipulative, overindulgent world. Of course, on the very last page the "love" story was all very neatly wrapped up and there's total understanding of each other and everything's great. Not for me, unfortunately.
I also thought there might be more insight to Marianne's character. It turned out she was pretty much in the end what she was in the beginning - spoiled, mean, and vindictive. Of course the reader could tell from a mile away, Marianne's true character, but Frankie never realized it? Let's not forget, she lived with Marianne for several months. She was slightly naive obviously about living wild but after all the years of living in a town where the rich vacationed every summer and interacting to a certain point with these people, did she really not know that people could be users? Of course this could be because she did not want to give up the lifestyle she had become accustomed to. I never felt sorry for Frankie. I never rooted for her. The book occasionally alluded to her "distaste" or semi-aversion to the acts Marianne insisted (and, imo, sometimes almost forced) Frankie to participate in. But in the end she pretty much never said no and really had no backbone to speak of. Yet towards the end of the book, she "remembers" that she was raised by a hardworking single mom with values and is going to take that back to NY with her. Mmmm hmmmm...right.
I did feel some emotion for Dax and even some for Becca. Their characters seemed somewhat more finely drawn. It would have been nice to get some more detailed background on these characters. However, and maybe I'm old fashioned, I think a romance, even an erotic romance should pretty much focus on the two main characters with maybe a sub plot involving lesser characters.
I expected the erotica which is definitely a reason I bought it but imho it wasn't erotica but just a bunch of scenes strung together in which four horny women do nothing but prowl New York night and day for anonymous sex, sex, and more anonymous sex. Erotica's good. Sex is good. Reading about sex with a nameless stranger can be very sexy, but the 24 hour, 7 days a week orgies with nothing BUT strangers made me ill at ease. Occasionally Marianne would mention diaphragms and spermicides but what's the point of those? They don't protect you from disease. If you're going to write erotica set in the here and now, deal with here and now issues such as disease, pregnancy, etc. Granted these issues can be addressed in any time period but these are all supposedly modern, savvy career women with the exception of Marianne, who's a spoiled rich girl. Yet these supposedly smart gals risk all kinds of disaster in order to get some nooky?????
In the end, I was kinda wishing Dax and Becca would get together...sigh. Oh well.
I'm sorry if this sounds harsh. I know these authors are under pressure to produce manuscripts on time but to me this was a very lazy effort that wasn't worth my effort or money. I will continue to read Ms. Devine but probably only through borrowing or buying second hand.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Difficult to read, June 12, 2007
I've read a lot of Thea Devine books, and am no stranger to erotic romance, but a good portion of this book made me cringe. The main character, Frannie, has sex with about 10-15 men in a 2-3 week period, and many she doesn't even know -- quickies in the gas station bathroom, for example. All I could think of was the communicable disease quotient must be huge. Frannie and her pals just try to have as much sex as possible every single day. Forget about relationships. I found this book quite distasteful.
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