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30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
BDSM Porn, but not the least bit Romantic..., April 11, 2010
This review is from: Sweet Temptation (Heat) (Paperback)
Spoilers ----
I ultimately didn't find this book fulfilling; either story or relationship wise. Romance? What Romance.....
Okay, so in previous books of the Sweet series, Micah was the nice guy who had really kinky sex habits. In this book, he's apparently the biggest, baddest BDSM guy in Houston. Cool so far. Angelina is his deceased best friend's little sis; who he has known since she was a young teen, and who he promised David --- he would always take care of and watch over ---. So he 'gives' Angelina to a group of his buddies (3 of them, strangers to her), because he owns her and wants to share her. This group of guys, along with Micah, proceed to have some really, really rough and abusive (and forced) oral, anal, and vaginal sex with her (along with various BDSM activities - mostly welt/blood inducing whippings) for HOURS with no fore play. Angel submits because she loves Micah, and will do whatever he tells her to.
At the very end of the story, she is kidnapped. Micah has an epiphany; decides he loves her, wants to have kids with her and the whole picket fence, and doesn't want to share her anymore. That's pretty much it, and yes; this book is really as cheesy as all this sounds.
According to the book, David and Hannah died when Angelina was 20, and she lived with the three of them for years. How could Micah have treated someone who was basically family to him so callously and without thought or regard as to her safety or well being? I understand he didn't want to love her, but as someone close to him he should have treated her with a modicum of the affection and respect he has the other women in this series. I kept wondering who this 'new' Micah was. He was creepy sleazy, and it was all about him all the time. Angel had loved him for years, and would do or be anything to get him to notice her, even change and train herself into being the bottom / bondage bunny she thought he wanted, and engage in sex acts with other men for his pleasure. I understand she liked the pain, especially when Micah administered it; but he passed her around to his friends like a sex toy, just because he could.
I had also gotten the impression from previous books that more time had passed since their deaths. How (and why) did Micah go from sweet and devoted husband to the baddest BDSM man and kinkmeister of Houston in just 3 short years? Inquiring minds want to know. Banks spent so much story time playing up the clunky S&M and sticky, kinky group sex that she apparently had nothing left over to create an informative story with. There was no romance / love here, just hard BDSM and relentlessly crude, kinky, rough sex with all his buddies. He used her like a doormat (and allowed others to use her), and she let him. At one point in the book, she told Cole that she did what Micah ordered her to do because she felt it was the only way she had a chance to hold onto him. (Not much self respect there, and that's just really sad). His 'professions of love', as they were, came about 12 pages from the end of the book. Too little, too late. When she springs her 'surprise' at the end of the book, I sure hope it was his......
Is this book Erotic, sort of (bondage porn really); Romantic, no. Just because the H engages in bondage and whipping sex acts alone with the h every once in a while instead of in an S&M orgy with every Tom, Dick, and Harry he brings home to do her does not make this a romance. Varied acts of rough painful sex with numerous strange men throughout the book do not a romance make, even an erotic romance.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Weakest in the series, July 21, 2010
This review is from: Sweet Temptation (Heat) (Paperback)
Micah was just so different from what MB had let us "see" of him in the other books. I had to work hard to get to this new guy with all of his issues. Even though I think the story fit the new man and his lady - I didn't like the new Micah as much as the old one.
I think Conor's and Cole's stories will end the series - just think a series that actually ends! I hope that they won't change as much as Micah did.
I really liked the way she let us see how the other couples are doing... advancing their story lines without taking the focus off of the lastest couple - Micah & Angel.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"Wanted to Love, But Had Trouble Finding My Groove", June 13, 2010
This review is from: Sweet Temptation (Heat) (Paperback)
The Plot: The fourth book in Maya Banks's Sweet series tells the story of Micah. Micah's mysterious past comes to full light in this book--the tragic story of how his wife and best friend were killed in a tragic car accident and how he abandoned his best friend's kid sister, Angelina, in Miami when he fled the city trying to escape his past. But, Angelina is now all grown up and has been longing for Micah for years, waiting for him to move past the loss of his wife and to be able to love again. Taking cues that he is finally ready, Angelina moves to Houston to try to seduce Micah and, while she finds his friends more than welcoming, Micah is resistant to her advances at best. On top of this, Angelina's mysterious Miami stalker has followed her to Houston and begun threatening her and her newfound friends.
Zelda's Take: In the first three books of the Sweet series, Micah comes off as a true-blue kind of guy. He's good looking, likes to play, a hard worker and extremely loyal to his friends. What we don't see lurking below the surface is that he has run from his old life Miami, from the memories of his wife and lover... his best friends. We find that he has also run from the orphaned kid-sister of his best friend, whom he'd promised his best friend he'd care for in the event anything ever happened to him. He just walked. And forgot about her. It's kind of sad.
So Micah is obviously damaged goods--he has baggage and emotional issues that would be hard for anyone to move beyond. That being said, he responds to Angelina in what I felt was a really rude and inappropriate manner. He's downright mean to her when he is obviously attracted to her at the same time. Not only is he downright mean to her, but I feel he also uses her when he tells her that he'll play with her sexually, but won't ever give her anything more. Micah character fail. Boo.
Which moves us to the play. And, oh, does Micah play with Angelina. He takes this girl every which way to Sunday and there's no question he likes it rough with some pretty hard-core BDSM. As with some of Banks's previous Sweet books, it is the sex in this one that redeems it in my eyes. Despite this, what bugs me is that Angelina is willing to take any- and everything that Micah throws her way without expecting anything in return from him. She is happy enough to just give herself to him despite the fact that that he is wholly disrespectful of her. I have issues with weak women who won't stand up for themselves, and have a hard time respecting Angelina for forsaking so much of herself here.
On top of this, with the stalker/kidnapper Banks has brought in another nefarious plotline that seems a bit too ancillary to be real and relevant to the story. I just found it unecessary and a bit contrived. Not to mention Micah's seemingly miraculous turnaround once he knows Angelina is in danger... all of a sudden he is a changed man!
So, unfortunately, as hot as I thought Micah was going into this book and as excited as I was to get some more time with him in the House, his treatment of Angelina in this book really bothered me. Sure, I get that he was struggling through his issues, but I just don't see that as a worthy enough excuse. That being said, the sex was still hot, so I can say that it's still a worthy read for some good BDSM play, but if it had to float on it's plot and character-development alone, we'd have a swiftly sinking ship.
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