March 31, 2012

Review: Tempting the New Guy by Alegra Verde

This is a sequel to Taking her Boss, featuring the same cast, plus the title's new guy, Clement Johns. This review contains quite a few lots of spoilers. Ultimately though, it's a short story, (582 kindle 'locations' long), so everything you say about it is going to be a spoiler. Anyhow, you've been warned.

The brief synopsis is: Glory flirts with the new guy, she has a duty fuck with Bruce and he tells her that he doesn't want her seeing other men any more. She goes on a date with the new guy. She and Bruce have a pretty weird cunnilingus scene. She goes out with the new guy again, fucks him, then Bruce announces his presence at her flat. They make up and he leaves for the weekend. Then she hands in her resignation, resolving to be rid of the whole thing (Bruce, the new guy, etc.).

If that sounds disjointed, that's because it is. I want to like this book, really I do. But I was left profoundly unsatisfied. In case there's an doubt, the sex scenes are: a jealousy fuck with him in charge; a slightly odd her in charge sex scene; then a vanilla sex scene with the new guy of the title. In between these scenes, I'm not really sure where the story is going. We have relationship development between Glory and the new guy, but there's always Bruce in the background. And Glory's attitude is downright strange. Contradictory, or lying to yourself, I could deal with but she's rather beyond that.
I was beginning to feel like an indentured whore who'd let out her vagina for the duration of her employment at Davies and Birch. What began as a little fun was becoming a duty.
There's nothing sexy in that for me. Then two pages later, she's wiggling around, putting on a show for him. Then she gets her lipstick and applies it to her labia. Yes, that's the word used. Again, that doesn't do it for me (no disrespect to those who like this idea). So he gets her off, or I think he does anyhow, the phrase is:
Ignoring the pain [of her pulling his hair], he continued the assault [of his tongue] until my womb began to tighten and spasm.
That sounds, um. Unpleasant actually. Like period pain. So, anyhow, he's there and aroused, so she decides to use his cock and won't allow him to touch her. That should be really hot, but Glory seems so genuinely angry that as a reader I can't enjoy the ride (pun intended). Since the story is told in the first person it's difficult/impossible to get away from how Glory feels. Bruce touches her (against her command) and comes. She walks out and I'm not sure whether she's enjoyed the experience, whether she's come (is "tingling stars" a euphemism for orgasm?) and I certainly don't feel that she's really asserted her authority (which is the point of the scene. I think.).

And then there's the brief sex scene at the end with Johns. Presumably Bruce witnesses the whole thing, which could be hot. But Bruce is emotionally non consensual in both his watching them have sex and her having sex with other men. That makes me uncomfortable. I can like a lot of things if you can convince me that all parties are into it. But if there isn't explicit consent, there needs to be strong tacit or implied consent. This story doesn't give me either and I find Glory's attitude really irritating. I understand that we're supposed to sympathize with Glory because she feels confused and powerless. Or at least, I think that's why we're supposed to sympathize with her. But instead I just feel jerked around.

I said in the review for Taking her Boss that I hoped that Glory would grow into her dominance. I don't feel that she has in this installment. So it's a disappointed C-

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