AUTHOR: Zannie Adams
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 40k)
GENRE: Futuristic erotic romance
COST: $5.20
When Riana is convicted of a minor crime, she is sentenced to life imprisonment on Genus 6, a prison planet. The only way to survive is to trade herself for protection with the strongest man in the place. She chooses the silent and deadly Cain, but life in prison is a daily danger, especially when there are others who would love to keep her for themselves.
I’ve been played. And I don’t even mind. In fact, I’d do it again for this author.
We’ve all got our hot buttons, guilty pleasures. One of mine – one I’m almost embarrassed to admit – is prison romances. They can be gay or het, contemporary or otherworldly, but the grittier they are, the happier I am. So when I read the blurb for this story, I did a little jig and then scolded myself for being too indulgent. I even left the EC site without reading the excerpt. And promptly went back. I’m weak. I’ll admit it.
When the story started, the rather trite prose made me think I was going to get caught out. A badly written story in one of your quirks is enough to spoil them for you for a while. But then, in came Cain. Big. Broody. Uber-alpha. He beat the crap out of the prisoner threatening Riana, took Riana back to his cell, and…well, you can pretty much figure out how Riana paid him back. Repeatedly. And in many positions. Lucky girl.
By the end of the first chapter, I was a goner.
I’m not even sure if it’s safe for me to review this story. By the second chapter, I wasn’t noticing any triteness in the prose, and my early irritation with the heroine – imprisoned for such a stupid crime in order not to make me think less of her, but boy did that not work – vanished. Cain is alternately responsive and mysterious in how he deals with Riana, leaving the reader on edge just as much as he leaves Riana. He's not nearly the monster the other inmates are, conditioned by this awful atmosphere, but there are times when you're not entirely sure he's really all that different. I gulped down this story and when I was done, whined for more.
It’s not even about the sex, because honestly, it’s hot, but now, 24 hours later, I’m hard pressed to remember specific details of the acts. It’s about the emotion involved. That sense of the unknown, fearing for your life, doing everything you can to survive. Toss in a hero who seems just as dangerous, and the recipe for success is well on its way. I loved Cain’s plans, the whole build-up of the climax, Riana's independent thinking in order to make the plans succeed. My single biggest complaint about the story is the damn epilogue. The one where all the grittiness and unknown that I loved about the rest of the story is gone. The one that’s so saccharine sweet, it makes my teeth ache and not more fun parts of me. I would have much preferred ending the story without that. In fact, the next time I read it – and read it again, I shall – I’ll probably stop at the chapter before. Why spoil my guilty pleasure with unneeded sugar?
| Readability | 7/10 – Not the most sophisticated prose, but at least mostly error free |
| Hero | 8/10 – Guh. Though maybe some of the moodiness did occasionally get annoying. |
| Heroine | 7/10 – I liked her more as the story progressed, but I was well and truly prepared to dislike her during the first scenes. |
| Entertainment value | 8/10 – Totally hits my kinks. I’d just scrub the too-saccharine epilogue. |
| World building | 8/10 – The details of the prison were great, but I would have loved more of the outside world. |
| TOTAL: | 38/50 |
3 comments:
The romance was great it made sense and the fact they did not utter words of love 5 minutes into the first sex scene... YEAH! Someone getz it!
The Heroine was even shocked at her own enjoyment of the act. BONUS POINTS and SCORE!
OK, so what bothered me was the idea that simply because he never told them his name they get away back to his ranch scot free.
I was like WTF? I mean this is an advanced society and no one keeps records? The hotel he was staying at when arrested did not have his name on the books? They just throw anyone into the clink without checking who they are?
So smack me if I thought the ending logic had not been thought through very well but I wanted gritty and up to a point the story did it and did it with well. The HEA did feel formula and tacked on there when it did not have to be.
I am arguing with myself over this story being high C or low B. But I highly recommend it and I do not do that very often with Ellora's Cave these days.
I think what hooked me solid into believing at least all the prison stuff was Riana's response at the end of the first chapter. So many authors would have chosen answering Cain's question with some hugely romantic gesture on Riana's part - which would have been totally unrealistic - but this one had the balls to admit it was simply because he was the strongest one there.
Pretty much everything that happens after they actually leave Genus 6, I've decided to ignore, lol. It doesn't work with the rest of the story. And you're right about the idiot logic.
I completely understand your dilemma about grading. I would recommend this all over the place - with the caveats about the ending/logic - but I also recognize this totally hits my buttons, which means I'm not 100% objective. At least I know others enjoyed the parts of it that I did, too. :)
Oh, I have that Dani Harper book you rec'd. I haven't read it yet, but I'm probably going to do it this weekend or early next week. I keep hearing more and more good stuff about it, so I'm excited about having a nice read.
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