This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Published by St. Martin's Griffin
Released on July 28, 2015
Pages: 66
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
The Delight
I was excited to jump into my first Opal Crew book, but unfortunately it was a serial story. Fortunately I got to read them back to back for the full story. It’s a quick installment to read that will be over before you know it. Since each story is a add on, spoilers will not be contained.
Why does the word Stepbrother have such a bad image? I have had three stepbrothers in my life, one I have only met once, and two that I see infrequently and wouldn’t consider any of them my actual brother. So I get a little irritated when I see the word stepbrother being used as a dirty word for incest or secret love. Just remember, stepbrother or stepsister doesn’t mean blood relative and if not really raised together, it isn’t a dirty word. *steps off soapbox*
We meet Dana as she gets a letter from her mother cutting her college funding money off. Great mom and when I say that, the woman could afford to pay for her college, but that’s neither here or there since her mom isn’t an involved mother no makes much of an appearance in any of the stories. Needing to find cash quick to finish up her last year of college before she heads off to France for her MBA (in French poetry, don’t get me started on that one). Her friend suggests she sell her virginity to a group of billionaires who pay a huge sum to deflower a virgin. *shakes my head* She signs up and they post a sedate picture of her fully clothed and sitting on their “secure” website for the offers to come rolling in.
Mason, Dana’s much older stepbrother, hasn’t seen her since she was 18. A Dom with four subs, he is finding it all real boring when his friend suggests he look at the offerings of a virgin on a website his friend paid to get him an account on. Bam! There he sees Dana after 8 years ready to sell her virginity to the highest bidder and he knows he has to scare the daylights of her to get her to understand the danger.
Dana and Mason meet and it is a mess. Mason offers to pay for her college without the sex, but Dana can’t accept that. So it basically ends with Mason asking for two weeks to get to know her before he decides if he will take her virginity.
Now both of these characters are kind of one-dimensional. You don’t delve much into who they are, what they want or desire, it all seems so surface level. You get brief glimpses into their past when she was 16 and he was 26. He became her friend and they did lots of stuff together. Basically her mom and stepdad, dropped her off at the house and left her to wade through life on her own. Mason steps in and becomes the older brother. Now both are attracted to each other, but Mason really is a stand up guy in that department and won’t mess with a young girl no matter how much he wants her. Dana has no compulsion about that aspect. While she doesn’t throw herself at him, she also doesn’t consider their age a problem nor their maturity levels.
In this installment we don’t learn why they never saw each other after Dana’s age of 18. We are left with they both have secrets about what happened. So I was left kind of scratching my head and thinking WTF. I really need to run from serial stories. At least I have the next book to find out more because I was left feeling kind of cold and bored with this one.
Shari
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Interesting story line. I don’t care for serials though.
I dislike serial with a passion. This one though did not grab me through any of the books.
Based on your thoughts, I would be scratching my head too about this one. Her decision-making skills don’t really impress me. Glad you have the next one to dive right in. I get so impatient with serials or short novella length series books. Grrr! 🙂
Oh, wait….my next review will have your running in the other direction. This wasn’t a good serial to try out the author on.
LOL! Now you’ve got me curious.
LOL! Now you’ve got me curious.
Interesting story line. I don’t care for serials though.