The many shades of 'Bared to You'

I was hardly ever a fan of the mills & boons kind of erotic novels. In all of my 26 years I have hardly read 1-2 of them. To me these excessively erotic novels, with a powerful and over-powering alpha male dominating a coy and demure female losing all their control over spacetime for orgasm-hungry sex,  were never always palatable. Being the girl I am, after reading thrillers for every single day over 6 months had me longing for a romantic novel. So here I was, one evening,  looking up the list of New York Times Bestsellers when I came across Bared To Me. I decided to give the book a random chance.
Diving into the book, the first person voice had my rapt attention right from the start. I felt like I was in Eva Tramell's head. Young, confident and ambitious Eva, bemused by the charms of her new home at New York seemed like someone you would instantly fall in love with. Gideon Cross, on the other hand is as Eva describes him, dark & dangerous, and all sinfully alpha and unattainable. That's their ying-yang factor in the relationship that makes them an instant hit.
But as they say, everything isn't half as perfect as it seems. The couple is fighting against all odds within themselves to get their dysfunctional bit out of them. And the story goes as they explore and unravel each other.
I was/am a crime-thriller/feel-good novel girl. Neither was I a fan of the 50 Shades of Grey series. So I was quick to dismiss any random allegations leveled on Sylvia Day about the many similarities in the plot between the Crossfire series and the 50 Shade series. Lucky for me, I didn't know of the allegations before I finished book and frankly the alleged similarities don't include sadomasochism and bondage in the sex scenes.

The sex scenes are hot, frequent and long; but what triggers me to move on to the the 2nd book in the series are the honesty and tenderness in the story. So look out for this space to know how I find 'Reflected in You'.

Romance between Eva & Gideon is wild, raw and passionate. But the cherry on the cake is the tenderness and honesty in their love.

Rating: 3/5