Review: Bared to You by Sylvia Day

I have avoided (and continue to do so) the Fifty Shades of Grey frenzy because, from what I’ve read about it, it seems to be extraordinarily badly written. What I’d read about Bared to You suggested that it was much better written, so I jumped at the chance to review it when it came up.

Summary of Bared to You by Sylvia Day

Gideon Cross is a multi-millionaire (maybe even billionaire) businessman. Eva Tramell also has money, through her mother’s marriages, though her father is a poor cop, so she does understand poverty. A bit. Eva gets a job in the Crossfire building and almost immediately bumps into (literally) Gideon Cross. Eva and Gideon have both suffered from abuse in their pasts and have some difficulties with romantic and sexual relationships because of it. The book takes you through their journey in coming to terms, somewhat, with this past and finding some romantic and sexual salvation in each other. They have a lot of barriers to break down and there are arguments and making up. And there’s quite a bit of sex, too.

What I thought

I’m afraid I didn’t really like this very much. In fact, I struggled to read it and probably would not have got further than the first few chapters if I hadn’t been sent it to review. The characters did not really reach out to me at all. I’m not interested in stories about rich people and their fancy cars, designer clothes and expensive gyms and it turns out the addition of a few extra sex scenes doesn’t make up for this. The story was your run-of-the-mill romance – conflict, getting it together, conflict, getting back together – and I’ve seen it done better in Mills & Boon stories. And, sorry, but I’ve also seen more exciting sex in Mills & Boon stories. (For me, anyway – I fully appreciate that this is a very personal matter and that what turns one person on won’t turn everyone on.) I found most of the sex scenes awkward or boring and not once felt myself getting hot under the collar – or elsewhere. And there were some things that bugged me a lot, too (in the same way many people are bugged by Anastasia biting her lips), such as unexpected use of the word ‘fisting’: there was none of what you’d expect the term to refer to in a ‘sexy’ book; rather it was used to refer to Gideon grabbing hold of Eva’s hair. Um. OK.

The sex is all fairly vanilla, though there is a suggestion that there is a bit of S&M to come, perhaps, in the rest of the trilogy. They have a lot of sex and they do it in a few semi-public places. But that’s as far as it goes in terms of ‘exciting’ sex. I didn’t find the description of the sex particularly brilliant, though it certainly wasn’t awful, either.

I do think there are plenty of people who will enjoy this book. People who get off on reading about rich and glamorous lifestyles will enjoy it, even without the sex. There are parties and limos and fancy apartments galore. And I’m sure the sex scenes will do a lot for plenty of people (the reviews certainly suggest this). And I definitely believe (at least from what I’ve read about it), that it is a lot better than Fifty Shades (it’s also the first part of a trilogy). If you did enjoy Fifty Shades of Grey, then I think there’s a very good chance you’ll enjoy Bared to You. If you enjoyed Fifty Shades of Grey, but would have liked it to be better written, then you’ll probably enjoy Bared to You. If you enjoy Mills & Boon, especially their Blaze and Spice series, then you may well enjoy Bared to You, too.

But, if you want well-written erotica that will not make you cringe about clichés and repetitions, then there is far better out there. You could do a lot worse than visit the erotic blogs The Erotic Notebook or Remittance Girl (unsurprisingly, neither of these links is work safe or child safe, so think before your click).

You can buy Bared to You on Amazon (print or Kindle) and direct from the publisher, Penguin, as well as in plenty of other places.

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of the book by the publishers, but all opinions and views expressed are my own.