The Way She Reads

Lucy Delacourt has a temporary job she doesn’t like and that barely allows her to pay her bills. The only thing she has to look forward on her working days is the lift ride up to the floor where she works and the gorgeous man she will be able to look at during those short moments, provided she times her arrival right. When one morning only Lucy and the mystery man remain on the lift he stops its ascent, approaches her and brings her to a shocking orgasm, all without Lucy discovering who he actually is. A few days and one more heated encounter later that mystery is solved though. The mystery man in the lift is none other than Jeremiah Hamilton, billionaire CEO of Hamilton Industries and this powerful man has his sights set on Lucy. She can either become his personal assistant, with a contract stipulating that she will do “anything he wants” or lose her temp-job. Out of options, Lucy feels she doesn’t have a choice except to accept his strange job offer and finds herself, only hours later, in a private jet, on the way to France and a charity function. It is in Paris that she will learn more about her mysterious but oh so sexy boss, but it is also in the City of Light that her nightmare begins with the present of a bottle of champagne which will lead to danger and dead-threats from Jeremiah’s powerful enemies.

I’m not sure what to say about this book. I guess it was an okay read but I’m afraid it didn’t do a whole lot for me. Much of the book was too similar to other books I have read in the past. The broody, mysterious billionaire with issues, his dysfunctional family, threats against him and those closest to him and the innocent heroine from a modest background who finds herself in the middle of a world she is unfamiliar with but who manages to handle it all with unrealistic ease; it is all a case of been there, done that and would really like a more original take on the story please.

It is not that the story is hard to read. There is a lot happening on these pages and some of it is well written and captivating. Surprisingly for a work of erotic fiction it was the thriller segments of the story that worked better for me than the erotic encounters. In fact, the descriptions of intimacy between Jeremiah and Lucy became repetitive and boring rather quickly.

I am willing to admit though that I might have enjoyed this book more if this had been my first or second book featuring a beautiful but troubled billionaire. As it is though, this book didn’t give me anything original or exciting so it wasn’t the book for me at this time. I’m getting a bit fed up reading about young women who have no or very little sexual experience because they are just not attractive enough only for them to become the subject of everybody desires as soon as the billionaire takes them under his wing. The changes Lucy goes through over the course of just a few weeks just do not make sense and make the story less relatable rather than more interesting. Yes, I do realize this is an erotic fantasy and not a work of realism; but that doesn’t mean I want to read about two dimensional characters I can’t relate to in any way, shape or form. In order to really enjoy a book I have to care about the characters and their ultimate fate and I found that just wasn’t the case were Jeremiah and Lucy were concerned.

In short I’m sorry to say that this just wasn’t the book for me right now. It will probably appeal to anyone who is looking for anything that will remind them (strongly) of Fifty Shades of Grey though.