Sylvia Day
Bared To You
Berkley / May 24, 2012 / $5.99
Our journey began in fire...
Gideon Cross came into my life like lightning in the darkness—beautiful and brilliant, jagged and white-hot. I was drawn to him as I’d never been to anything or anyone in my life. I craved his touch like a drug, even knowing it would weaken me. I was flawed and damaged, and he opened those cracks in me so easily...
Gideon knew. He had demons of his own. And we would become the mirrors that reflected each other’s most private wounds... and desires.
The bonds of his love transformed me, even as I prayed that the torment of our pasts didn’t tear us apart...
Bared to You is the first book in Sylvia Day’s new contemporary romance Crossfire series. Told in the first person by the heroine Eva Trammel, Eva is a recent college grad who moves to Manhattan with her male BFF, Cary, to start her life on her own two feet. Then Eva meets Gideon Cross, a handsome take-charge billionaire who sweeps her off her feet.
Gideon and Eva both come from abusive backgrounds and they are both still dealing with the fallout. Eva has dealt with her abuse through therapy and it continues to be an everyday struggle, whereas Gideon has dealt with his abuse by avoiding being in a emotional and long-term relationship. On the surface, Gideon is the perfect guy, but as the story progresses, the perfect façade is slowly peeled away to reveal a hurt and emotional battered man underneath the surface.
What makes Bared to You so compelling is that Gideon and Eva are so dysfunctional and effed up that as the reader, you wonder if these two people should be together. Throughout the book, Gideon’s behavior is borderline stalkerish. He has issues with trust, jealousy and possessiveness. A normal woman would be scared by his controlling behavior and at times, Eva is. But instead of repelling her, it pulls her closer like a moth to a flame. One of the many WTF moments of the book was when Gideon recreated Eva’s bedroom for when she spends the night at his penthouse.
“I recreated your room based on the photo I took of you sleeping.”
Whoa! Major red flag. You want to yell at Eva to tell her to run for her life because her bones might be made into wind chimes. And yet, the relationship works in its own sick way. The sex scenes are smoking hot and Gideon is so sexy, that you temporarily forget his stalker-like behavior.
“It’s probably best for me to work off some energy before I get you naked. I’m sure you’d like to be able to walk tomorrow.”
Gideon is also so vulnerable and insecure that you just want to wrap him up and hold him close. Even though he’s successful in business, being with Eva brings out all of his insecurities, deep insecurities that makes Gideon an emotional wreck whenever Eva is upset with him.
“I fucked up again. Don’t break up with me. Talk to me. Please.”
Reading Bared to You is like watching a train wreck. You can’t not look and you can’t stop reading. It’s intense, emotional, sexy and at times frustrating.
This is a book that has to be read from start to finish in one sitting. The characters are so compelling and so fucked up and you wonder, how will they make it work? Readers—and I—will have to find out in the series’ subsequent books.
[Ed. note: Bared to You will be followed by the second book in the Crossfire Trilogy, Reflected in You (formerly known as Deeper into You), on October 2, 2012.]
Marquetta: Reader, Blogger, Smut Lover.
