Humpday Hello to Sylvia Day!

Greetings and salutations my humpday nation!  I am so stinkin tired....again!  I know we hit the halfway mark but after working the weekend, an unpleasant medication reaction and the struggle of getting two teens back into the swing of things (aka waking up for school ON TIME)...it's been a week!  My salvation: Guilty Indulgence Numero Uno....a really good book.  I was so bummed to miss bookclub this month due to illness, but I definitely read the book!  Anyone riding the Fifty Shades wave needs to drop that thing and check this one out!  And just in case you were hungry for a snack before you settle down for a nice read, have a little eye candy! Mmmmmm - our favorite calorie free treat!!!!

Bared to You by Sylvia Day

Gideon Cross came into my life like lightning in the darkness...

He was 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...

Like a professional surfer, just waiting for the perfect wave, Sylvia Day most brilliantly releases her own trilogy - the Crossfire series which takes the genre of erotic romance and brings it out of the closet.  While this reader appreciated that Fifty Shades managed to take the "dirty little secret" of erotic romance and toss it out on the coffee tables of every woman in America (it seems), aficionados of genre know there is more out there.  Sylvia Day happens to be one of those gifted authors who can spin story magic, weaving a web around the reader that holds one in thrall.  

At first glance, the characters seem like stereo-typical "perfect" people - he is a multi-gazillionaire and she's a gorgeous assistant to an ad agency located in one of his many NYC buildings - how can they not meet and fall in love?  However, these are not your momma's romance - the characters are edgy, broken, fighting to maintain a functional foothold in both business and love.  Even the secondary characters are flawed beyond belief. Frustrating, captivating, completely engaging, Bared to You reads like a modern Grimm fairy tale set in the city that never sleeps.

Day doesn't shy away from the pain that comes from making oneself emotionally vulnerable. In fact, that both are abuse survivors, makes their connections that much deeper, happen that much faster, develop much more intensely.  And, let us not forget, the sex...that much more, well, sexy.  As a woman who is taking control back, her initiation of sex in his limo and Gideon's reaction to it is delicious.  Gideon and Eva's chemistry rockets off the charts and burns on the page.  My main frustration lies in the fact that Ms. Day cleverly holds tidbits of information back for the following installments - and I have to wait!

Well written, fluid and sensual with interesting story twists, emotional and yet somehow hopefully redeeming. This is a super read for anyone prepared to fall down the contemporary erotic romance rabbit hole. Enjoy the ride!

RATING: 4  Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries.