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Swift's Temptation (2011)

by J.R. Loveless(Favorite Author)

3.55 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

192048499X (ISBN13: 9781920484996)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Silver Publishing

review 1: ZERO STARS! I've read several of Author Loveless' prior works, and found them to be compelling romances. I simply do not understand how she could have gone so wrong with Swift's Temptation. Here is a brief overview of the story. A 24 year old gay man, Fagan, comes to New York City to get away from his family's Iowa farm. He has a series of jobs, but ends up being a non-sexual escort for a high priced escort service. While he is on the job, Fagan meets Xavier (an accountant for the escort service). Fagan believes that there is a spark between himself and Xavier. Xavier, however, is extremely aloof and believes that Fagan is nothing more than a "whore". (NOTE: When the guy that you have the hots for calls you a whore, that is probably not the best way to start a relationshi... morep.)One Christmas, Fagan is called home because his father was involved in a severe car accident. Unbenounced to Fagan, Xavier follows him out to Iowa to torment him in front of his father. Xavier tells Fagan that if he does not voluntarily submit to all of his sexual and non-sexual demands, Xavier will tell Fagan's critically ill father that his son is a whore for a living so the father will die from the stress on his heart. That is the best part of the relationship between the victim and the abuser. The author ultimately wants us, as readers, to feel bad for the abuser. WHAT?!? There are so many things wrong with the author's point of view in this novel that it would take pages and pages of criticism to alert you to all of the problems. Suffice it to say that the abuser/rapist is a possessive asshole, whose initial sexual encounters with his victim are nothing more than blackmailed rape sessions. There is nothing romantic in the picture painted by this author, and if the author believes that abuse/rape can be equated with romance and love, there is something tragically wrong with her brain's function. The facts of this story are not the basis for a romance novel --and, I would submit that any author worth his/her salt should be ashamed for writing this story which tries to glorify and justify abuse and rape. This is a dark miserable story. It is not a romance whatsoever. You can't write 75% of a book about spousal abuse/boyfriend abuse and then try to pack it all up into a happy ever after story, and say everything is all better. Since we know that the next chapter of the still unwritten book will find the abuse victim with a black eye, broken bones, or perhaps dead once the true colors of the abuser come to the surface again. When someone treats an alleged lover as a "whore" and degrades them to the point of worthlessness, there is nothing redeeming about the person. Since the author tries so hard to convince us that an abuser should be given another chance, it leads me to question the author's motivation for writing this story. The Xavier character is pure evil -- he cannot be redeemed, and, most certainly a romance story cannot be based upon a rapist and abuser as someone who is supposed to be in a caring relationship. The author then spends 100 pages at the end of the book with the abuser/rapist trying to convince the victim that he has reformed, and will now be a good guy. Rather than giving the victim the balls to say "no" to this abuser, the author permits the victim to enter into another relationship with the abuser. And in one thoroughly unbelievable part of the story, the victim allows the abuser to put a blindfold on him and take him away. (What's the next novel going to be -- finding the victim's body at the bottom of a river after taking a beating from the abuser. I guess this author would say that "the abuser was just having a bad day."). This book is bad, really bad - no, the word "bad" doesn't adequately state my distain for this book. Anyone who has ever been in an abusive relationship will see this book for the absolute crap that it is -- there is simply no way to reform an abuser such as Xavier, and this author's tender spot for such an abuser makes this reader question the author's state of mind. This book is a depressing mess that gets worse as you read more pages. This book deserves no stars, but it does deserve a reprimand to the author -- how dare she try to sell this crap as a romance story. Under no circumstances can an abusive relationship ever masquerade as romantic love. TO THE AUTHOR: If you believes this story adequately demonstrates a romance, you should spend more than a few afternoons in a shelter for victims of abuse who gave their abusive lover "one last chance".
review 2: It's difficult for me to review this book, because if this wasn't a fictional book, and if Fagan were a friend of mine I would never, ever, EVER be okay with the ending of this book.This book touches on a lot of emotional abuse that occurs over a period of time. I'm simply not okay with that. The reason that Xavier gives for being the way he is, doesn't in any way justify the way he treated Fagan. Once trust is stripped from a relationship, in my opinion, it's nearly impossible to ever get it back. But I guess this is fiction so anything can happen.If I allow for the fact that this is a book and it's supposed to have a storybook happy ending, I can be okay with the MC's HEA. But really, I detested Xavier through most of the book - I thought he was cruel and despicable. Just because Fagan is such a loving, forgiving character doesn't make it okay that Xavier did the things that he did.I also didn't really enjoy the first person voice in this book. While I don't have a problem with first person in general, the language felt a bit stilted to me initially. I think I got used to it, or I convinced myself it's because Fagan's a farm boy and maybe just wasn't very well-spoken, that I didn't notice it after awhile or was able to put it to the back of my mind.I did like a lot of the secondary characters. Fagan was a kind person and made a lot of friends who looked out for him to include his best friend, Trinity, Winston, Trace, and Victor. I did like the way Trinity and Winston refused to forgive Xavier as well.So this was a very quick read for me and I was definitely entertained and captured by the story - I finished it in only a few hours - and although I didn't like Xavier I do think the author did a good job in convincing the reader of his sincerity in the end. In real life though, this pattern of abuse typically never ends so is this truly an HEA or simply a HFN? I guess we'll never know. less

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