Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Review: Escaping Reality by Lisa Renee Jones


Goodreads description:  Infinite possibilities….  Infinite passion….. Infinite danger…. His touch spirals through me, warm and sweet, wicked and hot. I shouldn’t trust him. I shouldn’t tell him my secrets. But how do I not when he is the reason I breathe? He is what I need. At the young age of eighteen, tragedy and a dark secret force Lara to flee all she has known and loves to start a new life. Now years later, with a new identity as Amy, she’s finally dared to believe she is forgotten–even if she cannot forget. But just when she lets down her guard, the ghosts of her past are quick to punish her, forcing her back on the run. On a plane, struggling to face the devastation of losing everything again and starting over, Amy meets Liam Stone, a darkly entrancing recluse billionaire, who is also a brilliant, and famous, prodigy architect. A man who knows what he wants and goes after it. And what he wants is Amy. Refusing to take “no” as an answer, he sweeps her into a passionate affair, pushing her to her erotic limits. He wants to possess her. He makes her want to be possessed. Liam demands everything from her, accepting nothing less. But what if she is too devastated by tragedy to know when he wants more than she should give? And what if there is more to Liam than meets the eyes?
All right, let me tell you about how I came across this book, because I think it's kind of funny!  

I had just opened up an account with NetGalley, and was thinking that I would never get approved for any books, when lo and behold, an email appeared in my inbox, touting three New Adult novels in the "Read Now" category.  Really?!  I didn't even know about the Read Now books!!!  So I booted on over to NetGalley and downloaded all three books then and there.

Out of my three new books, Escaping Reality had the most interesting cover and synopsis, so that's where I started.  The pace in the beginning was great, and the story had me intrigued, but because it was in PDF format, which is a bit more tedious to read on my Kobo, I took a break and read the other two books.  One was okay, and the other was pretty good, but the reason I mention this is because they both had quite a few typos.  

When I came back to Escaping Reality, I noticed that there weren't any typos, which was a refreshing change!  I thought, "Wow, for a first-time author, the writing is very well done!"  (Remember this for later!)  On the other hand, the plot took a weird turn.  It reminded me of a...well, soft-core porn, to be honest.  No plot, just sex.  Here's this woman, Amy, on the run for her life, and she's ready to jump in the sack with a guy she just met on a plane?  I almost gave up reading right then, but then I reread the title - ah, Escaping Reality!  Maybe it's SUPPOSED to be unrealistic!!!  I get it now!  All right, carry on.

Two of the most annoying things now started to become apparent.  First, the repetitive writing.  Oh. My. God.  This is my impersonation of Amy:  "I should not be attracted to this man, but this man makes me feel like no man ever has.  I don't know what it is about this man that makes me feel this way.  What is it about this man?  I wish I could be with this man, but I can't be with this man the way I want to be.  This man this and this man that, ad nauseam!"  Obviously I'm not quoting, but that's how I remember it.  Ugh, reading "this book" was so painful!  

The second most annoying thing?  Amy.  She didn't know her ass from her elbow, and what was she scared of?  Good question!  Nowhere in the 68% of the book I actually read  was there any reason to believe she was in danger.  No near misses, no stalker sightings, no crank calls, nothing!  All the reader knows is that her family is dead, but were they murdered?  Were they in an accident?  Did they just fall off the face of the earth?  Amy had a lot of internal monologue alluding to this incredible danger, but as far as I could tell, it was all talk.  

Oh wait.  I forgot a third annoying thing.  Liam.  Now you know a book is bad when you don't like the female lead, or the male lead.  He was just sooooooo over the top in every way, I almost gagged.  Enough of these young billionaire geniuses, already!  Who are authors basing these guys on?  Bill Gates?  Because he's the only billionaire genius I can think of, but the way every second book features one of them, you'd think they were falling out of the sky! 

Meanwhile, as I was browsing the book aisle at the grocery store, I came across a book with a beautiful cover and an interesting synopsis by... you guessed it!  Lisa Renee Jones!  So she's NOT a first time author!  Well then, how does junk like this get published?  No. Idea.  Then again, I've seen a lot of 5 star reviews for this book, so maybe I'm the idiot.

If you're thinking you might want to read this book,  I'm going to try to change your mind in one paragraph, simply because I care about you.  After 200 some odd pages, this is what happened - and trust me, I'm not spoiling anything.  Amy leaves a party to move to a new city with a new identity.  She meets a guy on the plane.  She has sex with him.  He buys her a cell phone.  They argue about the cell phone.  She brings the cell phone back to the store.  He finds her at the store and they argue some more.  He convinces her to keep the phone.  They go to dinner.  They have sex.  200 frickin' pages of tiny print and THAT'S. ALL. THAT. HAPPENED!!!  So maybe things pick up, but by that point, I really didn't give a shit.  

My rating:  





1 comment:

  1. Sorry you didn't like it Roxy. Thanks for your time reviewing it though.

    ReplyDelete