Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

It was very weird - I searched "Kitty Thomas" because I loved her book, Comfort Food, and this popped up for .99 and I one-click purchased it before realizing that this book is NOT by Kitty Thomas. But because it was cheap, and the opening line was awesome...(The fade into consciousness happens slowly like the melting of ice. The water is still present. It just changes form). I decided to read it instead of returning it. I was expecting erotic non-consent, to be honest, and this was absolutely not that genre. In fact, I was very disappointed that the abuse Claire suffered was not more explicit - not because I'm that perverted (okay, maybe I am), but because it was easier to gloss over what was happening to Claire when we weren't allowed to see it. We were only allowed to be present when Anthony was verbally being a jerk, or being sweet and loving to her. The most description we got of his violent tendencies was: [forced oral sex described a little] "From there, the evening continued until about one in the morning." For hundreds of pages we're told about Anthony's cruelty but somehow Claire falls in love with him, although it's unclear at what point in the relationship she stopped being a passive rape victim and started being a participating sex partner. Anthony's contrasting personalities would have been much more powerful if the reader had been present to witness at least some of the abuse. I'm just sayin'. It's not a bad story, and the writing isn't terrible. But it needed a good editor to cut at least 100-150 pages. The lengthy descriptions of trips and clothes and shopping and wedding stuff was absolutely tedious and really made the pacing drag. Also, there was a sub-plot popped in here and there from a totally non-related pov (well, related because was Anthony's relative)that had no need to even be there. It was tied in at the end, but truly? The tie-in would have been sufficient by itself, because the supposed "teaser" chapters gave very few clues, and added absolutely nothing to the story but more pages to skim. And you know what? I'm not even going to talk about Claire marries Anthony after the "accident." Clearly Claire is an abuse victim, and in this book, at least, she is never allowed redemption. Which kind of sucks. I might read the 2nd book, but right now I'm way too exhausted. 2-stars is pretty low - usually I won't bother to write a review below 3, but I will say I was obsessed with finishing this book. I spent the better part of a full day reading Consequences, and although I skimmed a lot, I never put it down for any longer than absolutely necessary. I want to warn people that this book isn't erotic non-consent - it isn't erotic at all. It's a psychological drama, with a slew of extraneous filler materiel.