RITA Reader Challenge Review

Make Me Sin by J. T. Geissinger

This RITA® Reader Challenge 2017 review was written by JahnaviS. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Long Contemporary category.

The summary:

Chloe Carmichael’s life feels pretty sweet—she’s both maid of honor and florist for her best friend’s A-list wedding, things are getting serious with her boyfriend, and her flower shop is about to get a spread in a national magazine. But it all quickly turns sour whenever the best man, Bad Habit drummer A.J. Edwards, shows his face…his handsome, unforgettable face. A.J. is everything Chloe doesn’t want: tattooed, selfish, and all-around bad news. So why can’t she stop thinking about him?

Goody two-shoes Chloe isn’t exactly A.J.’s type, either, but the chemistry between them is undeniable. A.J. will be the first to say he isn’t a saint, but there’s something he’s not saying—something that would devastate Chloe. The only way he can protect her is to push her away, but the drummer finds he needs her now more than ever. When a wedding-day confrontation reveals secrets they’re both hiding, will Chloe and A.J. ever find their rhythm again?

Here is JahnaviS's review:

I started 2017 with the purpose of experiencing new things, places and even authors thus chose this book from RITA review list.

While reading this book I was in major dilemma about my personal two beliefs.

“Don’t quit just as the going gets tough” and “Life is too short to read depressing books.”

Okay, so this one is verbatim Susan Elizabeth Philip (SEP) quote which I wholeheartedly agree. This book just didn’t do anything for me, hence all hail to SEP’s guidance chucked this shitty book aside. If anyone is interested in reading the brief version of what the hell to expect in this book, do refer to what SBTB has posted. I won’t be repeating all that [and] instead will be giving you my rant on hero, heroine, and heavy handed manipulation with the reader.

Let’s begin …Heroine would get teary eyed at any and mostly everything the hero would say or not say. She looks into his eyes and sees some storms, pain and what not and here I am, 27 years old who has yet to experience this kind of soul-sucking eye gazing. This girl was all kinds of stupid whom but the book tried vehemently to portray [her] as an independent thinking girl. She clearly wasn’t thinking north of her vagina otherwise wouldn’t have entertained the stalkerish crap the guy pulled with her. Just realised writing this that I have completely forgotten what her name was… let me check and get back to you gals and guys.

Chloe Carmichael – believe me I had to check it on Goodreads as I can’t make myself look at one word of this book ever again. How this girl could walk upright with no spine is a mystery to me which sadly will remain that only. He would hurt her, be closed off and she would go right after him lapping up any crumbs thrown her way. Ugghhh this is the worst kind of heroine in my opinion.

A photo of Michael Scott from The Office with the caption of I'm ready to get hurt again.

Hero is A.J. Edwards (courtesy Goodreads) who is in some band which [the] reader is to believe is famous but they haven’t practiced or did any band related activities whatsoever till 59% of the book. This guy was a piece of work, total kindergarten “I like you so I am gonna pretend hating you at every time we meet.” He basically stalked her every night for straight up a week, kept [having] penetrative sex with the girl as hostage – just some garden variety of mind fucks. Reason for his assholery is explained later in the book which I have gleamed from the spoilers community.

I will be giving spoilers below but all I can say is the book used every dirty trick in the book with this one. Chloe had a boyfriend initially in the book that went from nice to domestic abuser just so that A.J.’s desires to cohabitate with her can be justified. On this point I’d like to say when this said domestic abuse happened with Chloe her father was all too ok with leaving her in the care of a random stranger whom his doped up daughter said was all right. Her father also turns out to be some low key gangster back in his hey days, makes me question his motives further for leaving own banged up kid in A.J.’s hands. There are so many WTF is happening instances in this book that I lost track of them.

Spoilers galore ahead… TURN AWAY!

Show Spoiler
A.J. has brain tumour so all his anti hero behaviour and general asshole-ness is justified as he is trying to protect Chloe while basically mindfucking the emotional crap out of her. His mother was a sex worker back in Russia hence his affinity towards them in early pages of book. Apparently he killed two boys and one of his friends who was sex worker (she convinced him to kill her then burn her body and the brothel so that the madame wouldn’t force her dead body to be used by paying men), eventually found his way to the U.S. where a preacher and his wife found him and took him in.

This guy [had] every damn sorrow filled storyline possible making it just too much. Chloe also becomes pregnant which may or may not be the reason why they end up together after all the drama lama at the end.

I will not be recommending this book to anyone ever, [and] my experience with this new author has been horrible. If I could afford to hurl my kindle at a wall I would have done it [but] alas [I] had to be satisfied by deleting it from my library. If you are brave enough to feel emotionally exhausted and take in all the bad telenovela drama then this book might be for you.

Thanks to SBTB for hosting guest reviews, this was fun and painful experience all tied together.

P. S. I had chocolate pastries just to feel good after deciding to quit reading.


Make Me Sin by J. T. Geissinger received a B+ in a previous RITA Reader Challenge Review.

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Make Me Sin by J.T. Geissinger

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  1. Jazzlet says:

    Urgh. Thank you for taking the hit so the rest of us can avoid this. The things in the spoiler? Just WTF?!?

  2. Gigi says:

    I read this one based on the previous review (and because it was free for Prime members) and I giggled throughout your review because I agreed with everything you said. This book is one hot mess but for me it was cracktastic. I couldn’t put it down but it seriously was the very definition of a train wreck.

    I also wondered about the whole rocker thing because the band or its members are barely a blip in the radar. The whole premise was just WTF -ery galore.

  3. TAM says:

    I read a previous book in this series and… I mean, I kinda enjoy the kind of nacho ‘cheese’ sold at movie theaters & ballparks, but the enjoyment is distinct from any belief that it’s actually good.

  4. Louise says:

    Wow. Is B+ vs. DNF the biggest review disparity ever, or can someone point to an A/F pairing?

    :: crossing fingers in hopes that link goes where it’s meant to go ::

    How this girl could walk upright with no spine is a mystery to me
    Hahaha.

    she’s both maid of honor and florist for her best friend’s A-list wedding
    Thanks to reading far too much Clients From Hell, I have a clear and vivid mental picture of best friend throwing six kinds of fit when florist sends in a bill for her professional services. “But we’re f-r-i-e-n-d-s! How dare you ask me for money? I thought you were doing it all for free out of the goodness of your heart!”

  5. Aimee says:

    I loved how horrible And crazy this book was. I did NOT enjoy the other books in the series. There is an LGBT character and all the other characters treat him differently and are mean to him/laugh about him behind his back. It’s uncomfortable and made me feel like the author was either anti LGBT Or very very very confused.

  6. Hopefulpuffin says:

    I didn’t make it past chapter 2. I think. It may have been chapter 1. I don’t do well with almost NA-ish (I know this isn’t but at least the little I read felt like it was) 1st person POV that switches around.

    And I know there are people who own and run flower shops but all the cute and cuddly jobs these people are given makes me bonkers.

    And the thing is I like a tragic hero. I can do depressing. I just didn’t care about either of these two and was grateful this was free on KU.

  7. Nicole says:

    I actually just forced myself to finish this book yesterday, and I really hoped that maybe it would get better, but nope. There was just SO MUCH going on. There wasn’t just one crazysauce conflict for the hero and heroine, there were at least four. Nothing ever really got resolved. There were almost zero likable characters. What truly irked me was that with every single conflict the book had, nothing in the story had anything to do with the book’s title. I honestly have never hated a book as much as I hated this one.

  8. Mara says:

    Is this the one where he like lives in an abandoned hotel or mansion or something and she finds him listening to opera? If yes, then I have read it and I also DNF.
    Either way, great review!!!

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