This RITA® Reader Challenge 2016 review was written by Notorious SSF. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Erotic Romance category.
The summary:
New York Times bestselling author J. Kenner kicks off a smoking hot, emotionally compelling new erotic trilogy that returns to the world of her beloved Stark novels: Release Me, Claim Me, and Complete Me. Say My Name features Jackson Steele, a strong-willed man who goes after what he wants, and Sylvia Brooks, a disciplined woman who’s hard to get—and exactly who Jackson needs.
I never let anyone get too close—but he’s the only man who’s ever made me feel alive.
Meeting Jackson Steele was a shock to my senses. Confident and commanding, he could take charge of any room . . . or any woman. And Jackson wanted me. The mere sight of him took my breath away, and his touch made me break all my rules.
Our bond was immediate, our passion untamed. I wanted to surrender completely to his kiss, but I couldn’t risk his knowing the truth about my past. Yet Jackson carried secrets too, and in our desire we found our escape, pushing our boundaries as far as they could go.
Learning to trust is never easy. In my mind, I knew I should run. But in my heart, I never felt a fire this strong—and it could either save me or scorch me forever.
Here is Notorious SSF's review:
(Trigger warning for rape that’s supposed to be romantic)
Let’s rap a bit about rape!
When is rape ever okay as a romantic fantasy? The way you answer this question will largely determine how you feel about Say My Name. You might guess by my grade how I feel about it. Old Skool romances in the 1970s and 80s were rife with sexual assault for a variety of reasons, as nicely summed up by Candy Tan and Sarah Wendell in their book Beyond Heaving Bosoms. These days, holding a woman down and forcibly penetrating her while she tells him to stop is not the stuff romantic fantasies are built upon, thanks to the rise of feminism and the wide recognition of a women’s bodily autonomy. Still, the powerful man who dominates a chick to unleash her inner desires remains a popular romance staple, and there’s nothing wrong with that. To each her own! But when does consensual dominating become nonconsensual forcing? Say My Name crossed that line early on for me and never recovered.
I picked up this book excited to read an erotic romance that wasn’t BDSM for once, but alas. Even though there are no sex clubs or anything super-kinky, it definitely falls into the dominant/submissive category.
The gist of the story: Sylvia (the novel is told completely from her POV) works for Stark Industries, one of those billion-dollar companies that’s owned by a young hot dude who had his own romantic adventures prior to the start of this book. Sylvia is put in charge of developing a hotel resort, which she sees as a major stepping stone for her career. She’ll move heaven and earth to succeed. When her primary architect suddenly drops out of the project, she’s desperate to find a replacement asap.
Enter Jackson Steele, a hotshot architect who happens to be available and with whom she shares A Past. You see, five years ago they spent TWO WHOLE DAYS together. Despite a flashback of their first meeting where Sylvia comes off as fairly bland and Jackson as a sex-obsessed stalker, they both realize the other is The One. I mean, who can deny it’s True Love when Jackson breaks out this gem on their very first date:
“I’m going to fuck you hard, baby. So deep and so hard you’re going to scream my name when you come, and I’m going to capture the sound with my mouth.”
His words shocked me. Not because they were so coarse and bold and unexpected, but because instead of feeling used by the things he suggested, I felt special.
Hallmark needs to co-opt that line immediately.
Unfortunately for their insta-love, Sylvia Had Issues and ordered Jackson to walk away from their “relationship.” Because he’s such a stand-up guy, he did…but he’s remained super pissed about it for the last five years.
Fast forward to the present day. Sylvia begs Jackson to work on her project in a strictly professional capacity. After he feels her up a bunch even though she repeatedly tells him to stop—but it’s okay because she actually wants it!
—he agrees…on the condition that she become his sex slave as punishment for “forcing” him to leave her five years ago.
When someone in a position of power forces another to perform sexual acts under threat of professional ruin, THAT IS RAPE. Just because Sylvia is attracted to Jackson doesn’t make his actions any less rape-y.
To top things off, throughout the entire goddamn book she tells him no over and over again, and every time he ignores her because he knows she secretly wants it. The fact that Sylvia DOES secretly want it and this somehow makes it okay made the whole thing even more disgusting. If I took a drink each time Sylvia said no but “really meant” yes, I’d be in the hospital with alcohol poisoning by chapter six.
Other notable instances of flagrant misogyny:
- During Jackson’s sexual humiliation of Sylvia (which she secretly likes, of course), she frets when she snaps at him about something because she doesn’t want to come off as a “bitch.” Because when someone’s finger-fucking you in public despite your repeated requests for him to stop, your primary concern should be his comfort.
- When Jackson realizes that Sylvia originally pushed him away because of Her Issues and not because she was “fucking some other guy,” his attitude does a complete 180 and suddenly all is forgiven! You see, before when he thought she had eyes for anyone who wasn’t him, SHE DESERVED TO BE RAPED. But now that he knows she’s been chaste, they’re cool.
- During their five long years apart, Jackson admits to sleeping with lots and lots of chicks, while Sylvia admits to having relations with no one since him, because OF COURSE that’s the way it has to be.
- Before Jackson, Sylvia self-medicated Her Issues by having anonymous sex with club dudes, then tattooing their initials on her body. She’s so ashamed of her slutty past because—God, it pains her to admit it!—she’s slept with so, so many men…THREE, to be exact. Whore!
- After her first sexual-harassing by Jackson, Sylvia is so upset that she runs to a nightclub to pick up another anonymous dude (which would bring the grand total up to FOUR—what a slut!), but is stopped at the last minute by a violent Jackson, her stalking knight in shining armor.
I had a lot of other issues with the book, including a languid pace, endless repetition of Sylvia’s feelings (she is always wet for Jackson, IN CASE YOU EVER FORGET), and lots of unresolved plot points, but those are nitpicks compared to the whole rape thing.
It could be I’m the exact wrong audience for this book. To me, Jackson’s a manipulative rapist, Sylvia’s a wet blanket with no self-respect, and the only acceptable HEA would be for Sylvia to dump her human-shaped-piece-of-shit boyfriend and get some serious therapy.
This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well.
Thanks!
I mostly just don’t like a first person narration, and otherwise find Kenner’s books some of the more fun New Adult I’ve run across (personal bias: New Adult is only marginally more tolerable than Young Adult, maybe, and still utterly not my thing).
But I definitely agree that having the heroine’s slutty past be three dudes was extremely irksome. Extremely.
Thank you for that Hallmark moment. I suggest Richard Cheese covering the Stones’ Under My Thumb for the soundtrack.
After her first sexual-harassing by Jackson, Sylvia is so upset that she runs to a nightclub to pick up another anonymous dude (which would bring the grand total up to FOUR—what a slut!), but is stopped at the last minute by a violent Jackson, her stalking knight in shining armor.
Something very similar happened in another book I ended up not finishing (for exactly that reason). Detective goes to investigate S&M club, shows some interest, stalky family friend/other detective “saves the day” and I guess romance ensues. I found it profoundly out of line and not sexy at all.
Side note: lol Stark Industries. I guess the author is either a fan of the Iron Man series or has never seen/read anything about it.
I know the subject matter is very sensitive, but whoever reviewed this book had me giggling the entire time. Can you please read more shitty books? You are a funny one. Thanks for making my day.
I agree with Kathy. The book sounds terrible to me, but the review was really good and hit the same points that would bother me had I reviewed the book. Thanks for the review!
Stark Industries? Really? Is one of the books about how the current CEO builds a robot suit and saves the world?
Thanks for this excellent review! Definitely a book to avoid as it seems to press all of my ‘NOPE’ buttons.
Recently, I decided to re-read a few of the classics of the bodice-ripping era. Working on The Flame and the Flower right now. I can see how the rape(s) in that book worked for the story, and I forgive it for the era in which it was written. But this book–written when women are still having to deal with things like the Stanton rape being treated as though it were “twenty minutes of action”? Nope. Not going to touch this book with a ten-foot pole when I know it will raise my blood pressure, and not in a good way.
Is this what people mean by “rape culture”? That a quintet of highly qualified judges rated this book as one of the top examples in the field, conveniently ignoring the lack of consent and constant violation of boundaries?
Having read this review, I will once again point folks to Courtney Milan’s spectacular novella, “This Wicked Gift,” which pretty much blows up the romance of the forced seduction thing by pointing out that, even if the heroine knows she wants it, the hero does not.
I can’t quote the exact line from memory, but it’s something like, “You did not dishonor me, but you thought you did, and so, you dishonored yourself.”
I don’t know the answer to all the questions asked in this thread, but I’ve been thinking a lot on this topic, as consent is a very popular concept being explored in romance right now. I know for some readers, myself included – I know this is not my type of book, the murky space of nebulous heroine consent is not of interest. For other readers, the exploration of consent and boundaries is very much of interest. There are a whole lot of sales and bestsellers that back that up.
The idea was really, really troubling me for awhile, and I kept going in circles on the topic because I really dislike it in my reading. This review pressed most of my NOPE buttons, too. But I also know from just having edited an upcoming podcast episode that readers who are extremely against rape culture, against humor at the expense of victims, against the lenient attitude toward rape victims, etc, all of it, also sometimes enjoy rape fantasy or crave it for sexual release. (This is all sitting in my brain right now because I just finished edits of this episode, which is a follow up with Emily Nagoski, who wrote Come As You Are).
The short answer in Dr. Nagoski’s explanation (this episode will air 7/1) is that we are unfortunately awash in rape culture. It’s everywhere. And we grow up learning sexual context within rape culture, so it’s normal and not surprising that rape fantasy is a part of human sexuality – and that rape fantasy, and the exploration of boundaries and consent, is very common. Within A book, there is safety and consent in part by the reader because the situation in the book is fiction. It’s not real. It’s a safe space in which to explore that fantasy.
Speaking for myself personally as a reader, reality is too close to the fiction in this particular instance for me to enjoy it, much as I can’t enjoy a romance set between a prisoner and a guard, for example, or between slave and owner. Too much reality impedes my ability to suspend disbelief. But I can read, for example, teacher/student conflicts so long as both parties are above the age of consent (like, grad students, college age, etc) and that they consent clearly – and they both acknowledge that their pants feelings have substantial consequences attached (again, reality is a little too close for me to suspend, but in the right context and scaffolding, I can prop it up). I know this particular book and conflict are not my cup of reading tea, so to speak, but I understand why the motif and exploration of boundaries is so common and so popular. I hope this makes sense – I’ve been doing a LOT of sound edits this week so my thoughts are all choppy and random.
Girl, that card… Amazing. Great review!
This is partially why I have issues with “alpha heroes” in romance, because so many seem to cross that line into “alpha holes”. And too often, they’re “forgiven” for their asshat-behavior, because they suffer from some kind of sad-sad man pain. Ugh, barf, no, nope, nada. And I scratch my head at all the people who rate dudes like this as “best fictional boyfriends” over on goodreads. SERIOUSLY???
I do love a good F review. And I do hate stalkery, pushy, overly-dominant, patriarchal-bullshit-spouting asshats as alleged “heroes.”
Also hate pushover, wimpy, stupid, immature, insecure nitwits as alleged “heroines.” Somebody supposedly good enough at her job to get a large-scale development project like that should be somebody who has successfully pushed back – MANY times – against the patriarchy. Somebody, in fact, who can control a whole conference room full of guys who want her job.
Because that is not a job just any girl gets by tripping past the boss’s desk and giggling about how her skirt is tucked into the back of her knickers. Or however she is supposed to have gotten the job in this wretched-sounding book. Gaaahh.
Love the review but it outlines a book that contains so many issues for me, I know that I’ll never read it (I love both my phone & Kindle and would rather not be tempted to throw either of them).
I agree that context/era is important. Can definitely read an Old Skool romance if I’m in the mood, but the rape-tastic tendencies from OSRs are not something I can tolerate in modern fiction. Not without raging about them, which I’d rather not waste the energy on.
This just sounds like so much “no” that I’ll continue that theme and say no to reading it as well. Problem solved.
Minor pet peeve–can we stop naming our romance heroes Steele? It’s overused, and there are so many other hard things out there if you’re trying to work some subtle foreshadowing in.
While I do agree with almost everyone’s comments on how the whole rape-fest is just wrong in today’s world – sadly I also agree with SB Sarah who summed it up really well with the words ” There are a whole lot of sales and bestsellers that back that up”
Obviously there are people out there who want this type of book otherwise why would intelligent authors write them? (And I consider all authors as uber-intelligent whether I like their books or not :))
As someone else commented – this all stems from variations on the demand for alpha heros. I myself hate them – I have googled “Beta herors” and read almost every suggestion therein but I am ashamed to say when I first started reading romances while locked in the toilet in the middle of the night so my mum wouldn’t know, my heart used to beat harder for them domineering type until I had the sad, misfortune to actually date one and ended up emotionally scarred for life!
And that sadly is the real damage – when young impressionable women read these books and allow fantasy to flow into reality and end up needing therapy for the rest of their life. I sometimes wish these books could come with some type of warning label “Do not take seriously” or something like that …:)
But … as long as there is a demand – there will be supply.
By the way – ditto on the damn name “Steele”
*sigh* As someone for whom BDSM plays a major role in my romantic life, this kind of book makes me really sad. Because I would love some BDSM romances, y’know? Ones that I could recognise myself in. But the genre seems to be dominated (heh) by these controlling, rapey asshole ‘heroes’, and they’re such a turn-off for me.
If I want to play a game which includes my partner owning me in some way, the last thing I want is to play it with someone genuinely possessive. If I want to do painplay, the last person I want to do it with is someone who wants to really hurt me when they’re angry.
I guess what I’m saying is, where are my shy, sweet, self-deprecating, sadistic-as-all-get-out beta heroes? Surely the gap in the market is bigger than just me.
@carmilla I think you might really like Rebekkah Weatherspoon’s Fit Trilogy. In the first book, the hero comes on to the heroine in a very Alpha manner, and she tells him “Hell no!” and leaves. It’s also not written in first person pov, so you know the asshole-ness is coming from a place of awkwardness not him actually being an asshole. The books are all novellas and are my favorite BDSM romances I’ve ever read (note: I haven’t read a ton because I hate the “millionaire who actually does have a lot of power/privilege over the heroine is totally a dom” trope).
And I have to agree with comments written. I personally do enjoy consensual non consent sometimes, but it’s never “I’m going to do this and you secretly like it so it’s okay.” There’s tons of discussion about what I am an and am not okay with beforehand, if I might say No and not mean it there’s an agreed upon safe word set into place, and there’s frequent check ins. I haven’t read the book reviewed, but it sounds a lot more like rape than BDSM to me.
@Allie Thanks for the rec! I’d normally be put off by the weight-loss aspect (not my jam), but the promise of healthy kink relationships, heroines of colour and a switch hero in the third book has won me over 🙂
A hero named “Steele” who works at Stark Industries? Someone’s definitely an Iron Man fan here. (Though I certainly don’t remember Tony stalking Pepper into loving him…)
@Lara B, if Tony acted like this Pepper would have run far away from him.
I’m actually supposed to be working right now (writing a blog post on mistakes people make when selling their houses–my day job, not my fun job), but I’m sitting here fuming over the content of this book. I get that there are women who are into rape fantasies, but I’m not one of them. Also, as several people have already pointed out when role playing this type of thing, it is practically unheard of for the two individuals involved not to talk about consent before engaging in rape role play. Safe words are a thing for a reason.
I currently live in Santa Clara County, which is where the Stanford rape case was being tried and it seriously pisses me off thinking that my county is being represented as lenient on sex crimes. My old boss was brought up on sexual assault charges 2 years ago (the exact reason why he’s my old boss and not my current one) and the system did not go easy on him. Then, again, he’s not a rich white dude, so of course it didn’t (nor should it have). It affected his entire life — AS IT SHOULD. If you rape someone, you should pay as dearly as the law allows. You shattered someone’s life; you shouldn’t get to live yours as if nothing happened.
@Carmilla: I bet you would like Rose Lerner’s new novella “All or Nothing”! It has a heroine who’s kinky as all get-out, and arranges to be gambled away in a card game to a shy, sweet guy who turns out to be enthusiastic about dominating and humiliating her in bed but only there! That isn’t the only good thing about it, it has a lot of complexity.
I’m really happy to hear someone else doesn’t like first person. It strikes me as the laziest convention in what I call Big Romance, the fast trend-chasing trades. I skim previews just to screen out first person. The only author who uses it well IMO is Cara McKenna.
@Carmila: have you The Theory of Attraction by Delphine Dryden? Definite Beta science guy with a control streak who likes pain play and the neighbor who helps socialize him so he mingles better at an important campus event. She has no idea regarding his preferences at first nor how much she likes it.
All aspects of it are well written. It’s the first in a series, unfortunately atm I’m unable to recall whether it’s 3 or 4 books total.
This rant may not go over well. I think this story is a reflection of a step backwards that our culture is taking in terms of women’s rights. Some of the previous comments mention the rapey style of 70’s and 80’s era books and how romance novels have changed alongside the progression of women’s rights. Having been way to young in the 70’s and the 80’s to really understand women’s rights, it feels to me that this level of mistreatment or this expectation about what women wanted and deserved was a societal norm back then. Today, it isn’t socially acceptable to tell women they want and deserve rape (at least that’s the working theory), but it is (somehow) socially acceptable to sell an archetype that represents womanhood as being successful in business, successful in motherhood and family management, but entirely lacking in agency in the bedroom. It’s like this is the final frontier. “You conniving women have managed to wedge your competence and your intelligence into all facets of the man’s world, but you still lose because you can’t say NO to men in the bedroom. You can’t control your own perverted needs and we know we can still own you in that single, demeaning way because we’ve been publicly managing the size of our dicks for centuries. We know how to do this and you don’t.”
The more this kind of story takes hold in societal norms, the more people willingly speak of women as lacking in basic and extremely private self-control. It’s bad enough when I’m criticized for reading romance novels because I must be a desperate old hag. It’s another level of insult to my half of the species that we can’t read romance without being implicitly taught within the pages of books written by us for us that we are not equal.