Wanted

by J. Kenner

January 7, 2014 · Bantam

Buy →

C

More Info →

View Book Info Page

This RITA® Reader Challenge 2015 review was written by LaraDiane. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Erotic Romance category.

Here is LaraDiane's review:

I wanted to love J Kenner’s Wanted, I really did. Here are the reasons why:

• It was my first foray into erotic fiction!
• It was nominated for a RITA award!
• It has 4 stars on Goodreads!
• I was reviewing it for SBTB and wanted to gush (!) about how glorious it was, leave CAPS lock on and using an excess of exclamation marks!

Despite my good intentions, it was a struggle to get through the book. Usually I devour books in a matter of hours, but this was a book that if I didn’t have to review, I would have put down and left unfinished.

I am making the book sound terrible, when really it is average. The characters are fine and the dialogue is okay. It is like a suitor you describe as ‘nice’ or ‘sweet’. They are an okay human being but at no point do you feel compelled to put your face on his/her face and/or stalk them on Facebook.

The two protagonists are Angelina/Lina/Angie Raine and Evan Black. From the very first page, there is FIRE between the two. This is one of the difficulties I had though, as there was no subtlety. It was all instantaneous FIRE, FLAMING, RED HOT, etc. No slow burn. No build up. Nothing. It felt as though we’d joined the story halfway through.

Angelina has two main characteristics: She is trying to be the perfect politician’s daughter because she feels guilty about her sister’s death and she craves the rush of adrenaline that comes with shoplifting, etc. This second characteristic was rather forcefully driven home as often as possible. WE GET IT. Angelina wanted the rush, the risk, etc., but surely there has to be more to a person than just this?

The plot felt a little ‘colour by numbers’. The arc of both the characters and the plot didn’t really do much, it was more of a flatline, than a swooping curve that got the heart all stuttery and caught up. Despite this rather flat arc, the dialogue suggested that there was DRAMA ALL THE TIME, but really there wasn’t.

There was a potentially SUPER exciting moment near the end of the book, but it was over in two paragraphs. Throughout the book, all the challenges that our protaganists were presented with were overcome within a page or two.

After all of that moaning and groaning (!), there are some positive points. If you are looking for erotic fiction in which your heart does not beat faster with suspense or if you are looking for a comforting read in which the characters’ happiness faces no real threat, then this book might be for you. Ironically, a novel   in which the heroine craves excitement, left me feeling rather unexcited.