First the positives: It was a squishtacular sexfest. Super steamy. Almost back-to-back sex scenes (if that's what you're looking for) but overall a story of two people falling in love.Now the negatives: Editing. OMG I have an inner red pencil and it was going crazy. There were issues with word choice (people don't walk round, they walk around), outright spelling errors, things that were written one way and then changed... For example: when Sandi and Jack came for their session, Ali and Tom said they'd start in the living room and then move to Tom's room. Then when things started getting hot and heavy, Ali suggested they move to her room that had been prepared for this. And I could swear that at one point in the beginning of the book, he was nineteen, but then I thought he was eighteen again. Toward the end, they're in his hometown and Crystal the waitress ends up messing around with them. But later, she's Candy. Just lots of inconsistencies like that.
Then halfway through the book, I had to look up where the author was from. This book is set in small town America and New York City, but so much of the language was strange/off to me. Turns out the author was raised in the Eastern US but moved to England at some point. I'm thinking she picked up a LOT of British-isms since she moved there because how the characters spoke reminded me more of how English/Aussie people would say things than Americans. There was one passage where Ali referred to her butt as her bum and there was mention that it was a British term. Then a few pages later, her knickers are mentioned, but no mention of the British there. IMHO, knickers are more British than bum. I dunno... things like this pulled me out of the story time and time again.
Then there were the characters. Ali was the biggest tease, and Tom was the most unrealistic 18/19-year-old I've ever seen. The things they would say to each other, their conversations... it was just so immature, even for an 18/19-year-old and a 20/21-year-old. They're masturbating in front of each other, and she gets turned on by his cock (but she's gay, right?), but they haven't gone too far as friends at that point? Really? At the VERY end, they seemed more mature, but throughout most of the (relatively lengthy) book, they just were... I dunno. Tom didn't seem very realistic. At 18, boys are still ruled by their hormones.... he was so willing to just take what women gave him and so laid back about it, even when he was still a virgin at the beginning of the story. And he was sweet in some ways, but such a dog, too. He had no problem that a lot of the women he fucked were married.
I think I have another book by this author, but after this experience, it won't be moving up in the queue. I need quite a break before I read another story with as many editing issues as this one.
Points given for the steaminess and the variety of sex scenes... points taken away for the editing.
