TEST
Ever been lured by the promising folder of a travel agency and dumped in the harsh reality of your vacation spot? The blurb of Dangerous Games reminds me of this experience. It hints at action, at mind games coupled with seduction and hot sex. Instead I was stuck in a story with far-from-congenial characters and a far-fetched plot.
Reclusive computer game creator Drake Trahern hides out in his desert fortress to protect and further develop his top-secret project. One night he catches a hacker trying to access his multi-million computer system and successfully blocks off the virtual invasion. Detecting the intruder is a mere boy, he concentrates his espionage suspicion on the boy’s sister. Melinda Palmer’s photo inspires Drake to have his lawyers “persuade” her to come to his fortress. Seeing Melinda in person awakens his predator instincts, and he decides to keep her there for a weekend of Domination games – played by his rules.
Melinda Palmer’s job and private life are boring. Having struggled through college and bringing up her brother Ryan since her parents’ death, Melinda’s sex life is next to non-existent. Trahern’s threat to press criminal charges against Ryan scares her, so she looks for an out. Car trouble on the way to Drake’s place forces Melinda to accept a motorcycle lift by a sexy, domineering stranger. Upon arrival she learns her Good Samaritan is none other than her host. If Melinda consents to be his sex toy and submissive slave for the weekend, Drake will reconsider his legal actions. In order to protect her brother, and also for reasons of her own, Melinda agrees to the deal.
I had multiple problems with this book, first among them that it is mis-labled as Science Fiction…it is more or less a BDSM story. An even bigger problem was the characters – what did they see in each other besides the physical? Their perceptions of each other, and of their “relationship,” didn’t match mine. I found both characters unlikable and flat.
Drake Trahern and I got off on the wrong foot from the very beginning. I found him ridiculously cliched and far too manipulative. Clad in leather, this computer genius rides out on his Ducati motorcycle to check on Melinda Palmer, his bad boy appearance completed by a “jagged lightning bolt scar along his left cheek”, fingerless leather gloves, and mirrored shades that he doesn’t remove until he is about to grope Melinda in earnest. I found his scenes with the heroine, his conversational style and sexual attitude toward her, crude and repugnant and could not see his appeal, unlike Melinda, who virtually drools over him at first sight. Having the upper hand over Melinda from the start, Drake’s sexual approach of Melinda reminded me of those movie scenes during which the heroine is sexually harassed and struggles to fight off the bad guy.
But the bad guy is the hero…but does Melinda mind? She enjoys his pawing, is turned on by his crudeness, and relishes that Drake treats her like a sexual object.
“She’d never been dragged off by a man and she was tempted to disobey him just to get a chance to experience it once in her life. She was not the kind of woman who got dragged off by her hair before having all sorts of deliciously invasive things done to her person…
“She was his. She’d chosen that and with it all of the consequences that would follow. Anything that got broken in the process didn’t matter. Her life was clearly full of things that were ready to be smashed and swept away, like her image of herself as dull and undesirable.”
While I acknowledge the sexual allure of this sort of storyline, in order for it to work, the characters must appeal to me. At the very least I need to understand them on some level. Why must Melinda live out her repressed submission fantasies with Drake, of all men? But then, according to the author, creep Drake is “protective and intelligent, driven, sexy,” and there’s also no doubt about featherbrained Melinda’s appeal: “It was her damn brains. She was smart, she was sensitive…” I didn’t see it, any of it.
Dangerous Games brushed me all the wrong way. For me, the main characters were completely unappealing and incomprehensible. There’s a fine line between what’s arousing and what’s creepy. And a huge difference between sexual self-discovery and being uncredibly stupid. Still, the blurb sounded sooo good, sigh….
Grade: D-
Book Type: Erotic Romance
Sensuality: Burning
Review Date: 03/07/05
Publication Date: 2005
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.