Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Bared to You

Let me start by saying this series begins very similar to Fifty Shades of Grey, a workplace romance with a control obsessed billionaire, HEAPS of steam, and themes of surviving sexual abuse trauma. Looking at other people’s reviews, the feedback is completely split; half felt like it was an exact copy of FSOG, and a poor one at that, while the other half LOVED it because it scratched the same itch and said it was the better of the two 🤷‍♀️ Me personally, I gobbled it up happily!

The relationship between the main characters is quite the ride. They spend almost the entire series fighting and making up, a new miscommunication each time they see each other, giving some serious whiplash. Though they have a decidedly toxic relationship, I found myself still yearning for a HEA. Additionally, I found the scenes with their therapist most significant. Though you shouldn’t take a billionaire romance novel too seriously, there were some very insightful and valuable takeaways. It was quite an unexpected aspect that I think will stick with me the most.

The first three books were written in standard single POV, whereas the last two advanced to dual. This lent a hand to adding initial mystery and slight mistrust towards the MMC, and then evolved into well deserved understanding of his perception and devastation in the later books.

Overall, I really enjoyed the characters as well as the plot, but sometimes the author’s writing style was a bit too wordy and redundant.

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iamusamu's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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hgreen112's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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kollieollie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Oof I’m not usually one to hate on a book, but I have never read a book that is as problematic as this one. I’d give it a negative rating if I could- it’s that bad. The relationship dynamic is horribly toxic between the two main characters and the author casually drops mentions of questionable consent throughout the book like that is a normal part of relationships. The only redeeming quality is the causally included LGBTQ characters but even then that’s only one of the LGBTQ couples in the book - the other is really relies on harmful outdated stereotypes. I only managed to finish this book because I was on a plane without WiFi and finished the other two books I had downloaded for my trip. This book isn’t worth anyone’s time unless you want to read something smutty and don’t mind an author describing sexual assault as if it’s romantic. 🙄

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taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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vulcanzaddy's review against another edition

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dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was a quick afternoon read. I didn’t like the main characters but I am interested in everything else. There are things, “wrong" with just about everyone in the story except maybe the Dads and Dad adjacent (i.e, mark).

The smut is good! Though this is not a fluff piece. Sex is had and talked about in recreational, self sabotaging, nonconsensual and worrisome ways. The consensual sex is vanilla but has a passionate twist on it. And, the type of sex changes in intensity as the book goes on so I wouldn’t assume it will be the same in the series. There was a very quick bi scene at the end that, if I wasn’t already invested, would’ve invest me into reading book 2.

The drawbacks for me were small and very niche. The use of the c-word in a sexual situation was a moment. Each time I went, "ok, this must be a cultural thing" because that's just... different. Lol. I think the only other thing I got caught up on is one of his outfits. The silver tie? I could get over it. Lol. Kept making me think of those old prom suits from the 80s or something.

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kthrine's review against another edition

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2.0

This entire book spans at most 3 weeks. It’s definitely a case of falling obsessively in love immediately.

There are SO MANY RED FLAGS in this relationship. As long as you don’t think ANYTHING these characters do is healthy you’re fine. Eva says no multiple times and Gideon doesn’t listen. Fucking YIKES.

The author throws in a few moments of potentially healthy aspects but then in the next sentence chucks it out the window. Therapy? Good! Healthy! These characters need it on a weekly basis, both alone and as a couple. Eva seems to think that because she already went to therapy she only needs couples therapy and not to go alone anymore. No. She needs therapy. And she needs to keep working on herself and her issues, of which there are many.

They “break up” for 4 days (which is roughly 1/3 of their actual relationship time frame) and make up. It’s this fight, have sex, make up, fight, have sex, make up cycle that doesn’t do it for me as far as relationships go. The sex scenes are good and interesting but their relationship seems fairly light and superficial even given the fact that they are sharing private things about themselves. They don’t seem to be learning anything about how to be in a relationship from learning about each other. Just an all consuming “need” for one another.

It’s fine. I ready it quickly, I’ll probably read more in the series but I’m not in any rush to do so.

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