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A review by kelliereadsabit
Hardcore by Dakota Gray
2.0
Ok look, I tried, I really did! I got 60% of the way through and I just can’t take it anymore. The main character is an ass and not even in a good way. His thoughts are unoriginal after the first chapter, and he is boring all around. He gripes on and on about how he hates being “a good guy” and how he doesn’t like his dad and all that bull crap, but jeez dude do you think about anything else? Also the book starts with a mediocre sex scene that plays out for way too long between the characters that I lost interest in almost immediately. I don’t know the characters yet so why do I care? Then they don’t really touch each other again until like 60% of the way through the book and get this, it’s almost the same exact sex scene! I thought things were about to change and the author does a fade to black moment! Like, the characters are already having sex, you giving out now right when things were heating up just shows you’re not comfortable writing this and you didn’t know where to take it.
I think the book had a lot of potential. The main characters motivations were surface level cool, and I loved the heroine. Their banter was pretty nice, and the slice of life moments at work were fun. My two biggest complaints are his ‘too tough to have emotions’ attitude that completely dominated the writing style, making every passage repetitive and nonsensical, and the fact that it felt like the author couldn’t commit to the steamy sex his characters were talking about on the page. If his personality had more dimension and if their connection was the focus and not the sex they both want (but that the readers are left in the dark about) then I would’ve enjoyed it a lot more.
Romance novels don’t have to have descriptive mind blowing sex if your characters can stand on their own and pull the book forward. Don’t call your novel filth if the filthiest thing they do is go at it doggy style for three sentences with a condom on. If you don’t want to write that then it’s fine, just write what you’re comfortable with. But don’t limit your characters so severely that it completely derails the story and I’m willing to give up with 3 hours left.
All that said, I’ll be keeping tabs on this author and trying out some of their other books, I feel like this book might’ve been a dud, but they’ve got talent if they can just write what they actually want to write. If they wanted to write this then maybe it just wasn’t for me. YMMV and my opinions are my own.
I think the book had a lot of potential. The main characters motivations were surface level cool, and I loved the heroine. Their banter was pretty nice, and the slice of life moments at work were fun. My two biggest complaints are his ‘too tough to have emotions’ attitude that completely dominated the writing style, making every passage repetitive and nonsensical, and the fact that it felt like the author couldn’t commit to the steamy sex his characters were talking about on the page. If his personality had more dimension and if their connection was the focus and not the sex they both want (but that the readers are left in the dark about) then I would’ve enjoyed it a lot more.
Romance novels don’t have to have descriptive mind blowing sex if your characters can stand on their own and pull the book forward. Don’t call your novel filth if the filthiest thing they do is go at it doggy style for three sentences with a condom on. If you don’t want to write that then it’s fine, just write what you’re comfortable with. But don’t limit your characters so severely that it completely derails the story and I’m willing to give up with 3 hours left.
All that said, I’ll be keeping tabs on this author and trying out some of their other books, I feel like this book might’ve been a dud, but they’ve got talent if they can just write what they actually want to write. If they wanted to write this then maybe it just wasn’t for me. YMMV and my opinions are my own.