Tuesday, September 20, 2016

{BOOK REVIEW}: Rendered Speechless by Marilyn Faith

TITLE: Rendered Speechless
AUTHOR: Marilyn Faith
AGE CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Contemporary Erotic Romance
PUBLISHER: Amazon (Self-Published)
RELEASE DATE: April 6, 2016
SOURCE OF REVIEW: Author Requested
RATING: 2.5 / 3 stars
BLURB: He loves sex.
She is trying to avoid the male species.

He never cares who he sleeps with.
She is cautious.

Monogamy is a bad word to him.
Monogamy is what she wants.

With her mind saying one thing, and her body saying another, she finds herself wanting to know just what makes this sexy male the attraction women can’t resist.

Just when they thought they reached a common ground, both their pasts resurface, adding complication to the mix of confusion.

Will they have what it takes to survive the storm brewing?

ADD TO: Goodreads
BUY LINKS: Amazon 

REVIEW:
Mechanics / Grammar -- 0.5 points
This is not the worst edited book I've ever read, but it's also not the best. There were quite a few run-on sentences, comma splices, and incorrect dialogue tags. There were also some inconsistencies. For example, in the beginning of the book, the hero is said to have attended college at Howard, and then later it becomes Harvard. It wasn't anything so bad that it made it unreadable, but they were noticeable. The book would greatly benefit from an intense copy edit / proofreading.

The book is written in alternating first person point-of-view between the hero (River) and the heroine (Raine). I'm a huge fan of getting the male POV in a romance, so I was super excited to get River's perspective. Unfortunately, it was almost impossible to distinguish between his voice and hers as they were much too similar. Not to mention, the POV shifts often happened multiple times per chapter and mid-scene, including during the sex scenes, which really pulled me from the moment. It was extremely jarring.

Characterization -- 0.5 points
I truly empathize with both Raine and River's characters as they were both victims of infidelity, and I was rooting for them to find their happily-ever-after and even show their exes what they'd lost. The best revenge is living well, right? Beyond this, the characters were very one dimensional. The minute they meet, their lives cease to exist outside of each other.

Raine -- She annoyed me. A lot. She was so passive-aggressive and indecisive. She would tell River she wasn't interested, but then she'd think the opposite or physically react in direction opposition to what she's said. One minute she was a snarky, independent woman who didn't take any shit, and the next minute she's a waffling, insecure girl who lets a man dictate how she should feel. For the record, I really connected with her and liked her when she was showing the snarky side of her personality. I LOVED Raine's friendship with Devon! It was the best part of the book.

River -- He was a slightly better character. I liked that he owned who he was and what he did (a guy who enjoyed sex and one-night stands). He didn't make any excuses for his behavior. He is who he is and he owns that. However, there were several times he towed the line into sexual assault and maybe even rape. In one scene, he's got Raine pinned against the wall, kissing her (consensually). But when she attempts to start to tell him they can't do this, he silences her with a kiss. No means no, dude! I assume the author was attempting to make him an alpha-male. Sadly, he's firmly in the alpha-hole camp :-( Like Raine, we see very little of his daily life outside of the time he spends with her. He's said to have inherited his father's business, yet we never see him actually working, nor do we see the very real challenges one faces as a business owner. I mean, seriously, how does he have so much free time to spend at the bar and in various women's bedrooms?


Plot -- 0.5 points
This book is definitely true to the genre, and it follows the "rules" of romance. But the overall plot and conflict / tension is weak. Both of these characters are dealing with some serious trust issues and fear of commitment. Those internal struggles are glossed over and resolved much too easily and quickly. There are a lot of external obstacles tossed in their way, though, with both of their pasts coming back to haunt them. Raine's ex-fiance comes looking for her. I will say--the reveal of who Raine's ex cheated with really shocked me! I was not expecting that. River also has a few ex-hook-ups that can't seem to leave him alone, along with a few new women he didn't know had a thing for him. It became comical at one point and tipped over into the realm of unbelievable.

At first, I hated the sub-plot with Marge. It was completely unnecessary, in my opinion. For starters, Marge is a caricature of a woman in love with a man who doesn't return her feelings. Her actions were consistently over-dramatic. She's harboring one heck of a secret, too. I won't say what that is because I don't want to give spoilers. And I'm sorry, but if she's truly that in love with River and would do anything to get him, she would've dropped that bomb a LONG time ago. But, as the story progressed, and this sub-plot came to a resolution, it was very powerful, and I changed my mind about it. I actually feel deeply sorry for Marge.

The sub-plot with Jerry, however, was too much. All these women obsessing, stalking, and professing their love for River was ridiculous. One woman is fine, but multiple? It induced several instances of eye-rolling.

I would've liked to have seen more development of Raine's family life. That dynamic was outstanding, and really captured my interest. The author did a fantastic job of making me feel sympathetic for Raine when the entire truth comes out.

Romance -- 0.5 points
For me, it was lukewarm at best. I didn't really feel the chemistry between River and Raine, and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that they're under-developed characters. There was way too much sex, too. I mean, I'm all for sexy time, but damn! These two were constantly at it. Didn't they ever get tired? lol. At a certain point, I just started skimming them or skipping them all together. Also, a few of the sex scenes made me LOL--which I'm 99.99% sure was NOT the author's intention--but the dirty talk (and the overall dialogue in general) was a tad cheesy and not true to how real people speak to one another. With all that said, these two characters, as they've been portrayed, are perfect for each other.

Final Overall Impression -- 0.5 / 1 points 
I'm really on the fence with this book. It has quite a few issues, but at the end of the day, it sucked me in enough that I had to read to the end to find out what would happen. As an author, that can be a difficult thing to accomplish, so Miss Faith gets props for that. There was a great, happy ending, and I really enjoyed how the epilogue tied up all the loose ends. That was refreshing.

Overall, if you can get past the over-the-top plot, this isn't a bad read and would be good for someone looking to escape from the real world for a few hours.

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