Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Laura’s Review of Close Up and Personal (#1 Spotlight Series) by JS Taylor


If you enjoyed the Ivy Lessons you will enjoy this series as well. 

Basic Summary:  Very typical 50 shades type romance books.  Handsome rich and famous director James Berkeley decides to fly to London and sit in on auditions for Romeo and Juliet.  Isabella Green a struggling actress and script writer auditions for the part of Lady Capulet, and sparks fly on their first meeting.  He stalks her a little, seduces her a lot, and of course they fall in love.  Not to mention he has some serious Dom tendencies and always needs to be in control.   With her fiery Spanish temper, and her subconscious need to be a submissive it makes for an interesting tale. 


What I love About This Book:  I gotta say there isn't a lot I like about this book.  I like the major plot line that he is a famous director and her real passion being a script writer instead of an actress.  That adds to the uniqueness of this story, instead of him being a famous actor he is more behind the scenes type of man and same goes for her as well.  I really like the sex scenes, they are more detailed some of the other poorly written books and they are really able to give you a good visual of what’s going on.  James Berkeley is a compelling character and his mystery is enough to make you want to read more. 


Cons:  That’s kind of all I liked about this book the rest was just bad.  I don’t know if it’s the editing in a book when they make a US version versus a British version and it gets lost in translation but the writing is just so blah.  I feel like a teenager wrote this book not an adult at all.  Like most bad books there is no character development at all.  I can’t stand when authors just tell you right about a character’s personality traits, I don’t want to read a character saying I am sensitive, or I have a bad temper, I want it play out in the book.  For me to get into a character and really love them I need to interpret their personality through their actions and really get behind what they are all about.  You skip so much when you have to read “me and my bad temper” rather than showing me her bad temper.  This happens a lot throughout his book.  I get Isabelle is half Spanish and because of that apparently she has a temper, but I don’t need it said straight out several times throughout the book.  Same thing goes for James Berkeley, as a reader I don’t need him saying over and over again I am broken, and therefore I need to discipline women.  That’s just so stupid and once again his character and mystery are taken away because all the actions that could have showed this are taken away.  Maybe the author was afraid of it being too long or something but this book would've been so much better if it was maybe another 20-50 pages longer with more character development. 

            There are just so many details that are skipped over in this book completely.  The author goes into great detail about what Isabella is wearing but then gives no details about the actual physical features for the characters.  For example in one scene Isabella is going clubbing this is the description of her outfit “its silver, with geometric slashes of lime an purple at the hips and shoulder straps.”  Yet then to describe the main character James Berkeley all you get is this, “deep green eyes.  Heavy eyebrows.  Chiseled cheekbones. I settle on the space above his sculpted nose…”  This is after Isabella has met him and had a conversation with him, she first describes what he wearing so you have no clue what he looks like at all for a time and when you do that’s all you get.  There’s no description how tall he is, if he has broad shoulders, if he is lean or bulky, what shape his head is, if he is tanned or pale.  There’s nothing!!! Somewhere in the book she mentions he’s tall but how tall?  Is Isabella tall herself?  Where does her head come up to on his body?  All these little details that I know some people feel bog down a book are so important when you are first reading something like this.  It’s one of those things you hate when they are there but miss when they are take away and this is a perfect example where more details are needed.  This book is just not evasive enough at all, and even those story line is somewhat compelling I have no urge to continue on to the second book.  I might when I run out of other things to read if I’m in the mood to read another romance, but that’s it.  The cliff hanger at the end is supposed to be suspenseful but it’s not at all. 


Overall:  If you want to read a book like 50 Shades, with less detail then go for it! Like I said the sex scenes are good and if the characters were more developed I could really get into it but to me it’s okay if you just skip right over this one.

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