Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Review: Giving It Up by Amber Lin


eBook, 308 pages
Published June 18th 2012 by Loose Id
ISBN 13: 9781611188431
Source: Author, for the purpose of an honest review
Genre: Erotic Romance
Stars: 4
Flames: 4

If you are looking for a Knight on a White Horse to save the damsel in distress…you are looking in the wrong neighborhood, however, there is a lot of saving going on in this book.  Amber Lin’s first foray into the erotic world is a definite good first effort and I look forward to reading more of her work.  I would like to see her expand on some of the characters of this book to fill out the rest of the world she has opened up for us.  There is definitely more to the story of Colin, Philip and Rose and it’s a story I think I’d love. 

There are many things I liked about this book and several things I didn’t, but the good definitely outweighed the bad.  First thing is that Allie is a rape victim and yes, that brings about bad mojo for a person, but not every rape victim basically becomes a slut looking for every man to debase her – Allie does.  This is how she meets Colin and he rocks her world by giving her what she NEEDS not what she WANTS.  Then when the rapist returns and threatens Allie she runs to Colin for protection.  OK, you can have your rapist’s child, stand on your own two feet and provide a decent life given your circumstances, but you just run and move in with a man that you slept with one time and let him take over your life for protection?  Give me a break.  These are the type of women that in real life would annoy me.  With that said, Allie does eventually stand up for herself and starts to be the type of women I wanted her to be – self-sufficient and independent and able to defend what is hers.  She was that way from the start, so to make her be whiney and fearful didn’t fly too well for me.  

Colin was dark and gritty from the start.  He’s real. Not some buffed up invincible body builder, but a real, good-looking, hard-working, rough hands and all man – thank goodness they really do exist in the literary world.  Anyway, Colin picks Allie up in a bar and gives her what she needs and is opened up to the possibilities.  Regardless of her past or present situation, he creates a safe home for her and her child – almost the perfect little family.  He isn’t very talkative and doesn’t share a lot of himself.  He stays true to himself from start to finish – a man that pulled himself up from his bootstraps in hell as a child to a successful business man with a dark side that if you hear his name you shake in your shoes…I liked him immediately.  He isn’t very trusting, and with good reason, but he listens to his gut and decides for himself – he doesn’t have to be convinced.  He wants that happily ever after, but his past has taught him that it’s not for him, but he knows that if you change your circumstances you can get what you want…and he does. 

There are many twists and turns…sex in an alley, an evening at the ballet, the brother living with a hooker, a dirty cop and an arms deal gone wrong which all made this book hard to put down.  It’s not for the squeamish to say the least.  It isn’t your typical erotic romance and if you don’t like the dark stuff, the happily ever after may leave you empty but the writing and the story line were both excellent.  I’ll be honest, it could have used more smut…it had good smut…but I wanted more smut.  The descriptions of Colin having both the vanilla sex and the hardcore sex…I wanted more of it…most eroticas they can’t have a life because they can’t get their clothes on…not so in this book.  So, if you aren’t a sex every page girl – you’ll definitely appreciate the story and if you are a girl that likes sex every page, you’ll still enjoy the path of Colin and Allie.  The ending was believable and definitely makes me want the story to continue and I hope Amber Lin keeps going in this direction.





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