2/5. Releases 8/22/2023.

After a failed engagement, Frankie meets a mysterious man who wants her to call him the Phantom. At the Black Rose Underground Club, they have near-anonymous meetings, fulfilling her every fantasy. But as Frankie's feelings deepen, she wants to know the man behind the mask--but he may be more complicated than she expected.

Okay, so. I thought this was going to be a fun, ~modern~ spin on The Phantom of the Opera. Not exactly. It's more a standard contemporary BDSM romance with a bit of flare for the phandom. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me.

Quick Takes:

--This story feels quite rushed. And like, I didn't expect anything other than a fun, kinky romance, but just... the book feels very literally rushed off the last page, and it leaves the reader feeling dissatisfied.

--Frankie overhears that this man is called Phantom, like by other people, like in public, and she recognizes his mask as a Phantom of the Opera mask, and she acknowledges POTO is something that exists in this universe, and he implies this is nOT A COSTUME and perhaps something he wears all the time, who knows? And her response is "intriguing".

I just can't buy that. I can't. This is not an alternate universe. This is our world. There is no way an adult woman who has had enough life experience to get engaged at some point, would go "oh tell me more" about that situation without having some questions. Even in a kink setting, there would be questions, setting a scene, clarification. Even an extreme POTO fan would have at least internal questions, you know? Beyond "intriguing".

--I should add.... I'm not going to act like an expert in kink, and the portrayal of kink in romance doesn't have to be accurate. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't, I've enjoyed books in both contexts. Here, however, it felt surface level in a way I don't think it should have as it was (apparently) an integral part of the novel. It's not the side dish, it's the main course, and it didn't feel authentic here.

--In his first two POV chapters, Phantom quotes two different novels. One is POTO, which I expected. One is The Great Gatsby. There was no damn reason why this man needed to be quoting multiple novels that early in his own personal monologue.

--I think that in order for all of this to feel emotionally plausible, Frankie would've needed to be a massive Phantom Phan. Like, not casual. She has these little musings about floating to his lair or whatever, and I'll be honest, I'm not 100% sure I bought it. No, this woman needed to be like--sobbing about the show closing on Broadway, a Phantom-related account on every social media platform possible, downloads of multiple bootlegs on her hard drive, several of which she filmed herself, a contributor to a Phantom-related publication, Ramin Karimloo's autograph tattoed on her ass, card-carrying STAN. That is the woman who I can buy randomly hooking up with this man in what was not a pre-negotiated (for her) scene.

Like, she's just acting as if this is NORMAL, and again, while kink is in this book, this is not someone she met and formed a connection with outside of kink who's like "hey, I REALLY like to do POTO scenes with my partners, would you be the Christine to my Phantom?" This is just some guy she met at a bar who wears a half mask and talks about haunting an opera house, though I will add, he is not actually the Phantom of the Opera.

I'm super into camp, but I think that when you do not properly acknowledge certain things in a contemporary romance, you cross the line from camp to just distracting, and that's where I was. I couldn't get into the book because I was so distracted.

The Sex Stuff:

The sex is... fine even if I did have my issues with the feeling that the kink wasn't... lived in, somehow? I also have a problem with an adult woman who seems to have a reasonably public, non-sheltered life being shocked when a man uses the "c-word", as she put it (she also doesn't know what a strap-on is, among other things), but that's me. It's not especially kinky, and there was a dialogue moment that really took me out of it, but. It is what it is.

I wish I'd like this more, as I do enjoy POTO, but I just couldn't get into the story.

Thanks to Netgalley and Entangled: Amara for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.