Took this book on vacation with me and I think I may have missed some things. I was under the impression that this would be a romance, relatively light with elements of BDSM (which I admit to knowing nothing about other than what's in Fifty Shades and that there were many people who hated the presentation of those bits of Fifty Shades). I was expecting a quick read, a love story with lots of sex and BDSM parts. I guess I could have read even a couple of the reviews to know that it wasn't, but this was one of my first forays into erotica.

Instead, I found myself having to slow down and re-read conversations between characters, because it seemed like Zach and Nora were constantly having these meta/analogy-ridden/layered/coded talks. I would get lost after reading more than two paragraphs--I was on vacation and wanted something sort of mindless but entertaining! Maybe the author was trying too hard to make her characters seem smart? I know that Zach and Nora were both well educated writers (fond of word play and veiled references), but this hindered my understanding of what was being discussed. This also happened a little with Nora and Soren as well as with Nora and Wesley.

I did like that there was sort of both a happy ending (for Zach) and not happy ending for really both Nora and Wesley. I agree that it probably wouldn't have worked out between N&W, I did NOT understand why she went back to Soren at the end. Also, the end was pretty abrupt and I thought it was a cheap way to launch the reader into the sequel.
Also, Soren was NEVER, not at a single point in the story, a character that I: identified with, liked, was attracted to, or wanted to read more about. In fact, I was sort of cheering for Nora's decision to leave him before the book started, and did not understand why Nora loved him. I don't want to make such a broad statement as to say that his actions in Nora's life when she was so young were "the cause" to make her [insert cliche here: sexually damaged, promiscuous, not know what real love is, etc] but I just did not see his appeal. Maybe that's why I don't find the pain bits erotic? I was trying to see if I could understand this perspective, but I'm still not getting it.


One thing that I found interesting about the author's writing was that she provided just enough detail for you to have a picture in your head (none of that "kis... and fade out" skipping the good stuff) but also left quite a lot up to the reader to imagine, possibly to heighten the titillating experience. The setting to me felt like it was supposed to be our world and close to current day, but everyone was just a bit too much for me to feel that it was actually our own world.

All in all, I enjoyed the book. Characters didn't seem very realistic to me, but I was entertained by them. Also, I did not find it very predictable which was great.