Published July 25th 2013 by Mischief
My rating: 3 of 5 ⭐
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In an attempt to find out where her friend might have disappeared to, Alissa Layton uncovers her diary, marked with the word "assignation" every third Friday. Alissa herself leads an uneventful and predictable life, just the way she prefers it. One that allows her to blend into the shadows. But the need to find out what she can about her friend, as well as curiosity around the Friday "assignations", has her keeping Lucy's appointment this week.
Janos Kovacs prefers to keep his sexual encounters with the opposite sex to a one-time, rather impersonal event. He does not get emotionally involved and likes to exercise complete control. He is a successful and wealthy business man, who has the financial freedom to indulge himself in any way he pleases.
Alissa is immediately overwhelmed by Janos, even though he has not seen her yet. She assumes him to be well out of her league, visually, socially and most obviously sexually. She avoids a direct confrontation. But Janos did notice her, is intrigued by her and manages to connect with her. He slowly starts to open Alissa's eyes to the boundaries of her own sexuality.
Almost immediately, Janos breaks one of his own rules and continues meeting Alissa. While she learns some of the kinkier pleasures sex has to offer, he finds his control slipping away. Until he finds himself unable to harness the passion that she is able to unleash in him any longer.
****
Janos' ability to allow Alissa to start seeing herself as he saw her, was a beautiful transformation of a well-known, negative inner-dialogue that is often so self-destructive is a sweet and insightful part of what makes his character attractive. The way Alissa starts picking up on how Janos 'reads' her, and uses that knowledge against him, shows her keen interest in finding the heart of the man.
There was not a lot of context provided for either character......little or no formative information. Everyone is shaped in part by their history, their environment. And if substantial self-esteem issues, in the case of Alyssa, or emotional repression in Janos' case, exist, a cause or at least compounding factor can be found in the individual's background somewhere. To some, this may not be important, to me this is necessary information, to be able to form an understanding of, and a connection with, a character. I need that kind of involvement, and I wasn't able to find that here.
As the entire book was written from Alyssa's POV, there was little to no insight as to what drew Janos to her, which is something I missed, especially in light of Alissa's initial assessment, that they would be utterly incompatible. We know what she saw that first time....but what did he see at first glance, at first instinct, that drew him in?
Although Charlotte Stein's mastery of the English language is evident, or perhaps, because of it, I had to put the book aside a few times to take a break. Not because of the story itself, but because the descriptiveness became a bit too overwhelming for me. I admit, I am a bit allergic to that.
✨Kinky, sweet and insightful!!✨
**ARC courtesy of NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, in return for an honest review.**
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