AMERICAN QUEEN
It starts with a stolen kiss under an English sky, and it ends with a walk down the aisle.
It starts with the President sending his best friend to woo me on his behalf, and it ends with my heart split in two. It starts with buried secrets and dangerous desires…and ends with the three of us bound together with a hateful love sharper than any barbed wire.
My name is Greer Galloway, and I serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States.
This is the story of an American Queen.
REVIEW: Enough to want to read more, but not enough to highly recommend.
"Trust without truth isn't actually trust."
I have so many warring emotions with regards to my review of this book, which saddens me because I have loved everything I've read by Sierra so far. I love Sierra's words. Her stories give me depth and great characters and a backstory to sink my teeth into. Literally, you can easily read her books and know the characters like they were your friends. This book wasn't any different in that aspect....
Just in other ways.
Some scenes in the book were so uncomfortable to read as a reader that I was turned off. Not because they were necessarily 'disturbing', but because the BDSM aspect of this story was very demeaning on so many different levels. Also because I knew I couldn't ever do that or allow myself to be treated that way, so that was very uncomfortable for me. I have to allow myself to ponder that maybe it's because I don't understand/like/desire the harshness of that particular side of the lifestyle. I'm not sure, but it was slightly more uncomfortable than hot, and it was very hot in some scenes. Overall, while some of it was scorching hot a la Sierra's signature sexy side, some of it was absolutely disgusting to me, but....to each his own.
Some scenes and they way they played out didn't make any sense to me AT ALL and I question why they were even thrown in there. I shook my head at the absurdity of some of them. I can't/won't really say here what they were because it will take away from the storyline, but if you don't catch them, then they didn't bother you. Easy enough.
Finding out this was a series AFTER I decided to read it really bothered me. It wasn't listed on GR as a series originally. I will say that you can treat this book as a standalone....if you don't read the epilogue. And let's discuss that: we alllllll saw that coming a MILE AWAY and I don't understand why Greer was a complete doormat when it came to her conniving bitch of a cousin. That drove me absolutely NUTS.
For all that negativity I was feeling, I couldn't stop reading...which drove me mad because I didn't understand why. I couldn't put it down. I just couldn't. Sierra commands your attention with her words. There is no doubt about her ability to weave a story that reels you in. She is a very good storyteller, whether the story is a little out there or not. Again, as crazy as it sounds and as harsh as this review sounds, it's Sierra. I will still read her and I will probably even follow this series along. I am also aware that my opinion is not a common one, nor will it be easily accepted and I completely respect that.
~BEE
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EXCERPT
“I kept thinking about what I wanted to give you today for our wedding day, and honestly, Greer, there isn’t really anything I couldn’t give you. Jewelry or exotic vacations or rare editions of the books you love, anything I could have dreamed of, I could get for you—but they were just things. I didn’t want to get you a thing for a curio cabinet or a jewelry box. I wanted to give you something that you could carry with you through our new life together. Something that would make you a promise.”
The best man’s hand brushes up against my stocking-covered ankle and I gasp.
“What is it, princess?” Ash's low voice comes over the phone line.
“Embry…I mean, Ash, I—" I can't find the words just then, because Embry’s hand slides up my calf and everything stops. My thoughts, my feelings, my guilt—my world shrinks to Ash’s voice on the phone and the fingers moving past my knee and Embry’s face, so controlled. But lust and anger and determination are fissuring across that control, and I can see his wide pupils and the pulse pounding in his neck and the trembling of his lips.
What is happening? I think distantly to myself. What am I letting happen…and all while I’m on the phone with my soon-to- be husband?
And then the world slams back into motion, and I make a strangled noise, stumbling backwards, away from Embry. He starts to stand and come toward me, and I hold out one of my hands, moving backwards until my back is pressed against the floor-to- ceiling window overlooking the skyline.
Embry looks down at my shaking hand and then back up to me, those fissures in his control now full-on fractures, and he says, “Greer…”
“Don’t test me,” I whisper, not sure if I'm whispering to the groom or the best man. “Don’t test me like this.”
This isn't happening. I missed a connection somewhere, misunderstood something vital, because there is no way, no fucking way, that Ash is offering his best friend to me as some sort of wedding present. This is my wishful thinking turned toxic, this is my darkest fantasies turning into delusion—
“I want you to let Embry give you my gift,” Ash tells me. “While I listen. That’s what you’ll give me in exchange: every single moan, pant and cry will be for me.”
“You can’t be saying what I think you’re saying,” I say.
"Oh, don't worry, angel. I'll get something out of this for me too."
"Oh, don't worry, angel. I'll get something out of this for me too."
I hear the dark roughness in his voice and I realize I'm so very, very wet.
“Close your eyes,” Ash orders.
I do, my panting somehow louder in my head when I can't see anything. The glass window against my back is cool and strong, just like Ash’s words in my ear.
“I know you’re wet. I know it like I know Embry is hard right now, just from the mere thought of touching you. You want it, don’t you? You want it so much that you’re shaking with the effort it’s taking to hold yourself back.”
“But I don’t want to hurt you.” It's my final plea, my final argument, my final grasp at some semblance of sanity. My skirts are almost up at my waist now, and I know the moment Embry catches sight of my delicate, hand-embroidered French panties because he takes in a sharp breath, as if punched in the gut.
“It all hurts,” Ash says. “It hurts watching you two watching each other. It hurts watching him with other people. There’s no part about this that doesn’t hurt, but what’s the alternative? Living without the pain means living without each other.”
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PURCHASE:
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2eckVLn
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2dFbU1W
Nook: http://bit.ly/AQNook
iBooks: http://apple.co/2f5LmIz
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Thank you for writing your opinion!
ReplyDeleteAlways!!!! I love discussing books....and I love Sierra. It was hard to write this review. <3
DeleteThank you, Lectura!!
I love your honest review.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Katherine! I always want to be 100% real with regards to my reviews and recommendations.
DeleteThank you. <3