Review: Reflected in You by Sylvia Day

Title: Reflected in You*
Author: Sylvia Day
Series: Crossfire #2
Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance
Publisher: Penguin
Format: Trade paperback & E-book
Date/Year:  October 2012
Reviewed by: Michele

*This book was purchased by the reviewer for her own reading enjoyment

Summary from the publisher:

Gideon Cross. As beautiful and flawless on the outside as he was damaged and tormented on the inside. He was a bright, scorching flame that singed me with the darkest of pleasures. I couldn't stay away. I didn't want to. He was my addiction... my every desire... mine.

My past was as violent as his, and I was just as broken. We’d never work. It was too hard, too painful... except when it was perfect. Those moments when the driving hunger and desperate love were the most exquisite insanity. We were bound by our need. And our passion would take us beyond our limits to the sweetest, sharpest edge of obsession...

My Musings:

***This review contains spoilers for Bared to You. If you have not read Bared to You, please stop here!***

As eagerly as I was anticipating this book after my intense enjoyment of Bared to You, I was also wondering what Sylvia Day could possible do to provide a satisfying follow-up. Would it show real plot development and character growth, or would it just be more of the same “push me - pull you” dance between Gideon and Eva, interspersed with incredible sex scenes?

I’m happy to report that Reflected in You has everything I’d hoped to find in a sequel. It has more of the same intense emotional and sexual angst that made Bared to You such a satisfying read, so you don’t have to worry on that account. But there is also real emotional growth by both characters, however slight it may seem in some places, and it made me all the more anxious to read the next book in the series to find out what on earth could possibly happen next.

The story picks up the next morning from the last night at the end of Bared to You, which threw me at first because it had been so many months past in real time since I’d read the previous book. Gideon is still dark and dangerous and moody as hell, and Eva is still trying to move on from a traumatic past without letting Gideon take over every aspect of her current life. As the story progresses, it’s clear that Eva’s past won’t stay buried, and as various aspects of it reappear to threaten their future, both she and Gideon react in ways that may or may not be the best choices to help them stay together.

Gideon still can’t seem to trust Eva with his secrets. Eva still can’t seem to trust Gideon with her happiness. Any rational person would say they are too dysfunctional to stay together. But by the time I reached the end of this second Crossfire book, I had a much better appreciation of their motivations and reasoning, I also had more confidence that they could survive as a couple if they just kept working hard to trust each other and not to betray that trust. Now I just have to wait until May 2013 (!) to find out if I’m right when Entwined in You is released for publication.

Ratings:

Overall: 5 stars
Sensuality level: 4 stars (super steamy, but nothing especially kinky)
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Other Reviews:

• Dear Author ( B-)
• Smexy Books (B)
• Fiction Vixen (A-) 
• Goodreads (rating as of 10/22/2012= 4.39 stars)

 

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