Reflected in You

Paperback: 352 pages
E-book: About 10 hrs
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd(1 August 2013)
Language: English

• ISBN-10: 1405910259
• ISBN-13: 978-1405910255

When I sit to write this review I have finished the Crossfire series till the books available now, ie Reflected to you and Entwined with you. Yet what follows have no spoilers.

This book, Reflected in You, is not a stand alone book, and yet this is the first book in this series that grabs my attention: simply because it was a NewYork Times best seller. But I chose to read the books in the intended order.
 I believe that relationships are always complicated. It ain't a relationship till it gets complicated, because people are complicated. So here's continuing with the...alright...romance between Eva Tramell & Gideon Cross.
The two were drawn to each other like moth to a flame, and what followed was a raw, fierce, hot and tumultuous relationship. Both of them want the same things out of their relationships, but neither of them have been in a healthy relationship long enough to know how to work it through. The books goes about how the couple deals with their own demons and evils, while trying to save the relationship. Both of them have their own set of demons from the past to deal with. To make things worse, Eva is quite often faced by blasts from her past.

So in the beginning Eva is the volatile and self-obsessed among the two. But advancing into the story see that Eva realizes how she has been in the relationship and decides to work harder at making things work. At one point she decides to stop running because her 'recovery was so fragile that she'd learned to protect it at all costs.' So, midst the self-discovery, self-realization and the struggle to stay together the couple more than anything depend more on physical bonding to bond emotionally (No, I'm not complaining!). In Reflected in You, Eva and Gideon fall more and more in love, instilling some hope in us, readers, so that we keep pining for the franchise.

Well written and feel-good, it's not a stand alone story. Nevertheless it's a good continuation to the 1st book. If you have read Bared to You, you are bound to love this one as it just adds to the experience.

Rating: 3/5

(I have a Kindle at hand which makes me grab the e-book. But if you still live the paperbacks, fret not, as they don't make much of a difference to your pockets. Though paperbacks come cheapest at Flipkart the e-books are out of stock. So for e-books you still have to go to Amazon.)

The many shades of 'Bared to You'

I was hardly ever a fan of the mills & boons kind of erotic novels. In all of my 26 years I have hardly read 1-2 of them. To me these excessively erotic novels, with a powerful and over-powering alpha male dominating a coy and demure female losing all their control over spacetime for orgasm-hungry sex,  were never always palatable. Being the girl I am, after reading thrillers for every single day over 6 months had me longing for a romantic novel. So here I was, one evening,  looking up the list of New York Times Bestsellers when I came across Bared To Me. I decided to give the book a random chance.
Diving into the book, the first person voice had my rapt attention right from the start. I felt like I was in Eva Tramell's head. Young, confident and ambitious Eva, bemused by the charms of her new home at New York seemed like someone you would instantly fall in love with. Gideon Cross, on the other hand is as Eva describes him, dark & dangerous, and all sinfully alpha and unattainable. That's their ying-yang factor in the relationship that makes them an instant hit.
But as they say, everything isn't half as perfect as it seems. The couple is fighting against all odds within themselves to get their dysfunctional bit out of them. And the story goes as they explore and unravel each other.
I was/am a crime-thriller/feel-good novel girl. Neither was I a fan of the 50 Shades of Grey series. So I was quick to dismiss any random allegations leveled on Sylvia Day about the many similarities in the plot between the Crossfire series and the 50 Shade series. Lucky for me, I didn't know of the allegations before I finished book and frankly the alleged similarities don't include sadomasochism and bondage in the sex scenes.

The sex scenes are hot, frequent and long; but what triggers me to move on to the the 2nd book in the series are the honesty and tenderness in the story. So look out for this space to know how I find 'Reflected in You'.

Romance between Eva & Gideon is wild, raw and passionate. But the cherry on the cake is the tenderness and honesty in their love.

Rating: 3/5