Giving It Up [NOOK Book]

Giving It Up!

There are many things I liked about this book and several things I didn't, but the good definitely outweighed the bad. First thing is that Allie is a rape victim and yes, that brings about bad mojo for a person, but not every rape victim basically becomes a slut looking for every man to debase her - Allie does. This is how she meets Colin and he rocks her world by giving her what she NEEDS not what she WANTS. Then when the rapist returns and threatens Allie she runs to Colin for protection. OK, you can have your rapist's child, stand on your own two feet and provide a decent life given your circumstances, but you just run and move in with a man that you slept with one time and let him take over your life for protection? Give me a break. These are the type of women that in real life would annoy me. With that said, Allie does eventually stand up for herself and starts to be the type of women I wanted her to be - self-sufficient and independent and able to defend what is hers. She was that way from the start, so to make her be whiney and fearful didn't fly too well for me.

Colin was dark and gritty from the start. He's real. Not some buffed up invincible body builder, but a real, good-looking, hard-working, rough hands and all man - thank goodness they really do exist in the literary world. Anyway, Colin picks Allie up in a bar and gives her what she needs and is opened up to the possibilities. Regardless of her past or present situation, he creates a safe home for her and her child - almost the perfect little family. He isn't very talkative and doesn't share a lot of himself. He stays true to himself from start to finish - a man that pulled himself up from his bootstraps in hell as a child to a successful business man with a dark side that if you hear his name you shake in your shoes...I liked him immediately. He isn't very trusting, and with good reason, but he listens to his gut and decides for himself - he doesn't have to be convinced. He wants that happily ever after, but his past has taught him that it's not for him, but he knows that if you change your circumstances you can get what you want...and he does.

There are many twists and turns...sex in an alley, an evening at the ballet, the brother living with a hooker, a dirty cop and an arms deal gone wrong which all made this book hard to put down. It's not for the squeamish to say the least. It isn't your typical erotic romance and if you don't like the dark stuff, the happily ever after may leave you empty but the writing and the story line were both excellent. I'll be honest, it could have used more smut...it had good smut...but I wanted more smut. The descriptions of Colin having both the vanilla sex and the hardcore sex...I wanted more of it...most eroticas they can't have a life because they can't get their clothes on...not so in this book. So, if you aren't a sex every page girl - you'll definitely appreciate the story and if you are a girl that likes sex every page, you'll still enjoy the path of Colin and Allie. The ending was believable and definitely makes me want the story to continue and I hope Amber Lin keeps going in this direction.

Intense, moving love story

I was a little nervous when I started reading. This is a bit darker than what I normally read. Allie is a character with a lot of issues and deals with them in ways that are pretty self-destructive. She is a damaged individual who is trying to cope with her past the best way she knows how. Then Colin comes along, who is an enigma but wants to take care of her. The story has explicit sex and language and deals with rape. If you are not offended by those things, I recommend it. I really liked the story and how it deals with the issues. Overall, it is a story about healing and how damaged people can find happiness and love.

Oh boy. I am TORN over this review. Honestly, I had issues with

Oh boy. I am TORN over this review. Honestly, I had issues with Giving It Up. Maybe it's my fault. I thought this was an erotic romance, but it read to me as a psychological crime drama with a little romance thrown in.

So...Allie is a rape survivor. And two years later, she seems to be almost punishing herself for that. Once a month she goes to a club and picks up a man, with whom she has sex. Rough sex. Now, I don't want to get all psychoanalytical here, that's not really what I'm about with these Sexy Saturday reads, but what I think is going on is this: Allie is, in a way, reenacting rape. On her own terms. And this makes my brain hurt. I get it (kind of), I really do. But knowing there is a valid psychological reason for her actions doesn't necessarily mean I want to read about it.

Like I said earlier, Giving It Up felt more like a crime drama than a romance to me. There's a whole "mob-ish" subplot. Colin, the guy Allie hooks up with, is shady. There's a lot of behind the scenes deals that he makes, some really nasty business he's involved in that didn't sit well with me. But Allie's fine with it, really, as long as Colin provides and protects her and her baby.

The smexy scenes were okay. I'm all for a steamy scene. But the psychoses behind the acts disturbed me. The things Allie was saying in her head kept me detached and kind of weirded out.

I'm not saying Giving It Up is not a good book. The writing was fairly good and the story had a decent pace. It's simply that it came with so much baggage that I couldn't get into it.

i would recomend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about pe

i would recomend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about people with trouble past who overcome the things that haunt. plus, some hot sex and romance.

A Lilac Wolf and Stuff Review

Review written by Lilith

Allison (a.k.a. Allie) is a girl on a mission. She wants to forget the terrible thing that happened to her in the past. The one thing, that while terrible, it also gave her a beautiful daughter. But it also destroyed her faith in men. Enter Colin, could he be the one to change Allie’s mind? Could he be the one to help her finally heal and move on?

This book is what I would call a thriller/erotica wanna-be. As a thriller, it kept me glued to the pages of my Nook. It was slow going at first, but once it took off I couldn’t put it down! I wanted to know what happened in Allie’s past. I wanted to know what the deal was with Colin. I wanted to know why his brother was the way he was. And more than anything, I wanted to know if Allie was ever going to be happy.

As erotica, it left me wanting. The sex scenes in the book were kind of bland. They seemed lacking. I understand why some of them were the way they were, but later in the book there should have been more feeling to them. It’s kind of hard to put into words exactly what was missing, but I just felt like the scenes weren’t all the way there.

This book is still a good read. And I would recommend it to anyone!

I liked this book very much. I know next to nothing really about

I liked this book very much. I know next to nothing really about bdsm. Really. But I cant for the life of me see why this book is on every bdsm site. haha It was a much sweeter and nicer story than I imagined at all. Some messed up people found their way thru and to. But I did not get the bdsm connection at all. There is some suspense and there is romance. They are human. They are tough and they are fragile. They are surprising. It was not at all what I expected. And I liked it very much. It is not a typical romance read, by me. But its a really good story.

Heart-wrenching, Heart-warming

Ms. Lin's debut novel is something to behold. It has every element of a wonderfully written novel: romance, suspense, gut-wrenching emotion, and great character development. Unlike most romance novels Ms. Lin does not just focus on the hero and heroine, she provides plenty of back story to inform and entertain her readers. This book is not for the faint hearted, it should definitely be classified as erotic, but it does not focus solely on the sex of it all. Giving It Up is an intense tortured love story, about learning to trust again. Ms. Lin has made an exceptional splash onto the romance scene and I cannot wait for her next book.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.