Review: Management Skills

Management Skills by January Rowe

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Um. Yea.

So I don't even know what to say about this book. The most positive thing I can say is that it was a free copy from NetGalley. I would have been pissed if I had paid money for this. I feel guilty for hating a free book, but I can't, in all honesty, give this book anything but a 1 star rating.

It features Allie and Grant. Allie was a former dancer (named Silver) at a high class club where Grant did the lighting arrangements. He was always fascinated with her, but because of club rules....he was never allowed to meet her or even talk to her.

Fast forward several years, Allie is done with dancing and school and is now working for a company that specializes in theatrical and concert productions.....lights, sound, etc. And guess who the CEO of the company is? That's right, Grant. Now that she's not at the club, he's free to talk to her and fuck her if he wishes. And he does. And they fuck. Of course, Allie always used to see Grant while she was on stage and she kinda had a thing for him as well.

Soon the fucking turns into Grant being a Dom-douche to Allie. It doesn't take long before he collars her and starts calling her "Mine". He tries to make her into the perfect submissive.

So, here's the thing. I know nothing about the BDSM world other than what I read in books. The BDSM described (poorly) in this book is the stereotypical crap that I used to think of when I thought of a Dom/sub relationship. The man is a mean douchebag who talks down the woman and tries to break her spirit until she becomes his slave. He treats her (literally) like a dog. He spanks her....and it's not like sexy bedroom punishment spanking - it comes across like punishment mean "I'm doing this instead of beating you like the caveman I am" kind of spanking. And at some other point, Grant interrogates Allie because she hasn't been "chaste". She wasn't with another man, she just accidentally orgasmed because Grant had not been allowing her to orgasm and she had had enough. And when I say he interrogated her, I mean he sat her down in front of a high powered stage light (remember, that's the business they work in) and shined it right in her face. Seriously, it was fucked up.

There was absolutely no emotion or passion in this book. None. There wasn't even a build up to where we saw any kind of anything - attraction, love, respect - for each other. Nothing about this book worked for me.

Granted, there was a tiny itty bitty bit of redemption at the end when Allie decides that she doesn't have to let Grant withhold orgasms from her. She sort of takes her power back and Grant gives in to her (for once). That being said, it happened in the last few pages of the book. Redemption....but poorly written and too little, too late.

And the writing. Meh. I won't even go there. But I will leave you with this little gem of a quote from the book: "He was like an oilrig. His thrusts would turn her into a supernova, throwing the shimmering substance of sex back out into the universe. Where was he? Why wasn't he drilling into her?" Yea. Exactly.

*ARC provided by NetGalley