This book contains disguises and virtual sex, and this review condemns the former and praises the latter.
First, we must get preliminary necessities out of the way.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os0F4-XFf6w
Now, on to the review…
Author website rating: A (click on the book to visit)
Audio note: I listened to this on audio. Usually, the sex scenes are merely narrated. These were, um, performed.
Warning: This review contains spoilers, but since plot takes a back seat to character in this book, I don’t think knowing them will really spoil anything.
Zoe is a business consultant with a fear of commitment. Dexter (Dex) is a former skinny nerd turned hot man who has made a ton of money in software design as “Gandalf the Gaming Wizard.” In high school, Zoe was the intelligent goth chick, Dex was the geeky friend who secretly crushed on her, and they bonded over their outsider status. Having lost touch, they meet again at their 10th high school reunion.
Zoe attends the reunion on behalf of her brother’s software start-up company, in hopes of discovering the identity of Gandalf (long rumored to be one of Zoe’s classmates since one of his female characters looks just like her) and arranging a business meeting. Dex, for his part, wants to seduce Zoe, but he can’t do it as the successful Gandalf, because then he won’t be sure she wants him, not his money (he’s also left the company Gandalf made rich with a promise not to reveal his identity). He also can’t do it as Dexter, the nerd. So he dresses up as … Aragorn at the reunion costume ball to do it. Zoe has a fear of commitment, Dex has low self esteem, and neither of them wants to ruin their friendship. I would call this a medium-conflict romance.
There are side plots involving the quarterback who broke Zoe’s heart, the prom queen who is out to get her, Zoe and Dex’s newfound appreciation of their own self-worth among the popular crowd, and Dex’s tarot-reading, naked pool party hosting grandmother.
I really like romances in which the hero has a geeky side, and I also like romances in which the hero knows he is in love with the heroine before she knows it, or returns his feelings, and this one had both. As usual in a Blaze, there were a few explicit scenes, but I liked it that they always meant a lot to Dex, and that he couldn’t help interspersing the sexxoring with affectionate touches and expressions of wonder that he finally, after a decade, had Zoe in his arms.
I also liked it that Dex put his computer skills to good use, hacking Zoe’s computer and encouraging her to engage in avatar sex. It’s about time Harlequins moved into the 21st century. Phone sex is so passé!
As I mentioned above, Dex first seduces Zoe dressed as Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings. She meets and snogs her “masked hottie” twice and she doesn’t guess who he is, despite him having been her BFF in high school and her spending time with him unmasked during the reunion. I found this utterly ridiculous. And kind of unnecessary on Dex’s part.
In all, though, I liked Zoe and Dex, and I enjoyed the renewed-friendship to lovers storyline very much. This was a sexy, sweet, fun read (er, listen). If you like Blazes, I recommend it.
Double Identity Romance: A Rant
I love superhero stories, except for one thing: the fact that the Lois Lanes, Mary Jane Watsons and Rachel Dawes never figure out that when they lust after Superman, Spiderman, and Batman, they are also lusting after their best friends.
How do you like romances in which one character appears as two, and their lover can’t figure it out? I can think of a couple I’ve read, Judith Ivory’s Beast, and (maybe?) an old Kathleen Woodiwiss, A Rose in Winter, which I barely remember and am about to reread. I know there are more out there — anyone have titles?
Even when the novels are otherwise excellent, there is always a point at which I feel the heroine is being fooled longer than any conscious sober human being could possibly be, and I realize it is the author, not the character, who is keeping the charade going.
On the other hand, such stories have a kind of pathos — especially when, as in the hero/geek dynamic — the woman loves the masked man, and overlooks the unmasked one — which can be really appealing.
Do double identity* stories work for you?
(*I am sure you experts out there have an official name for them, but I couldn’t find it!)
Not a huge fan of heroes in disguise, but a huge fan of geeky heroes and scholarly heroes as well as friends-turned-lovers. That said, Gandalf the Gaming Wizard? Dressed as Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings? I have my limits.
Back to heroes in disguises or masks, I have never been a fan for two reasons.
Reason 1: Clark Kent/Superman and Zorro TV series completely ruined it for me. Their disguises weren’t convincing, which affected my ability to hold belief of suspension for the rest. And please, a mere mask to disguise a person whom the hero/ine knows well? It rarely held my belief of suspension when I read historical romances with this set-up.
Reason 2: I feel it’s deceitful, which I don’t usually enjoy in romances. It’s just as bad as secret baby roms where heroines hide their pregnancies/babies from heroes. I rarely felt comfortable with hero/ine using a disguise to seduce or romance. I still can’t pinpoint the reason why. It seems a false start of an emotional involvement? I don’t know. I can – just barely – tolerate the double identity device if a police officer works undercover, though.
(Sorry about typos & grammatical errors. It’s the middle of the night and the mite is sleepless & cranky.)
Okay, on this disguise thing – are you griping about realism here? In a romance novel? No, actually I get it. It’s funny how, within our unrealistic reads we still demand some realism. However, masks and disguises, hey, sign me up!!
I like disguises on the hero and the heroine. Sure, it’s not that convincing, it is the author keeping it going, it is deceitful, but goll darn, it’s fun. Who doesn’t find the idea of stranger sex exciting? Well, maybe some people don’t. And also, the idea of being the stranger, the other person. Tres exciting!
This is a fun review, and it sounds like a fun book, and my goodness, cybersex! And an audio where the sex scenes are performed. I wish you had podcast excerpt capabilities!
I might write a heroine-in-disguise book at some point, a reverse BEAST. (I freely admit I have no original ideas.)
And as much as I love BEAST almost blindly, I did have some problems with the denouement part of it. Will need to see if I can avoid making similar mistakes.
1. Dear dog, I did not need that stuck in my head.
2. This sounds like a shorter, clunkier version of a single-title romance I read a few years ago. Can’t come up with the title, but I remember a number of scenes set in the game.
I’m always annoyed when characters can’t figure things out, so yeah, having the girl not clue in that Mr. Normal is actually a hero bugs me. That’s one of the reasons why I loved the end of Spiderman II–you know she knows.
I’m inconsistent on the credulity issue. It’s the whole thing of being very forgiving when you love a book and scathing when you don’t. And I think belief works on different levels. There is character-belief, belief in the emotional journey, belief in the external events. Any one of these may present a challenge to reader credulity.
hahha, “being fooled longer than any conscious sober human being could possibly be” – Yes, this always drove me crazy watching Superman on TV, I think I’m with it for a while but usually they make it go on for far too long, at least in the superhero world.
@Maili: Your point about deceit is a good one. I had thought of disguise as a cognitive failure on the fooled person;s part, but not as — also — a moral failure on the disguised person’s part. It IS a big problem, usually bigger than the problem the disguise was meant to circumvent in the first place.
@Carolyn Crane: Good point about realism. The heroine was promised – in good faith — 24 orgasms by the hero and I think he came close, yet I did not bat an eye.
I guess we all have the things we let pass!
@Sherry Thomas: I read you before I read Ivory, and although others had noted similarities, I did not see them — until I read Black Silk. Now I can see why I love both your writing and Ivory’s!
@RfP: Sorry, but not really. I am glad someone else is suffering with me.
@heidenkind: I loved that about Spider 2 as well! And I loved the challenges ot their relationship presented in spiderman 3.
Yes! I agree.
“These were, um, performed.”
Oh my. I can’t even listen to sex scenes narrated, which is why my audio book listening tends to be all Jane Austen and nonfiction. I wonder if performed might actually be better? But I suspect not.
The hero-in-disguise plot usually works well for me; I am quite tickled by the hero being jealous of himself. Another along these lines I enjoyed is The Bride Thief by Jacqueline D’Allessandro, which I think it the only book by her I’ve liked.
I’m usually not big on the hero in disguise, from The Scarlet Pimpernel on up (seriously, I spent a lot of time being frustrated at that novel), but I did really like Marcus in Kate Noble’s Revealed, who was also (surprisingly) very beta both as himself and his superhero-type persona.
Speaking of betas (Dex?), I have to mention that this book overall sounds like it’s playing in to a lot of post-high-school-angst that most people have around a ten-year-reunion. I just read a YA novel that feeds the fire, AND have been strangely spending a lot of time pondering the construct of one’s identity via Facebook…your review of Feels Like the First Time is playing into all these here thoughts though I can’t admit I’m rushing out to buy it. And I don’t thank you for putting that song in my head.