Sep 14 2006
REVIEW: Seducing Simon by Maya Banks
Dear Ms. Banks,
You know what made me buy this book? Some people had commented on how closely it paralleled Shiloh Walker’s My Best Friend’s Lover. I had to buy the book myself to see if those accusations were true. See how well controversy sells? Suffice to say that these two books were very dissimilar despite the same plot: Friends to lovers story with a deception overlay. Oh, and in the cover contest area SS wins marginally. What the hell is with huge pager/cell phone on the hero’s pants in MBFL? But then again, what the hell is the expression on the SS hero’s face? 
Toni (heroine), Matt (brother), AJ Spinelli and Simon Andrews all live at Matt and Toni’s house and have for several years (which is kind of weird in and of itself but at least it doesn’t feature the three men laying next to each other. IN BED. NAKED. like some other guys we know in romancelandia). Toni decides to move out because she can no longer disguise the strong feelings she has for Simon and because she has a big secret. It’s no spoiler to say that the secret is that Toni is pregnant with Simon’s baby.
How she got pregnant starts my laundry list of problems with this story:
- The heroine gets pregnant during a time when Simon was drunk and emotionally reeling from the loss of his fiance.
- The heroine chooses to confide the situation with a random nobody at the firehouse instead of her brother or close friend (she apparently has no close friends).
- This guy, who is essentially a stranger to her, then agrees to help her snag Simon.
- Toni is another of those smoking hot heroines who just doesn’t know how smoking hot she is but with the help of another man, blossoms into someone the hero can love. Ugh and a half.
- Simon quickly sheds his feelings for his former fiancee (a matter of months) in order to facilitate the HEA. It’s too much baggage for this already complicated situation.
The writing isn’t bad in this story but it isn’t very compelling either. Non compelling writing with trite characters and an overused contrived ending leads this book into C- territory. I wanted to like the book but I just didn’t.
Best regards,
Jane
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Sep 14, 2006 @ 21:59:04
Aww…I liked it more than you did, although in spite of the problems that I realize were there. Just somehow worked for me.
Haven’t read MBFL since I read one SW story and couldn’t stand it. So I’m still leery of her.
Sep 14, 2006 @ 22:22:38
I enjoyed Seducing Simon a lot. It was actually the book that broke through a pretty serious romance-reading slump for me. I think I was just seriously OD’d on vampires and sexsexsex, and this one brought me back with a solid romance to warm an HEA-junkie’s heart. (Also, points 2, 3 and 4 didn’t strike me like they did you.)
It worked for me, too.
Sep 14, 2006 @ 23:59:53
Nicole, is the SW story you tried also in the same genre? If not, I think you’ll like MBFL. It’s a very powerful and poignant story.