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Lädt ... Better Red (Ever After, New York, #1)von Tara Lain
Keine Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch.  Penumbra1 | Oct 11, 2022 |  keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
Auszeichnungen
Who's afraid of the big, bad Wolfe? Red Ridley knows he could have a happy life in Ever After, New York, waiting on tables at Mom and Pop's, making numbers add up for clients, studying business at the junior college-and maybe, just maybe having the man of his dreams, Mark Woods, the young owner of the local garage. One problem. Red's gorgeous. Amazing looking. Totally unique. And no one who sees him-especially his grandmother, who's his biggest promoter-believes he won't end up on the cover of a magazine. Gran's dreams come true when famous New York agency owner, Brock Wolfe, shows up in Ever After and sets his sights on Red. Red doesn't want to leave Mark, but Gran has given everything to raise him, and the money he could make would give her a happy, easy life. Then, the news gets worse-Gran could lose her house-so Red breaks down and goes to New York where the Wolfe shows just how bad he can be. Faced with a fate worse than death, Red needs a hero or needs to be one. Is there any chance to live happily in Ever After? Contains mature themes. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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1
Redone fairytales are a favorite of this author. The magical characters in this book remind me a lot of the author’s other series, ‘The Pennymaker Tales’, only this first story is more detailed and better written than the books in ‘The Pennymaker’ series. Surprisingly, I found this story a bit stressful to read, probably because there are more than just Red and Mark’s povs. Readers are also privy to Brock Wolfe, who is the ‘Big Bad Wolf’, and Red’s grandmother’s povs. Because I know their thoughts before Red does, it sets up the anxious anticipation of knowing that something bad is going to happen. I prefer stories written with only two povs, but this author often writes with more than two. Personally for me, showing too many povs like this in a novella, is taking the easy way out of showing who the other characters are through Red and Mark’s eyes. I can understand it in a book of longer length, such as a novel or something like LotR, but not in a shorter story. It feels like I’m being fed information rather than figuring it out myself through Red and Mark’s eyes. I think the grandmother’s pov wasn’t needed, as it didn’t add anything to the story.
In this book, the author has taken ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, and turned her into Red, an eighteen-year-old waiter with a gorgeous face, who everyone expects to leave the small town of Ever After, to travel to New York City to become a famous model or actor. Red doesn’t want to, not really, but he wants to please his grandmother who has raised him since he was little, and his grandmother is into fame and fortune. Mark is a mechanic who’s had his eye on Red for a long time but is on the shy side. At the start of the book, Red is figuring out his sexuality and starts to take notice of Mark before Red’s trip to NYC.
Red is unsure of what he wants out of life. His grandmother and the town expect him to achieve great things. Mark wants Red, but because of Mark’s family background, he’s used to not getting his dreams and sacrificing those dreams for others. In a way, Red and Mark are similar. Both need to figure out what they truly want, put themselves first, and go after who/what they want. With the help of a mysterious woman by the name of Mrs. Delphi, they muddled through to their HEA. The one thing I don’t remember is how old Mark was. He seemed like he might be in his early thirties because of his behavior, but I don’t think he was.
The author did a good job of creating distinct characters. I believed in Red and Mark as a couple and their growth. Brock definitely couldn’t be trusted. I’m expecting him to pop up in some way in future books in this series. The mysterious chauffer Mr. M in NYC sounds like he might show up in Ever After eventually. I’m also wondering about Paz, one of the models Mark met in NYC. He seems like he’d make a good candidate to show up in Ever After in a redemptive story, but I can’t figure out which one. The one character I didn’t like was the grandmother. She pushed and pushed Red to follow the dreams she wanted for him. She cared more about money and fame not just for him, but also for herself with her blog. However, she never seemed to equate her feelings of becoming well known, with how Red felt about becoming a model. She wasn’t nice to Mark because she thought he’d interfere with Red’s future. Her apology at the end wasn’t convincing enough for me. I don’t even remember her apologizing to Red. I disliked her more and more as the story went along and despite Brock being the wolf, Red’s grandmother was up there as a villainess.
One thing I didn’t like with the writing is the same thing I’ve noticed in other stories this author has written. There are some over-the-top sentences, which stand out and toss me out of the story. Here’s a paraphrased sentence thought by Red: ‘His balls felt like they were on fire and when he came it hurt, but in a good way.’ The image of that doesn’t give me a sense that having sex for Red is pleasurable and his thought is telling me what is happening, rather than conveying a feeling of what is happening. I guess I would say certain parts of the writing had me making side-eye at the story.
Overall, I enjoyed Better Red and will likely read future stories in this series. I give this book, 4 Stars.
I received an ARC of this book from the author for an honest and unbiased review. (