Do you ever promise yourself something, only to go back on your word? Like the time you said you’d join a gym, but it just never happened? Well, that was me last week. I wanted to focus my efforts on NaNoWriMo this month and limit my reading to maximise my writing output. I had set aside all my reading for next month, when NaNoWriMo would be over. I thought I could practice self-restraint (what was I thinking?) when I discovered that Sylvia Day‘s Reflected In You, the highly anticipated sequel to Bared To You, was released earlier this month. Within hours of buying it, I had surreptitiously finished one chapter.
Feeling guilty at ignoring my writing, I put aside my Kindle and focused on my writing. But Reflected In You is like crack cocaine; you can’t help but be drawn to it and one hit is never enough.* It took me three sleepless nights to finish the book, and although I’m now behind on my writing quota a part of me doesn’t care. Because the book was one hell of a ride (no pun intended) and I don’t regret a single minute of it.
Reflected In You picks up directly where Bared To You finished. It charts the turbulent relationship between Eva Tramell a junior advertising executive and Gideon Cross, corporate billionaire and handsome megalomaniac. As Eva and Gideon try to make their relationship work, the path of true love is never easy (because that would be boring, right?). Facing weighty obstacles in the guise of tormented pasts and ex-lovers, both Eva and Gideon feel consuming jealousy at their partner’s former lovers. I was particularly intrigued by Eva’s former lifestyle as rock groupie when I read about her rocker ex-boyfriend. One of my favourite parts of the book saw Eva kiss her ex and Gideon catching them in the process. That’s when we really see what Gideon can do and that was oddly titillating and terrifying in equal measure. His sense of possessiveness is poignant yet falls on the right side of appealing (and not full-on stalker mode).
The book is very character driven and tremendously readable, which is testament to Sylvia Day’s writing. The focus is on the relationship of two very flawed characters who are oh so human, that you feel like you actually know them. And the periphery characters stay in your mind too, way before you’ve turned the last page. Cary Taylor who is Eva’s BFF and flat-mate is another vulnerable yet resilient soul and we can really understand the connection that bonds him and Eva together. I love how a book pulls you in and Reflected does that from very early on. You cannot help but root for the unlikely couple, who have so much emotional baggage apiece, that not even an entire airplane would be enough to house their suitcases chockfull of issues galore. The ending is breath-taking, that’s all I can say. I have read the final chapter three times so far, because I love it so much. I wonder what the third book will hold for the star-crossed lovers and can’t wait for Entwined With You (the final book in the trilogy) to be released on May 7th 2013. My only consolation is that I’ll have enough time to focus on my writing in the interim. Sylvia Day, I salute you. Continue rocking chick.
*Teeny tiny disclaimer that I don’t do drugs. Honestly. They’re a waste of time and money. I can only imagine what crack cocaine must be like. Being a writer I can exploit my overactive imagination and can pretend all sorts (from having dinner with Sean Connery to styling Marion Cotillard at the Oscars and writing Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Victory Speech). A girl can dream, right..?