Book Review: Bared To You by Sylvia Day

 “I’ve always seen you, angel. From the moment you found me, I’ve seen nothing but you.”

― Sylvia Day, Bared to You

The 2012 New York Times #1 sensual adult romance book Bared to You by seasoned author Sylvia Day focuses on the complex connection between two characters in their 20s who have experienced abuse in the past. Day self-published the book on April 3, 2012, then on June 12, 2012, Berkley Books re-released it with an initial print run of 500,000 copies. It is the bold stroke of passion and hedonism that redefined desire as a concept and caused a worldwide craze.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

Gideon Cross came into my life like lightning in the darkness. He was beautiful and brilliant, jagged and white-hot. I was drawn to him as I'd never been to anything or anyone in my life. I craved his touch like a drug, even knowing it would weaken me. I was flawed and damaged, and he opened those cracks in me so easily.

Gideon knew. He had demons of his own. And we would become the mirrors that reflected each other's most private wounds and desires.

The bonds of his love transformed me, even as I prayed that the torment of our pasts didn't tear us apart 

 My reaction to the novel...

So, I've owned this e-book for a gazillion years and was apprehensive about reading it before since I'm not a fan of romance books. And last night, after all these years, I finally got around to reading it, but I must say that it was really challenging. The novel made me feel quite uneasy for the second time. The first time was when I tried to read 50 Shades of Grey and gave up roughly midway through the first book. I experienced the same feelings and the same temptation to stop because it was so uncomfortable, but I persisted in reading the novel anyhow, skipping some of the sections that I found unbearable.

Similar to 50 Shades of Grey, this novel contained a lot of sex scenes, which is why I found it so difficult to read. And it's not simply sex scenes; those sequences are so powerful and terrible that you can actually sense how much pain the characters have been through. Okay, I must admit that even though I am not a huge lover of romance books, I am still able to read some with a touch of love scenes that for me is bearable to read, which lets me comprehend what a romance novel is. However, despite containing an excellent plot, this book has a lot of sex scenes, leading me to believe that the story is simply about sex.

To be honest, I skipped a lot of sex scenes, which made me appear like a not-so-mature romance reader, but that's just me, and I'm extremely uncomfortable with those parts. That is why I honestly admit that I skipped those in order to understand the storyline itself. Since the narrative and situations were written in such a manner that you could tell both of the characters had a troubled, abusive background, I truly am not surprised to learn about their pasts. Since I've taken a few psychology classes, I know that extreme behaviors like these have a basis, and the majority of them result from abuse.

I was shocked since, in just a few pages, you'll have read a lot of sensual scenes; as a result, you'll feel as though those scenes are only the beginning and won't definitely be the last. You can also believe that it will become more intense as you continue reading, so if you find reading these sorts of stories as disturbing as I did, this book may not be for you. I found it to be really difficult to read, and I skipped several passages—something I don't often do when I'm reading. However, if you can handle it and you enjoy reading romance books with twisted romanticism like this, I would highly suggest it to you. I'm not sure if I'll read the next two installment novels because this one was so challenging for me. These kinds of books are really not my style. So I'm not really sure if I found this type of story to be engaging.

My Overall Rating: ⭐⭐✨(2.5/5)

“I must’ve wished for you so hard and so often you had no choice but to come true.”

I also think that if you really want something, you should work hard for it and pray for it in order to increase the likelihood that it will come true and find its way to you. This statement from the novel is one of my favorites because it conveys the characters' honest desire for and affection for one another. I could feel their sincere love towards one another as I read this text.