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shealea 's review for:
In Her Closet
by Tasha L. Harrison
An interracial romance following an Afrolatina abuse survivor who is determined to claim and protect her sexual agency.
Final impressions:
• Behind the fun premise lies a hard-hitting story that gets dark, turbulent, and painful to read.
• This novel tackles the journey of a jaded survivor recovering from an abusive partner and how the trauma has affected all aspects of her life, including her personal relationship with sex and intimacy. Thus, despite the fun series title (The Lust Diaries), this isn't a book to dive into blindly and lightly.
• What really drew my interest in this book was the main character having an anonymous sex blog. So I was pretty disappointed that while her blog provided an avenue for Yves and Elijah to connect, the blog itself played a very minor role to the story. I was hoping for more blog entries or some insight into the blogging niche?
• While this book does touch on the topic of BDSM, I wouldn't readily categorize this book under the BDSM subgenre. Simply because that's all we get: a touch, a whiff, a scene. Also, I'm a little bit iffy that
• In terms of satisfaction, I found In Her Closet abrupt and lacking. I understand that it's meant to set up the rest of the series. However, I don't think the setup was done well, especially in building a bond/connection with the main characters.
• In line with this, while I am all about sexual liberation, I felt that the story's preoccupation with sex held it back from fully exploring its emotional layers and from presenting the characters as dimensional. I think Elijah's character suffered the most in terms of coming across as shallow.
• There was also a weird conversation about immigration that felt really out of place in the book.
• By the way, why was it never explained how Elijah could be really rich from an assistant editor position?
The more I type out my thoughts, the more I wonder why I would even recommend In Her Closet to anyone. However, I can see what this book is trying to do, and I'm certain that there are readers out there who would appreciate its goal more than I do. With that, I don't think it's fair of me to actively dissuade readers from giving it a chance.
Recommended with caution.*
[ trigger/ content warnings: ]
Final impressions:
• Behind the fun premise lies a hard-hitting story that gets dark, turbulent, and painful to read.
• This novel tackles the journey of a jaded survivor recovering from an abusive partner and how the trauma has affected all aspects of her life, including her personal relationship with sex and intimacy. Thus, despite the fun series title (The Lust Diaries), this isn't a book to dive into blindly and lightly.
• What really drew my interest in this book was the main character having an anonymous sex blog. So I was pretty disappointed that while her blog provided an avenue for Yves and Elijah to connect, the blog itself played a very minor role to the story. I was hoping for more blog entries or some insight into the blogging niche?
• While this book does touch on the topic of BDSM, I wouldn't readily categorize this book under the BDSM subgenre. Simply because that's all we get: a touch, a whiff, a scene. Also, I'm a little bit iffy that
Spoiler
Ava (Yves' bestie) compared the BDSM kink to being queer, that was a pretty weird moment.• In terms of satisfaction, I found In Her Closet abrupt and lacking. I understand that it's meant to set up the rest of the series. However, I don't think the setup was done well, especially in building a bond/connection with the main characters.
• In line with this, while I am all about sexual liberation, I felt that the story's preoccupation with sex held it back from fully exploring its emotional layers and from presenting the characters as dimensional. I think Elijah's character suffered the most in terms of coming across as shallow.
• There was also a weird conversation about immigration that felt really out of place in the book.
• By the way, why was it never explained how Elijah could be really rich from an assistant editor position?
The more I type out my thoughts, the more I wonder why I would even recommend In Her Closet to anyone. However, I can see what this book is trying to do, and I'm certain that there are readers out there who would appreciate its goal more than I do. With that, I don't think it's fair of me to actively dissuade readers from giving it a chance.
Recommended with caution.*
[ trigger/ content warnings: