TBR Challenge: ‘WICKED BEAUTIFUL, by J. T. Geissinger

The topic of this month is Random Pick

Published: 2015

Genre: Contemporary Romance

My Rating: four stars

Part of a Series: Wicked Games #1

So this month I can read whatever I want, can’t I? Well, this enemies to lovers story has been in my kindle for months, now it is a good moment for it.

Last year I discovered several contemporary authors whose books I just loved. Among them was J. T. Geissinger. She writes contemporary novels that are fast, sexy and with a little bit of humour. Therefore, I decided to read more of her books.

She writes trilogies, and this is the beginning of one called Wicked Games. I think it tries to be suspenseful, but I am not sure this first book is anything more than a contemporary.

So, we have Victoria Price, a woman that writes self-help books, do coaching and makes seminars with empowering speeches. It is amazing to see her working, even though I am one of those rather cynic about the self-help and coaching industry. They don’t seem to be much better than emotional snake-oil salesmen (or –women).

Anyway, she is a woman that has created herself, a new face, a new name, a new personality, even, in order to survive a very sad experience when she was a teenager. In addition, all her troubles came, as it looks, because of a man, Parker.

Fifteen years after her world was horribly turned upside down, she finds him again, in a restaurant, in NYC. She hates him with all her heart. He does not recognize her. Moreover, he feels a powerful attraction for her, so he starts flirting and showing his interest to this unknown woman. They are sexy and have an amazing chemistry, really. Something not very easy to write, and the author does it with flying colours.

Victoria has then the opportunity of revenge, and she embraces it. I am not very sure what her plans are. Make him love him and then reject him? Look for any dirty secrets of his to expose and then ruin him publicly? I am not very sure, and I think she makes 'evil plans' and change them along the way. A very sexy way.

Parker is a man who loved deeply in the past and thinks that wonderful teenager he loved so much is dead. You, as a reader, know that his lost love must be Victoria, but why does he think she is dead? When is he going to discover that Victoria is Isabel, his lost love? What happened in the past? What is going to happen when he discovers all her secrets? What will happen when she discovers that he is not really a monster but a loving and caring man with a lot of guilt and remorse in his heart for things that should have been different?

The first part of this book is so intriguing. She really hates him, a real Cruella de Vil. And that’s quite funny to read. And I love these stories of people changing her face because of good reasons and then going back in full revenge mode against those that made them wrong in the past. ‘Return to Eden’ comes to my mind.

After that point, everything goes crazy sauce. And it is even more entertaining, as long as you can suspend your disbelief, because everything is so excessive. There are a couple of violent scenes among them that I really did not like. Slaping someone on the face or spanking out of a sexual and consensual context are those things I hate in real life and I don’t like to see them in my romances.

A bonus in this book is that she puts Spanish words in the mouths of several characters, and Geissinger does it great! With no spelling mistake, which is so uncommon in a Romance writer that I could cry. She even makes this joke about the heroine’s best friend, who tries to speak Spanish and ends speaking horrible Spanglish, inventing words.

If you want to enjoy a funny, sexy, and extravagant book, I think is a good option. I will keep on reading J. T. Geissinger’s books. It looks like she writes just the kind of contemporary novels that make my day.