Monday, January 18, 2016

Review: Combustion by Elia Winters

Book coverCombustion by Elia Winters
Purchase link: Amazon

My rating: star star

Heat rating: Flame  Flame  Flame  Flame  Flame


For explosive chemistry, all you need is the right catalyst…

A war orphan, Astrid Bailey is content living her adult life alone, working as a contract machinist. Her real passion, though, is inventing felicitation devices that promote women’s sexual empowerment and help them find pleasure independent of a man.

The upcoming World’s Fair, with its substantial cash prize, is an opportunity to open the shop she’s always imagined and hopefully solve her financial woes. Except the committee has denied her entry unless she obtains a “sponsor”. Astrid suspects they mean “male”.

Eli Rutledge, noted watchmaker, knows entering the fair will solidify his reputation as an innovator —but he’s fresh out of ideas. Until Astrid approaches him with her outrageous product line. With no other options, though, he agrees to lend her his good name.

As construction heats up, so does their chemistry—and the complications. Astrid is unaccustomed to asking for help, much less sharing credit. And Eli fights an attraction that could spell professional disaster. As the Fair date approaches, Astrid and Eli must decide how far they’ll go. For the business…and for each other.

Warning: Contains period-appropriate graphic language, highly inappropriate amounts of M/F and F/F sex, and copious amounts of *ahem* product testing. May *ahem again* “spark” an online shopping binge for *cough* toys. Of the adult variety.

I almost didn't finish this book. In fact, I picked it up and put it down so many times, it took me over a week to finish it. That's a crazy long time for such a short book. Morbid curiosity kept me going.

Why did I almost didn't finish the book? I hated the heroine. Thoroughly, thoroughly disliked her. I didn't find one redeeming quality in her at all. Astrid was supposedly a modern day, independent business woman who was strong and sassy, instead she came across as rude, obnoxious, bitchy and with a serious chip on her shoulder. She came from a poor, working class background and because of her background she made assumptions about others (namely Eli) based on the things she knew about them on the surface. Why did I almost didn't finish the book? I hated the heroine. Thoroughly, thoroughly disliked her. I didn't find one redeeming quality in her at all. Astrid was supposedly a modern day, independent business woman who was strong and sassy, instead she came across as rude, obnoxious, bitchy and with a serious chip on her shoulder. She came from a poor, working class background and because of her background she made assumptions about others (namely Eli) based on the things she knew about them on the surface. She wanted people to give her a chance and not jump to conclusions about her, but she didn't offer others the same courtesy. That seems like a huge double standard to me.

Here are a few examples (don't worry, I'm not giving away the story!)
    “You have nothing in common with us. You inherited a successful business from your father, who was already a prominent businessman, and your greatest achievement is to not yet have run it into the ground. Other people have given you everything you’ve ever needed. As a man, you can get a position on the Chamber of Commerce or the Fair Board or the IFCT or the London Business Council or whatever, and know that when you talk, people will listen. And I’m very happy that you have the money to own a shop and rent a booth at the World’s Fair, but to assume that everyone else is in the same position as you demonstrates how completely clueless you are about the plight of women business owners in this city. So no, you haven’t said anything to offend me. Everything about you offends me.”
    As she left, Eli watched her go with numb shock. Her words had been incredibly rude, and he couldn’t help but feel stung.

    Her smile irked him. “It’s kind of hard not to. You have no idea how much this should make me happy.”
    “Why should my unhappiness make you happy?”
    “Because I hate you!” She threw her hands up in the air with the exclamation, although her tone was one of much more exasperation than hate. “You’re rich and successful, and you have a shop, and I have to get by on these little commissioned jobs that, quite frankly, pay like shit.”

Eli, bless him, is a stodgy businessman with a reputation to protect and while he's not the most interesting of heroes, I give him points for putting up with Astrid's crap and terrible attitude. Plus, he knows how to please a woman properly and thoroughly. We all need a man like that in our lives. :-p

So morbid curiosity made me finish the book because I wanted to know how their invention would be received at the World's Fair and how Ms Winters would resolve a relationship with so much hostility and angry sex (Eli did good!). I was also not overly excited about the fact that Astrid had sex with someone other than Eli during the course of the book. That somehow added a bit of an ick factor to the story for me. When I read an erotic romance, I expect the sex to only be between the protagonists.

The book itself was not poorly written and the sex scenes were well done, but if Ms Winters' heroines are anything like Astrid in her other books, I will not be picking them up to read anytime soon.

View all my reviews


About the author

jsElia Winters has always been a New England girl, despite having spent much of her childhood in Florida. She holds a degree in English Literature and teaches at a small rural high school where she runs too many extracurricular activities. She balances her love of the outdoors with a  bottomless well of geekiness.

Elia dabbles in many genres, but erotic romance has been one of her favorites since she first began sneaking her mother’s romance novels. In high school, she kept her friends entertained with a steady stream of naughty stories and somehow never got caught passing them around. Her erotic fiction and poetry have been published online at Clean Sheets and Scarlet Letters under a different name. Elia currently lives in New England with her loving husband and their odd assortment of pets.

Elia’s virtual life is as busy as her real life. In addition to her website, you can find her on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Pinterest and Goodreads.


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